i’m not entirely sure how to talk about this. this is a fraught subject that deserves to be discussed by someone both tactful and astute, and i don’t know if i’m that person. but this is another post regarding my boundaries, and i cannot continue to disrespect myself by letting it go unsaid.
this morning i discovered that there are some people in the “radqueer” community displaying my characters on their pages and engaging with my content. i can’t control who likes my art, and i recognize this. i can’t prevent anyone from enjoying my work. but if these people have any understanding of basic human decency, i need them to know that i do not wish to be associated with them in any form, nor do i want my work to be promoted through them. please stop using my characters as your blog themes if you are a “radqueer”. please do not reference my music anywhere on your blog.
i feel so confused and tormented that these people have listened to Chocolate-Box Girl and somehow think their actions are exempted from the critiques expressed through the song. to be fair, many of these people are children, so i understand that media literacy may not be their most fully-formed skill. but, if i really need to restate it, the whole point of the song is how communities like these should not be fostered. you are not participating in a counterculture by saying children can consent. you are reinforcing our preexisting, pedophilic society at large. you’re playing into someone else’s hands, and you’re going to feel like an idiot when you get older. i’m not saying this from a place of judgment. i’m saying this as someone who has looked down these internet rabbit holes before and has seen how these people turn out. they end up permanently isolated due to their actions, jobless, unwilling or unable to seek help, perpetually miserable in a masturbatory way, and/or in prison. you do not want to align yourself with these people. you do not want to be known forever as the person who wanted to fuck dogs or the person who thinks the age of consent is stupid or the white person who “identified” as black.
my advice is to find another subculture. it’s not too late to jump ship. dedicate your energy to something productive and worthwhile. you could be spending your time reading or watching movies or sewing or baking or birding or doing literally anything else you want to do. if you want to make a permanent mistake, give yourself a stick-n-poke tattoo. give yourself a piercing. do something impulsive that won’t permanently ruin your reputation. you can be better than this. you’re going to fall out of love with this community eventually, it’s best to just rip the bandaid off now.
if you choose to continue to identify as “radqueer”, do not involve yourself with me or my art in any way. i do not like you. you don’t understand me or my work. leave me alone.
youmightevenknowme, Tumblr // Susannah Joffe, I'd Hate Me Too // André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name // iphigeniacomplex, Tumblr // Susannah Joffe, I'd Hate Me Too // Natalie Wee, Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines // mine // Janet Fitch, White Oleander // Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa // weevildoing, Disposable Girl
