Ya know what? I usually try to stay out of drama and discourse, but this is going way too far. I might very well lose followers for this, but I really don’t care. What I care about is making this community a safe and accepting place for everyone. And after watching people get chased out of the community for having ““controversial”“ f/os, I’ve decided that I don’t want to sit back and be silent anymore.
Let me just get straight to the point.
Creating AUs where characters are different ages than canon doesn’t make you a pedophile.
I’m going to say this very clearly: No, I do not support pedophilia in any way. No, I do not support shipping characters who are children with characters who are adults. No, I do not support the sexualization of children in fictional media. And no, I am not attracted to children, fictional or otherwise.
However. Being attracted to a fictional character who is 16-17 years old (and who is drawn to look older to appeal to a wider audience) does NOT make you a pedophile. There is a stark difference in being attracted to an actual child/minor in real life and being attracted to a drawing that is labeled 16-17 years old, but looks 18-20. And there isn’t anything wrong with altering your S/I’s age to be closer to theirs or altering your F/O’s age to be closer to yours. (This doesn’t include adults who selfship with actual children 10-14 yrs old without changing their ages. That would be a major problem.)
While, personally, I don’t have any official F/Os that are under 18 (besides Satoshi and Ryo, as they are 17 at the beginning, but they grow older as the series progresses). But there are still plenty of characters who catch my eye and I have little crushes on who are “high-school age” in their respective media. Does that mean I have a thing for younger boys? Absolutely NOT.
But fictional characters don’t age. They will continue to be 16/17 forever unless they age within their story.
I have plenty of AUs where my S/I is in high school with the characters I like, or aged down a couple years to be closer in age with them if need be. There’s literally nothing wrong with that. Especially since y’all want to have a double standard and say “It’s okay for young selfshippers to ship with characters twice their age because it’s normal to crush on older people! It’s fine if you change your age then! :)” But as soon as an older selfshipper says “I’ve liked this character since I was 16 and now I’m 20, but I want my S/I to stay 16 with them,” suddenly everyone just doesn’t care what they have to say and slap them with a label and make them feel like shit for having feelings.
I’ve seen my mutuals and friends reblog posts that say things like “It’s not that hard to just drop a character once you’re an adult. I don’t care that you’ve had feelings for them since you were 15, you’re an adult now and its your responsibility to put an end to it.” Literally fuck off. Y’all know it’s not that easy to just decide you can’t love a character anymore once you turn 18. Some of the characters on my F/O List (especially my mains) have been characters that I’ve loved and crushed on since I was 15. Thankfully, they are all over 18, so I don’t have to worry about it. But there are a few characters that I still love a lot that I’ve loved for years and I will still continue to love them for many more years. I used to have a big crush on Tamaki Suoh from Ouran when I was 14-15 years old. I’m almost 23 now, and while I don’t selfship with him officially. I still have a crush on him. I still find him attractive and I still swoon when I rewatch Ouran and see him being flirtatious onscreen. That’s because he’s designed to appeal to women of all ages. He’s supposed to appeal to teenage girls and he’s also designed to appeal to young women too. Heck, they even acknowledge that IN UNIVERSE. He’s a character that’s super close to my heart and me still loving and caring about him years later does not make me a pedophile.
You guys aren’t “making this community a safe space for children” by posting and reblogging these callout and discourse posts. You’re creating an environment where adults are terrified of being falsely labeled as a pedo and being “cancelled” for having feelings for a character that they’ve cared about for years. You’re creating an environment where 23 year olds are constantly looking over their shoulders and worrying that they will be hated for shipping themselves with a character who is 18 because of the “age gap” (yes, I’ve seen that exact thing happen thanks to y’all).
TLDR: Liking fictional characters who are 16/17 years old when you are 18+ and aging them up/yourself down accordingly does NOT make you a pedophile. Fictional characters are not IRL minors. These two are not the same thing. Just because you have a crush on a 16/17 year old in a fictional media does NOT mean you are attracted to real life minors. Stop labeling people on the internet and forcing them out of the community over shit like this and worry about actual real life issues.
baratheonpilled
areudirty
2087
titsay
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
pixelskylines
