“write whatever you want, unless it’s…”, “draw whatever you want, unless it’s…” no, actually, when I say write/draw whatever you want, I mean write whatever you want, draw whatever you want. no buts. no “unless it’s…” censorship has no place in art.
art can be about taboo subjects. art can deal with something socially unacceptable. art can disturb and disgust. art doesn’t have to be for everybody.
tag your warnings so that people who might be triggered by your art don’t accidentally get exposed to it and you’re all good.
and if people try to shame you for the art you create because it’s “problematic” then you can tell them to fuck off and mind their own business. they read the warnings. they choose to read and engage with your art on their own free will. that’s not your problem.
dark fics and macabre art do not—have never, and never will—reflect artists’ in-real-life moralities.
harassing artists, real people, over fictional things will never make you “morally superior”. it only makes you a bully.
again, censorship has no place in art.
I would argue- in agreement- that art SHOULD be about taboo or heavy topics, just as often as it is about comfort or joy or something you could politely chat over with your grandma. We need both for a healthy fandom and media ecosystem.
We need to remember that morality and advertiser standards are not the same thing, any more than morality and legality are the same thing. We also need to remember, Especially Right Now, that fictional scenarios are Not Real, and that curating your experiences yourself is essential to making things tolerable. Tags exist for a reason, and that reason is to warn and/or state the content of something.
As an analogy for this- I have food allergies. Bad ones. If I'm going to buy groceries for myself, which is safer: do I throw whatever is recommended by the staff into my cart and get mad at them when I get sick?
Or do I read the ingredients list before deciding to buy an item?
