PLEASE DON’T SKIP THIS I AM GOING TO TALK ABOUT A MAJOR PROBLEM IN THE TWST X READER AND SHIPPING PART OF THE FANDOM!!(long yap session incoming)
‼️WARNING THIS DISCUSSION WILL INCLUDE THE TOPICS OF THE FOLLOWING‼️
-Incest and incest coded relationships
- Harassment and fandom 
- Predatory or unhealthy age gaps.
- “Pro ship” VS “anti” discourse 
- Power imbalance in relationships
- Fetishization of taboo relationships 
- Sexualization of underage characters
- Obsessive or possessive relationship dynamics 
- Explicit fan content involving minors.
- Character misinterpretation/flattening personalities 
- Toxic shipping culture.
- Romanticization of unhealthy relationships 
- Toxic fandom behaviour and gatekeeping 
As you may know the “x reader” side of the Twisted Wonderland fandom is PRETTY BIG in my opinion. As much as I love the x reader and shipping side there’s been a lot of disturbing stuff I have been seeing revolving around this part recently. A BIGGGG issue with the “x reader” + shipping side of the Twisted Wonderland fandom is how certain harmful dynamics become normalized or romanticized. While fanfiction is FICTIONAL and people can write what they what when they want, there is still a noticeable pattern of content involving incest-coded relationships, inappropriate age gaps, and unhealthy power dynamics being treated as “attractive” or “harmless” without much critical discussion.
One major example is the presence of incest or sibling-coded ships. Even when characters are canonically related, or in “x reader” case the reader is implied to have a familial relationship with that character, people still sexualize those dynamics for shock value or fetish content. Examples of incest in the fandom would definitely be Jade x Floyd and not that long ago I saw a Lilia x Reader where the reader WAS LILIAS CHILD(and it was a smut fic). These types of relationships make many fans uncomfortable, especially when these relationships are romanticized way rather than acknowledged as taboo along with that it’s genuinely just disgusting YES they are fictional characters but it’s DEFINITELY doesn’t excuse the fact that they are related. With x reader it’s truly up to the creator and it’s sick that they would even think to make reader related to the character of choice and then make them be romantic with each other.
Another issue is the amount of extreme age gap content. Since Twisted Wonderland characters are TEENAGERS, some content pairs them with much older adults, authority figures, or immortal characters in ways that feel predatory. A lot of these stories ignore the imbalance in maturity, power, and experience, instead portraying the relationship as an automatically romantic simply because the characters are attractive. Same with “x reader” the amount of age gap content for x readers NEEDS TO BE STUDIED. Examples of this would be shipping any first year with third years or adults, any minor with an adult, minors with immortal beings, (minor) reader with adults, AND any student x teacher relationship.
The fandom also has a problem with oversexualizing underage characters. Even though the cast is largely made up with high school students, there is a huge amount of explicit fan content involving them. Some fans defend this by saying “it’s fictional”, while simultaneously attacking other people’s ships as immoral, creating a very hypocritical environment. Although in my personal opinion if you have decided to age up a character and you have made it clear that you are not making NSFW content of a minor then I think it’s ok.
Another toxic aspect is fandom harassment. People are often attacked for disliking certain ships that are reasonable and this goes vice versa but more of disliking some ships. To be honest I have a hard time writing about this topic specifically because I don’t not want to get hated on or getting attacked for my opinions, although one thing is clear and that is people get attacked for disliking ships, preferring platonic interpretations, or criticizing problematic content. Discussions quickly turn into “pro ship vs anti” arguments instead of respectful conversations. This creates a hostile atmosphere where fans feel pressured to either stay silent or fully agree with the dominant side of the fandom.
There is ALSO the issue of flattening characters in MANY MANY “x readers” stories. Complex characters lose their original personalities and become overly possessive, obsessive, or unrealistically devoted to the reader(though some of these might be applicable to the yandere trope which would make more sense if these traits were used in that context). This can reduce nuanced characters into generic romantic archetypes designed purely for wish fulfillment at the cost of mischaracterizing them COMPLETELY.
Overall, the problem is not that people enjoy fanfiction or self insert stories. The problem is how parts of the fandom normalizes unhealthy dynamics, sexualize teenage characters, and create toxic discourse around shipping and morality while refusing meaningful criticism.
(Once again all of these are MY OPINIONS you do not have to agree with them)
Thank you for Reading!!!💗💗
andulkaphoto
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
pixelskylines
vaporwave
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
gummygunk
