By far the most controversial person in the Slugterra fandom at the moment.
I heard that back in the early 2010’s this fandom was a lot more laid back but now it’s been pretty much taken over by a clique of people spewing some purist bullshit and saying some crazy shit about anyone who doesn’t agree. I say fuck that shit because I want this fandom to be funny goddamnit and it pisses me off that the whole fandom is represented by a handful of people who can’t take a joke!
Weird vibes? Well yeah no shit I’ve been bouncing treatment centers and mental hospitals since I was thirteen I haven’t been home in four fucking years of course I’m gonna have a few screws loose!
Trigger warnings for sexual assault/abuse, rape, and harm of minors
For some context, I am writing from the perspective of someone who has not experienced this kind of abuse before and has simply educated themselves on it through psychological research. I will link my sources where relevant. Furthermore, I was provided with very unrestricted internet access from the age of 4 to present. I’ve come across many horrendous websites, images, stories, etc from my 2 decades online, most of it from the age of 4-14 simply due to how much was available on the early internet. I was a curious child, as many are, and I saw things which I probably shouldn’t have. I would not change anything if I could though.
Anyways, to the main point of this post:
I feel like a lot of people in fandom spaces see extreme works (be it fanart, fanfic, or other fan creations) and just write the creators off as edgelords. I don’t see any harm in realising that this content isn’t for you and blocking the creator, this is normal behaviour, especially around sensitive and triggering topics.
However! I do find it extremely reductive to disregard these fandom participants as attention seeking jerks who just want to trigger you “for the lols”. Some might be, but those only tend to crop up AFTER there’s an initial reaction to shocking content and after you’ve established that you will have a reaction. Like it or not, art and writing take time and effort, and you’re not the centre of the universe. Just because it reaches your eyes doesn’t mean that it was made for you, be it to appease you or offend you. Which is why that initial shock content (that causes your reaction which in turn attracts trolls) is likely made in earnest.
First and foremost, a rule of thumb within fandom is to assume a creation was made for the creator first, and viewer’s second. Whether this is universally true is up for debate of course, but that doesn’t detract from it’s use.
As a result, it is safe to assume that NSFW content of any kind is made for the creator primarily. Whether you see it or not is irrelevant, it is not meant for you, and so if you do not like it then do not read it. Dead dove: do not eat, and all that.
Secondarily: fiction vs reality. Fictional characters exist to tell a story. You can harm them or love them in any manner you can imagine. There is a (rightful) cultural taboo against sexual abuse/exploitation. Extrapolating real world harm onto a fictional character helps nobody, especially in fandom spaces where profit is explicitly illegal (due to copyright laws). Harming a child through other means (physical abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, etc) tends to be written off as character development, but when it is sexual abuse people tend to lose that distinction between fiction and reality. People don’t bat an eye at the physical abuse Katniss Everdeen receives, or the literal murder games she, and her fellow child protagonists are forced to endure, because we all know he’s a fictional character whose injury isn’t reflective of the authors views. It stands to reason that the same can be extrapolated for sexual violence.
But there are exceptions! Some authors really do condone abuse, sexual or not!
I know. Which is why media literacy is so important to determine which is which. Using a blanket “all sexual abuse stories are bad” argument is reductive at best and simply results in censorship. There will be amateur fics with bad grammar and prose, there will be tasteless art with awkward anatomy: but banning fandom and creative freedom and outlets it brings for these people does more harm than good.
Then there is the fiction without a real world allegory (e.g. magic). How it functions and headcannons thereof begin and end right there. They’re headcannons, and I doubt the creators of a cartoon which aired in 2012 are going to answer questions 14 years later of all things. Recent fandoms, sure. But the slugterra creators have almost certainly moved on by this point in time. Getting into fandom fights over how sentient the goon is or how old Junjie is helps nobody and just scares away lurkers instead of encouraging them to engage with the fandom.
But what about the children? This is a kids show, children will be in the fandom.
People seem to be under the impression that they need to police their peers. This is not the case. If there are children being exposed to inappropriate content, then it is the responsibility of their parents to prevent that. Not you, not me: their parents. I can understand why people would come to these conclusions for certain fandom shows, but as we’ve seen recently, age verification is essentially impossible to do online, and even when implemented, tends to do more harm than good. You’re not protecting children by policing others in this way, you’re scaring away people who watched these shows as kids, and have since grown up.
People, adult or minor, don’t appreciate being bossed around or hassled for personal information (including age). Yes, a vague “I’m a minor” also acts as personal/revealing information. It still exposes individuals to bad actors who would like to filter for people who they can groom. Like it or not, total anonymity online is the safest way to be online, ESPECIALLY for children. This was the norm for years for good reason. You’re not helping by establishing a group of under 18 year olds in a fandom.
Now, onto the sensitive stuff. People who write about rape, sexual assault, non-consent, etc do not condone it! This has been studied and documented! I know these topics are unpleasant, and I know some of you have unwarranted beef with the platform AO3 because of it, and so I make this post to hopefully explain why people behave this way.
But why would they write it if they don’t condone it?
As a defensive mechanism, many victims of sexual abuse will engage in hypersexuality. Which is to say, someone’s response to the world, be it appropriate or not, will be to essentially manufacture their own consent even though it is not present. Their psychological response is to essentially heighten their desire for sex so that they can look back on the abuse and protect themselves with a layer of “consent”. [Source]. Is this healthy? No. And individuals expressing this response should seek help. However, in the meantime, they should not be faulted nor looked down upon for expressing this. Does this mean that you should engage with work including topics you’re uncomfortable with? No. It DOES mean that you should simply block (tags and users) and move on.
Posting about them and manufacturing isolation, or worse, harassment campaigns, can do harm! You are not helping the fandom by making call-out posts about specific users because you cannot know the context behind their actions without asking them. Vagueposting is no better as other users will inevitably get curious and seek the content out on their own, which is not something either the creator nor (presumably) you want.
Furthermore, suppressive environments can also cause certain fantasies to arise. Specifically the removal of consent. Depending on circumstances (be it suppression because “women are supposed to stay virgins until marriage”, or “being gay is a sin”, etc) some people may develop non-consensual fantasies in order to remove the taboo of consenting to it. This is also a defensive mechanism, but unlike hypersexuality where the goal is to manufacture your own consent, the goal here is to remove your “faults” for wanting a sexual encounter. The removal of consent can occur in a variety of ways, either by using an animal as a perpetrator, writing from a minors perspective who can’t consent, or just assault from another adult of the same gender. [source1, source 2]
A well known example of abuse in literature is Lolita. Pop culture understanding of it boils down to a middle aged man obsessing over a little girl. The PoV of the book is written specifically to make the reader uncomfortable and to humanise the perpetrator of the abuse. NOT because abusers deserve forgiveness, but because the audience needs to understand how these types of monsters will look and act no differently to you. This becomes even more obvious when you know that the author was also a victim of CSA (child sexual abuse). Unfortunately, the average person doesn’t know this, and tend to write the story off as making excuses for abusers. This is not the case.
Im not saying its necessarily that deep for fandom content which possesses these topics, but jumping to conclusions based on emotions and “degenerate art” does more harm than good.
But children’s shows are still inappropriate to explore these topics!
I hear you. But another thing which must be acknowledged is that, should the person be working through childhood abuse, they may use comfort media from their childhood as an anchor point for healing. As such, they may recreate or imitate their past experiences as a minor, using a character with which they related to (likely also a minor) as a stand in to explore and unpack their abuse. Similarly, should they not feel up to writing it themselves, they may seek out fanfictions from others for this purpose. Petitioning for their removal further isolates and therefore harms people who even lurk in our fandom spaces.
Neither consumer nor producer are bad or immoral people for this.
But I’m not telling people to go harass them!
What you say is irrelevant when your actions lead to harassment regardless. When anons decide to sent hateful comments to cyan for being neutral on topics they don’t care about, or when you actively spread people’s usernames to others, their response is a consequence of the information that you have provided. Especially when you’re complaining about NSFW content to minors. You’re not warning them, you’re directing them to content they shouldn’t see, whether you acknowledge this or not.
To summarise, you fundamentally cannot know where a creator is coming from if you don’t have context and no one owes you a detailed explanation for their potential trauma should it be present. Eating a dead dove you don’t want helps nobody. Youre not being virtuous or brave for “warning” people of these fanworks. Intentions are irrelevant when the consequences lead to harm anyway.
Tl;Dr: stop harassing fancreators because they make you feel icky
The hypocrisy of this fandom pmo. I get it that I’ve done and said some messed up shit but at least I acknowledge it. These people talk like they’re saints and then turn around to do the very same shit that they preach against.
For example, Zai has called me a weirdo for a suggestive drawing of Twist that I did a bit ago. I’d like to point out that I’m seventeen so it’s not like I’m being a pedo. This user Guts has stated that he’s fourteen and Zai is here exposing him to a rapefic. They’re all about protecting minors, but only if they’re fictional.
They call Twist fifteen but then Okami ships him with her nineteen year old OC. I’m seventeen and I wouldn’t go for a fifteen year old.
This is the drawing of Twist that they’re talking about. I’m sorry but THIS IS NOT PORN. Fuck dude. It doesn’t even look like him and it was based off of a freaky joke my friend made.
Okami is twenty four and will rant about porn to Guts on a regular basis and let me remind you that Guts is fourteen. The hypocrisy in this fandom is actually nuts.
And again, I know that I’ve messed up too, and I’ll take full accountability for that and I’m chilling out. I just want these people to do the same and acknowledge that they’re not saints and they’ve done the very same shit.
Bro I get it you have a crush but personal space oml
He was NOT able to keep his hands to himself that episode there was one scene where he put his hand on Twist’s shoulder, moved it, AND THEN PUT IT RIGHT BACK. If the creators came out and announced that they were gonna become a thing if the show hadn’t ended I would totally believe it.
