The people saying “its okay if you’re a kid!!” in the notes are missing the fucking point lol. It isn’t “okay if you’re a kid” its understandable. Like, if the kid didn’t know better, and wasn’t told how harmful that can be for them (lets not encourage children to develop unhealthy parasocial relationships, thats how we get adults that defend writing RPF) it’s not something you should demonize them for. It’s something to be explained so the kid doesn’t do it again. But it also isn’t something you should ENCOURAGE.
Like, for example, it’s a crime to call 911 when you don’t actually have an emergency because they want that line as clear as possible for people who need it. But if a kid calls 911 and doesn’t know what it is, they aren’t going to get into any serious trouble, they’re going to have it explained that you ONLY call that number when you REALLY need to, and thats that. You don’t tell the kid “its okay to call 911 for fun bc you’re a kid” because you don’t want to teach them that that action is acceptable or okay thing to do!
“Its okay if you dont show people/you’re a kid and you keep it private” no the fuck it isn’t you’re enforcing that habit and the bad things associated with it, like objectifying real people, ignoring boundaries and consent, and fetishizing strangers. I’m all for the freedom of fiction and a person reading/writing fucked up shit to deal with trauma but christ maybe use the plethora of fictional characters that exist instead of eroding your ability to percieve boundaries with other real life people.
Like, fictional characters aren’t real, they don’t really have boundaries, and they don’t have autonomy; real people, on the other hand, ESPECIALLY STRANGERS have tons of boundaries and autonomy and feelings and you know fuck-all about them! You know that feeling you get when someone writes your favorite character in a way you can’t fathom at all and you have to click out of the fic because its so grotesquely out of character compared to your perceptipn of them? Imagine being a real person and someone did that with YOU, writing you in a way that makes you repulsed on an instinctive level because its WRONG. Now imagine being a celebrity and knowing that hundreds of people are being told its “okay” to do that to them as long as they don’t see it, or, hell, some people being okay with it in general! It’s fucked up!
Some people have mentioned historical figures/dead people, and honestly even then you should probably seperate the actual figure from the fictional version. Even if you give them the same name and everything they’ll be a charicature (see, because they’re a CHARACTER and not the REAL THING) of that figure, and having that distinction and acknowledging it makes a world of difference. And if they haven’t been dead for like, a century at the very least, maybe don’t. Also, speculation of figures in history when it comes to minority status’ like neurodivergency and sexuality/gender is absolutely different from a “headcanon” and by the gods above can we please fix the hetcis-neurotypical washing in history WITHOUT fetishizing the dead people. Please. I am begging. Just. Be well adjusted abt history and the deceased for FIVE SECONDS. Yall are gonna get haunted so hard.
areudirty
2087
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