I am extremely afraid to post this, and I know itās long and maybe wonāt reach anyone, but if you have some time please read it. I want to talk about the Rick x Morty ship from the perspective of a childhood sexual abuse survivor. This is something that has been on my mind for weeks now.
I wish people would understand that this issue is more complex than just āitās only fiction, so it doesnāt matter.ā It DOES matter, to a lot of people, and I find that the biggest issue I have with the ship isnāt even necessarily the fact that it exists, but that shippers like to say it is harmless, brush everyone who say it isnāt off as āantisā, and carry on with it, seemingly without questioning or criticizing the implications of their ship. But I feel that as soon as even one person says it is harmful to them, it objectively stops being harmless, and you are actively ignoring abuse survivors and their concerns.
I am not saying that everyone who ships it is a pedophile. But I am saying that contributing to it, even if you are in no way doing it consciously, is helping to normalize and glorify it. One of the prime examples of that is what I already mentioned: abuse survivors not being listened to. We are told all our lives to be quiet, that our trauma isnāt valid, that weāre not believed. By telling us to ājust ignore and block the rickmorty tagā youāre basically doing that, youāre telling us to just be acquiescent and live with the knowledge that such a huge group of people are currently finding pleasure in our horrific trauma. For me, it feels like I am drowning, like I am forever alone with my pain with people not wanting to understand how awful the effects of CSA are. We are not āantisā, we are real people with real pain and concerns, and calling us that is quite frankly disrespectful and dehumanizing.
When discussing topics like this, you cannot always expect trauma survivors to be rational and not get emotional in their arguments. None of us should have to be, because the truth is I simply canāt always be rational about it, because I am severely mentally ill due to the trauma that I feel is being glorified. While I donāt condone death threats or anything of that sort, I do feel like people being criticized for a problematic ship simply arenāt the victims in this situation. You know your ship is questionable, the least you could do it accept that some people will tell you that. And yes, I know there are survivors who use it as a way to cope. You are valid, but it is not a justification to call it objectively harmless, and my thoughts mainly concern people who havenāt been through sexual trauma and still ship it without critical thought.
Rick is a character who canonically kills and hates pedophiles and rapists, so a lot of abuse survivors find comfort in him and the show. I ask you to understand how painful it is to see a comfort character who you feel connected to because you feel he would protect you be turned into your abuser by such a huge part of the fandom.
Telling abuse survivors to just suck it up and not care about something that hurts them is an awful thing to do. I know Iām not the only one and we deserve to be heard and listened to after many of us have had a lifetime of being invalidated. Our views matter and we have every right to speak out about something we find directly hurtful and problematic.
Iām not asking anyone to drop everything, like Iām not even asking you to stop shipping immediately, all Iām asking is for people to please be more critical of the ship, to think about it and to actually question it. I know you guys just want to have fun. But please try to understand why it is so serious to so many people. Listen to survivors and have some empathy. A lot of us are terrified to live in a society that further normalizes and underplays our trauma and no one deserves that. Please donāt tell survivors they are wrong for feeling the way they do. I believe most of us, hopefully, wish for a future where sexual abuse doesnāt occur, and that starts with all of us. The least all of us (and yes that of course includes me) can do is question ourselves, stay critical of our interests and listen to the people who are affected. So just please consider that not everything is as harmless as you might think it is, and please donāt just write it off without further thought. Donāt silence victims.
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