Yeah hi I’m back again to talk about this thread because HOLY FUCK I GOT SOME THINGS TO SAY

1. Already starting off on a bad note. “Sexualizing minors is bad”, “Shipping minor/adult bad” isn’t a hot take. Please. EVERYTHING mentioned in that thread pertains to ONLY fictional characters.

Anime characters aren’t real. People ship a lot of pairings because of their dynamics, not their ages. And even if they were, it’s still ALL fiction.

The irony of “sexualizing minors bad even in fiction” coming from a Jojo fan is very rich considering Araki has sexualized MANY minors for story purposes/fanservice/etc (see manga trish nipple, Lucy steel, daiya higashikata). And yet, I only see people trying to excuse it

“It’s for the plot” “it’s for the story!” You still (by your logic) still support the sexualization of fictional minors, genius. That doesn’t go away when you say “it’s for the plot”. A fictional minor is STILL sexualized and (by your logic) Araki would also be a pedo.

2. “Fiction affects reality” here we fucking go again. No one is saying fiction doesn’t have an effect on reality. That is a straw man argument brought by antis as an easy weak argument to “dunk” proshippers on. When we say fiction =/= reality we mean Fiction ISNT reality.

Fiction can make you feel things such as empathy, sadness, attachment to a character. But that does not make any of the characters you see on screen any more real. No matter how many times you say “fiction made me do it”, that isn’t the artwork’s fault anymore, it’s the human’s.

3. “Problematic content isn’t a good coping mechanism” (psst, this will be important later). I have to say this over and over but I’ll say it again; there is no right or wrong ways with coping. Trauma and coping with it isn’t a rigid system with criteria’s as to what is good/bad.

Additionally; not all coping mechanisms you use can be applicable to someone else. And all of that is completely fine! But the issue here is when you say that it’s not a good coping mechanism AT ALL. That doesn’t take into consideration how people cope differently to trauma.

4. Ok, this one was what got me the most upset and here’s why. YOU CANNOT GROOM YOURSELF. You really can’t. And the fact that people unironically think this is fucking appalling.

OP states that this is the case because they say that art therapy didn’t help them cope. Which, valid as it is, is NOT the conclusion you should arrive at when you try to make a point of you “grooming yourself”

The notion that you can be the person oblivious to the manipulation AND be the manipulator at the same time is fucking hilarious.

Because of course you can have a power imbalance by being the abuser and the person being abused at the same time, of COURSE it makes sense /s

Another thing; the notion of you “grooming yourself” is extremely victim-blamey and takes away ALL responsibility from the abuser and directly pushes it to the victim/fictional work. The only person responsible for the abuse you are put through is the abuser. Not the artwork.

As a minor who shipped a lot of problematic shit, you have NO IDEA how many times I hear this. “Why do you ship this and be a minor? You must be ASKING to get groomed”. Make no mistake, this is the exact same tactic rape apologists use to shift blame from the perpetrator.

“What were you wearing?” “You wore that? You’re just asking for it at this point” has the same energy as “what content were you consuming?” “Oh, that? You probably liked it then since you like to explore that same thing in fiction but hate it irl”.

You have no idea how many times me and other proship minors who are out get comments from mainly ADULTS telling us to “go back to being groomed lmao” just because we don’t want to stay in a place where harassment and death threats are RAMPANT.

5. And then we get to the last lap, the final gag, the pièce de résistance. They go back and add on saying that they only thought it wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism because other people told them so.

We all know why this thread was made, we’re not stupid. We know how much clout people get by just saying “sexualization minor character bad” on this fucking bird app. The fact that they made this thread and CAME BACK saying that they were misinformed just shows how rushed this is

From the “I’m gonna lose followers but *posts cold take*” line to the tweet coming after people called them out on their misinformation screams “free clout!!!”. Just say you find some art icky and go. Just say you post dangerous misinformation and victim blame for clout and go.