“ANTI” ARTICLES AND OTHER SOURCES
*”Anti” as in the context of anti pedophilia / predatory age gaps, incest and abuse being romanticized in fiction. It’s weird that freaks we’ve invented this new term for these sorts of people when it should be simple as common sense, huh?
“Fiction is not reality / Fiction does not affect reality”
You’re absolutely right! Fiction is not reality, but it does, factually, IMPACT AND INFLUENCE reality! Cool concept, right?
“Many times, people use “it’s just fiction!” as if it’s a trump card to play against any and all criticisms against something considered offensive or harmful. But the evidence shows that works can and do impact the real world, and sometimes in very harmful ways.” {x}
Many, many psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and academic schools all agree that fiction can and does influence reality. Here are some quoted sources:
“But the confusion of fiction and reality can also have positive effects—as recently written in the Psychologytoday.com blog The Storytelling Animal. In a post entitled “The Power of Fake Gay (and Black) Friends” {x}, Jonathan Gottschall discusses how the appearance of gay and lesbian characters in television shows has made audience members more accepting of gays and lesbians in real life. In fact, this was a reason given by Vice President Joe Biden when he discussed his recent endorsement of gay marriage. The characters start to feel like “friends,” and research has shown that having gay friends acts as a social influence, increasing acceptance of gay issues.” {x}
“When you “lose yourself” inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behavior and thoughts to match that of the character, a new study suggests.“ {x}
“We can’t deny the fact that media has an influence when they’re {children, especially children of minority groups} spending most of their time – when they’re not in school – with the television” {x}
“This study applied theoretical propositions of the assimilation and contrast perspectives of social psychology to investigate the effects of exposure to TV portrayals of Asian Americans on judgments regarding Asian and African Americans. Experimental participants exposed to TV-mediated messages reinforcing the Asian American “model minority”’ stereotype were more likely to positively evaluate Asian Americans and to negatively evaluate African Americans than participants exposed to messages countering the “model” stereotype or to a control stimulus.” {x}
“Over the past decades, the black urban poor have come to dominate public images of poverty. Surveys show that the American public dramatically exaggerates the proportion of African Americans among the poor and that such misconceptions are associated with greater opposition to welfare. In this article I examine the relationship between news media portrayals and public images of poverty - If 560 people were selected at random from America’s poor, we would expect 162 to be black. But of the 560 poor people of determinable race pictured in newsmagazines between 1988 and 1992, 345 were African American. In reality, two out of three poor Americans are nonblack, but the reader of these magazines would likely come to exactly the opposite conclusion.” {x}
“Perceived positive media representation of people with disabilities led to affirmation of their disability identity even when the media messages were perceived as unrealistic, whereas negative media representation led to denial of their disability identity.” {x}
“As Hammack’s framework of GLB identity development suggests, cultural factors such as the media may influence important psychological domains, including individuals’ self-perceptions. Ochman, for example, found that exposing children to same-sex storybook characters who were strong, positive role models enhanced children’s positive self-concepts. This finding is significant in part because Ochman demonstrated that positive portrayals of media characters who share similarities with an individual can produce changes in the individual’s self-perception.” {x}
So, not only is the statement “fiction doesn’t affect reality” factually wrong and (sadly) being used an excuse to defend fictional abuse porn, it’s also racist, bigoted and ableist propaganda! I would’ve never guessed people who defend that kind of content would end up to be racist, bigoted and ableist, too. (/sarcasm)
“B-But… child porn (whether it be real life child porn or fictional, yes i have seen people say that irl child porn is helpful and yes i did die when i heard it) helps pedophiles not actually rape children / abuse porn (fictional or irl) helps rapists not actually rape people… etc”
Wrong, quiet the contrary, actually. Abusive porn is shown to actually desensitize viewers to actual abuse and child pornography viewers are statistically more likely to offend;
“Existing child pornography may be used to desensitize children and normalize sexual activity in an effort by offenders to engage in sexual abuse or create new child pornography. Child pornography can be the gateway to hands-on child sexual abuse, or may be used by sex offenders to reduce their inhibitions and prepare themselves to offend.” {x}
“According to statistics generated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, 80 percent of child pornography purchasers are active abusers and almost 40 percent of the child pornographers investigated during the past several years have sexually molested children in the past. Moreover, data from a 2000 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons indicated that 76 percent of offenders convicted of Internet-related child pornography reported having sexual contact with children in the past and had an average of 30.5 child sex victims each. Child sexual abusers frequently use pornographic images to “groom” child victims prior to committing sexual abuse. Repeated exposure to pornographic images involving children serves to normalize child sexual abuse and desensitize the child to such behaviors.” {x}
“Similarly, because pedophiles and sexual abusers are aroused, and thus more prone to act out, after viewing child pornography, virtual reality could reasonably be expected to contribute to child exploitation as well as to other brutalizing crimes. Because of the need to protect not only victims, but also actors, computer-generated child pornography should be subject to governmental regulation.” {x}
“Overstimulation of the reward circuitry—such as occurs with repeated dopamine spikes related to viewing pornography—creates desensitization. As Gary Wilson explains, “When dopamine receptors drop after too much stimulation, the brain doesn’t respond as much, and we feel less reward from pleasure. That drives us to search even harder for feelings of satisfaction—for example, by seeking out more extreme sexual stimuli, longer porn sessions, or more frequent porn viewing—thus further numbing the brain.” {x}
“Let’s look at the data. Since 2011, there have been 29 major studies that have revealed porn has negative and detrimental impacts on the brain. A 2014 study found that increased pornography use is linked to decreased brain matter in the areas of the brain associated with motivation and decision-making, and contributed to impaired impulse control and desensitization to sexual reward.” {x}
“B-But… LGBTQIA+ representation in fiction is different from romanticized pedophilia / abuse / incest + shipping! LGBTQIA+ rep is important to you-”
Let me stop you there. I don’t even need sources for this, this should just be common sense and not having self awareness. I cannot believe this is an actual defense rhetoric some of you people have pulled. So, LGBTQIA+ representation in fiction is important and has an effect on reality by helping young LGBTQIA+ kids feel more safe and at home with their identity and help fight against the bigotry and oppression the LGBTQIA+ community faces on the daily, but as soon as people start coming for your drawn or written abuse erotica, you suddenly want to change your views on how fiction affects reality? Wack.
I understand that, but I need you to know that not every coping mechanism is healthy. Take it from someone who was groomed into using this method of coping and is still trying to recover from the damage it did to her (me).
First, a lot of survivors (including me, I guess) have spoken up about how much they regret using this form of coping mechanism and how harmful it is, and why you shouldn’t do it. Here are some survivor stories, along with some statistical studies:
“I turned to porn to learn about sex, which was the worst mistake I’ve ever made. I started out watching what I deemed as “normal” videos at the time, just men and women having sex. But it wasn’t long before I eventually moved on to hardcore stuff. - Around that same time, an older man that I trusted with my whole being started touching me in ways I knew wasn’t right. Of course I tried to fight him off at first, but he got really aggressive. It was at that point that I thought to myself, What’s the point of spending all this energy fighting him off? What’s the big deal? I’ve been molested before. I also told myself that it’d be different this time, since I wasn’t a child anymore, I’d at least be able to control the situation. If I just let him have what he wants, it wouldn’t be abuse if I was letting it happen. As I continued to be taken advantage of, I turned to porn to normalize what was happening to me. Every time I would go on the internet I’d search for porn rape scenes to try and convince myself that what was happening was okay. It reinforced in my mind that women were there to be used for sex, and at the end they always seemed to like it anyway.“ {x}
“See, after the abuse, I felt isolated, worthless, and powerless. Porn only exacerbated these feelings, and made them deeper and worse. I want other victims of abuse to realize that they can still find the love and acceptance they desire. They can heal, but porn will never fill that hole in their heart.” {x}
“A recent national survey asked participants what type of images they considered to be “wrong” in porn. Among the 1,188 people surveyed, 46% of those who consume porn replied that images of “sexual acts that may be forced or painful” are not wrong. Yes, you read that correctly: almost half of porn consumers think pain and abuse in pornography are fine. Even further, only 50% of teens and young adults surveyed (ages 13 to 25) think it is wrong to consume these images of violent porn.” {x}
“It comes down to brain science. When a person watches porn consistently, after a while their brain starts to get used to the arousal, becoming acclimated to the kind of porn they’re consuming. This happens because when a person is aroused by porn, their brain releases a chemical called dopamine that causes them to feel pleasure. The dopamine travels through the brain and leaves behind pathways created by a protein called iFosB. The iFosB pathway makes the consumer desire to repeat the pleasurable activity, in this case, watching porn.The lines are blurring between what’s sexy and what’s harmful in today’s porn. And this is clearly having negative effects on consent and what people view as healthy sexuality. Studies show that the more someone watches porn, over time and frequent use, the more they’re likely to gravitate towards hardcore genres to achieve the same levels of excitement. These effects on the brain are what cause so many porn consumers to think that violent porn is okay—their brains have been changed by the porn itself to find pain arousing to watch.” {x}
Second, just because there is a reason, does not mean there is an excuse.
Creating and consuming media that romanticizes abuse as a means of “coping” is a reason, but not an excuse. There is no good excuse to be (especially publicly) creating and consuming media that romanticizes and fetishizes your own abuse. This hurts me, this is EXTREMELY harmful to me as both a CSA and CP survivor and it horrifies to me to see people defending this kind of content.
Just because there is a reason, does not mean there is an excuse.
“Stop being mean to people that ship pedophilia / incest / abuse!”
(Thank you @critical-lucina for helping me contribute to my source post masterlist once again. You’re wonderful <3)