I keep seeing people throwing shade on teen-adult ships from anime and so forth, and there’s a lot of really silly stuff being said, so I wanted to add my two cents. Although I primarily love the All MIght & Deku relationship as a more paternal or mentor one, I do think the dekumight ship can be fun, so I’m going to use that as my example. Sorry this is so long!
Fact: A pedophile is someone who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. A teen is neither prepubescent (before puberty) nor a child. A “minor” is a person who has not yet passed the “age of majority,” which is the age where that person would have full legal responsibility for their person, actions and decisions, and their parents would no longer have legal control or responsibility toward them. The age of majority is NOT the same thing as the age of consent. You can be a minor and not be a child. You can be a minor and consent to sex. You can be a minor and consent to sex with someone over the age of majority!
I’m an American living in Washington state. Here, the age of majority is 18 but the age of consent is 16, and at 16 a person can consent to sex with an adult of any age, regardless of age gap.
In Japan, the federal age of consent is 13. There can be local laws that differ, but even those usually defer to the permission of the parents. Of course, this is fictional bnha universe Japan, so its consent laws can be whatever you imagine. But it seems like it would be reasonable to imagine the age of consent at somewhere between 13 and 16.
Izuku is 15 at this point in the series. One could certainly reasonably imagine that he is above the age of consent, or just below it. The real issue then is the fact that Toshinori is his teacher. There are often special laws which raise the age of consent for teacher-student relationships- I’ve mostly seen 18. This is to prevent the possibility of grooming and abuse of authority. Soooo…in that case, a dekumight relationship would be considered taboo, and possibly illegal, but certainly NOT pedophilic.
It would be reasonable to resolve this issue either by having Toshinori quit teaching or by them waiting until Izuku is older (or not even considering each other romantically until Izuku is older). You could also reasonably decide it’s just Not An Issue because 1. laws are, and have been, different in different times and places, and sometimes there isn’t or hasn’t been a legal repercussion for a student-teacher relationship at that age, 2. bnha is set in an alternate future where all kinds of things have changed and you can decide if this is one of them, and 3. you are writing a fan FICTION, it’s fiction, you can make up whatever the fuck you want.
So then, now that we’ve established that writing this pairing does not make you (or the characters) pedophiles, and that legality is not really a problem, the next question people will probably ask is- but do you really think it is healthy for a 15-year-old adolescent and a (possibly) 50-year-old man to be dating? Well, in my opinion, not really, no. This IS rather a special situation, though, or it could be in the fic you write, because of the particular relationship they have. You could choose to age up Izuku, or age down Toshinori, or time travel, or whatever, if you would feel more comfortable with a smaller age gap, of course. Lots of dekumight shippers do that. Or you could just leave them as they are, because an age gap like that is not actually that uncommon historically, and more importantly, this is your personal work of fiction you are writing/drawing. You want to write an intergenerational couple who have no imbalance of power and relate to each other in a totally healthy, mature way? Go for it. You want to write the same couple but emphasize the fact that Izuku has been obsessed with Toshinori for his entire life and it’s become a deep and true love with time and when he becomes an adult and establishes himself as a hero he decides the time is ripe to finally pursue the man of his dreams? Awesome. (please send me a link)
Or maybe you are someone who cannot possibly imagine why anyone would ever like a ship that would be unhealthy in real life! People who write abo must approve of RAPE! People who ship Bella/Edward must be PEDOPHILES! People who make fanart of wincest should be taken away from their siblings because they are probably INCESTUOUS!
Or…not? Here’s the thing: fantasy is not reality. What someone enjoys fantasizing about, especially romantically/sexually, is often NOT something they would want or approve of irl. Arguing otherwise just makes me think of those nasty guys who say “Well, lots of women have rape fantasies. That means they want to be raped! They’re really asking for it!” Because NO, no, they are not. The idea of being forcibly seduced by a dashing rogue (or other common rape fantasy) can be very titillating to someone exactly because it involves an illusion of loss of control which actually takes place within the total control of the person’s mind. Janice-the-elf-maiden might not have any choice when the handsome barbarian carries her off to ravish her, but Janice the office lady fantasizing about that is in total control of what happens and can change or stop the fantasy whenever she wants.
In the same way that bodice-ripper fantasies are common, so are teacher-student fantasies. When I was a student, I definitely fantasized about some of my teachers. As an adult, I sometimes fantasize that I am a student again and getting into something with a teacher. I have even thought once or twice “hey, maybe I should facebook professor so-and-so. We’re both mature adults now, so maybe…”
Fantasizing about your fav character Deku getting into a relationship with your other fav character his teacher All Might and thinking it is SO HOT or even SO SWEET is really not weird at all, and of course it doesn’t mean that you’re in favor of irl teachers perving on their students. C’mon, now. No more than Janice is an advocate for rapists!
Here’s the thing: fans fall in love with characters, and with relationships. I doubt that there is a single wincest shipper who has ever harbored an incestuous thought of their own. That’s not why they like wincest. There are some of them who might like wincest because it is a dirty-wrong-hot fantasy. But I think the vast majority of wincest shippers like it because they adore Sam, they adore Dean, and they adore the power and beauty of their bond, and they notice that it frankly goes along the same lines as a lot of romance stories (our bond is the most important thing in my life, stronger than death, I am utterly devoted to you above all others, we fight but we cherish each other, etc.) and they enjoy fantasizing about what it would be like if their relationship actually was a romance.
Well, Toshinori and Izuku are both easy to fall in love with, and their bond is really an amazing, deep, beautiful thing full of drama and love and pain and devotion and…yeah. Plenty of romantic potential right there. Not hard to see why people would enjoy fantasizing about what it would be like if it really was romantic.
In conclusion: dekumight is not terrible, dekumight shippers are not terrible, being an asshole to dekumight shippers IS terrible, please don’t do that, KTHXBYE.
