#age discourse

[hyperlexichypatia]

Of all the weird ideas about human developmental stages that have taken root in U.S. culture in the past couple of decades -- from "24 year olds are still children who need to be protected from pedophiles" to "a 12 year old home alone for an hour is child endangerment" to "it is not only meaningfully possible, but legitimately concerning at a public policy level, for a 2 year old to be 'academically behind'" -- probably the absolute weirdest, in terms of what an abrupt shift it is from previous universally understood consensus, is "teenagers aren't horny."

Censorship and moral panic about teens being exposed to Sexual Content isn't new. Far from it. But as recently as, like, 2008, the rationale for the moral panic was "Because HORNY TEENS are HORNY and if a HORNY TEEN sees a BOOB it might make them HORNY and go out and have SEX and make TEEN PREGNANCIES and not be VIRGINS on their WEDDING NIGHT."

And somehow in a relatively short time period this got transmuted into "Teens need to be sheltered from sexual content because they are naturally sexless children."

[fanlore-wiki]

Meta Monday: Your favorite fic author is probably over 30.

In 2017, Tumblr user Xochiquetzl posted an essay in response to discourse about adults in fandom, discussing ageism in fandom and explaining why “your favourite fic author is probably over 30”.

The essay seemed to strike a chord with fans and inspired many to share their own positive stories about their experiences with older fans and the fanworks they created.

Are you curious about this essay? Read more on Fanlore!

-----

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[decayed-and-decomposing]

"I don't think systems should use this term to describe their relationship with age because the terminology is incorrect and you can't change your age and mental age isn't what you think it is—" Are you plural? No, look at me. Are you plural? No? Then your opinion is worthless. You can have one, sure, but know that it will always be lesser than the opinions of plural people.

Your opinion does not matter here.

[trainwreck006]

Okay i dont know why, and when I type this id like it to be an open discussion, but I dont appreciate when people say shit like "Erm actually zanka is only 17 and therefore you cant sexualize him in ANY way shape or form nope nope nope"

Like im all for protecting minors, but A) zanka isnt a real person and therefore faces no dangerous repercussions from explicit content made about him and B) teenagers??? Have??? Sex???

It feels reminiscent of purity culture to act like Zanka being 17 means you cant picture him in any sexual enviornment EVER. Like for goodness sakes he fights JABBER. Who is only a year older than him! Hell he could be 4 months older than him in that case (I dont remember his exact birthday my apologies)

Teenagers have sex and engage in explicit activities. The important part is not OVER sexualizing them and making sexual context centered around their character as well as not making their age a sexual selling point. Yall- yall watched euphoria right? Sure grown adults were playing these characters but a lot of em had to be canonically under 18?

I just notice a lot of odd biases when it comes to "protecting Zanka" because hes at the same maturity level as Jabber who apparently is fine? Its a strange thing many people are upset about that im struggling to understand. Lemme know your take and if I should consider something that you noticed!

[confession-of-the-heart-fm]

im not really invested in the axel age debate but i did wanna say that ive always seen him as an adult because he so perfectly embodies what it feels like to be the early-mid 20s coworker that all the younger teenage coworkers imprint on because youre more approachable than the older adults and now you suddenly have to try and be a good role model to a bunch of kids you just met. like thats happened to me multiple times so i just automatically read the seasalt trios dynamic like that. no roxas we dont mix the bleach with ammonia based cleaners when its our turn to mop the floor. why dont you wipe down the counters instead and then we can go get shitty cornerstore food after we close. this is just what 358/2 days was to me

~~~

[takaraphoenix]

I do understand not reading smut, or not reading smut about a specific ship, full stop. I do get that.

What I don't really get are the mind acrobatics who go "Well, if this character were x years older then I could read/write about them having sex!!". I don't get it, but if it helps you sleep at night, you do you.

But what just completely escapes me are the people who then, additionally, come into smut set in canon and clutch their pearls pretending like you are the weirdo here for... looking at the source material as is, seeing the chemistry between the characters and going "Yeah, they should fuck nasty". Who make their own moral dilemma everybody else's problem.

Even though that one is so much weirder than people who write based on canon because, big news: You still thought about that teenaged character fucking!! In fact, you thought about it much harder than the person who just wrote about the sex, because you needed to additionally make up a new scenario that would "justify" that teenaged character having sex! You needed that teenaged character to have sex so badly, you had to age them up just so you could write/read about them having sex!

The person who just writes smut set in the canon timeline knows there is nothing wrong with teenagers having sex. Real life teenagers have sex all the time. But these are not real life teenagers, these are teenaged fictional characters. Heck, chances are the very character this is about had sex in canon. Because it is really, really normal for teenaged characters to have sex, not just in fanfiction, but in the source material too.

But the person who thinks there is something wrong with teenaged characters having sex, and they still thought real hard about that teenaged character having sex and had to make up their own fake scenario to justify why they are making that canonically teenaged character have sex? When you don't have to ship teenaged characters, when you don't have to read/write about them having sex if that goes against your own personal morals? But you still chose to do that? Even though you think it's wrong? You went out of your way to make up reasons to do it?

Now that? That is weird. And you truly have no leg to stand on pretending that the people who are normal about their fiction are weird or creepy. You're at the devil's sacrament too, just because you tell yourself you're there because Lucifer used to be an angel before the fall doesn't change anything.

[steamedlotusroot]

as a native chinese, i feel like some of yall are taking the gods in lego monkie kid a bit too seriously. i understand why it feels iffy to ship / make silly content of deities that people worship irl (eg. nezha, sun wukong) but it’s a phenomenon on chinese social media too. c-netizens ship the fictionalized versions of these gods, which the gods of lego monkie kid are. they aren’t the actual gods people worship; they’re slightly tweaked versions of the book characters, just like any other chinese adaptation or retelling of jttw (and such stories like fsyy) also, no, nezha isn’t a child, in lmk or jttw or sometimes irl. just because he’s often depicted in child form doesn’t make him an immortal child. eros / cupid is often depicted as a winged baby, and he has a wife and kids. it’s basically the same thing here. nothing in lmk suggests that nezha is a child (his voice, his appearance, his personality etc. all imply he is an adult), and while he’s described as youthful in jttw, he’s already 1700+ years old by then and gods can shapeshift. people only think he’s an immortal baby because that’s a popular depiction of him, since one of his prominent myths is set during his childhood. but as long as you’re talking about the god nezha (fictionalized or the religious figure) and not the human child nezha, then that’s an adult [edit: the last sentence couldve been worded better. i would summarize it as “immortal youth nezha is a valid depiction and is popularized by mythology, but adult god nezha exists too and they are NOT mutually exclusive”]

[werewolf-cuddles]

Gotta love how "If a character was introduced to us as a minor, then they are FOREVER a minor, even if they canonically grow up" is just accepted as a normal thing to think by some weirdos.

Like, i stg, there are still people who insist Korra is a minor because she was 17 in Book 1, despite the fact that she's 18 in Books 2 & 3, and 21 by the end of the series.

And I'll never forget that one screenshot where some dipshits on Tik Tok said it was creepy that the characters from Naruto canonically grew up and had children.

Anti-ship discourse has fucking warped people's perception of what's normal to a ridiculous degree.