howdy. i am a person who likes boundaries. if there was a clear cut way to avoid most of the kids in this fandom, trust me, i’d be there. but you hide your ages, when you aren’t outright lying about them, and even those of you upfront about the fact that you are Literally Children go on tirades where you point-blank admit to being on crusades against content you weren’t supposed to be viewing in the first place.
what’s up with that? do you guys realize that’s like me coming into your space and being pissed off that the content is largely PG? we are so used to ~raging against the machine~ on this site that we have apparently forgotten that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. erotica is an entire genre, and in this year of our lord 2017 with extensive tagging and clear rating systems, it’s pretty difficult to stumble into. when i first started reading it at 16, it was not an accident.
where exactly are these “minor spaces” you are referring to? is it the rvb minors chat? because we don’t go in there. there are no designated safe spaces here–you have to make them. there is no designated SFW space on tumblr or ao3. what we have instead are ratings and tags that serve as signage to tell people where to, or where not to go.
you’re framing this like we’re in your territory, but really, you’re in ours. if you want safe, you can go to ff.net. they don’t accept explicit works. that would be why the adult writers are over here, and not there. i guess you could call that area minor-friendly.
but you’re coming out of your safe little corner because you want to see more of the world. i get it. when you’re limited to sticking to content created by teenagers or SFW content from adults, you see less. you’re also in the middle of being mobbed by hormones. been there. mysteriously made it out without pissing a slew of adults off though, but hey, i waited until i was 18 to join tumblr. which is, by the way, ten years old now–five years younger than rvb, a show that was probably taking off when you were diapers. i have no idea how people have gotten it into their heads that we’re watching anything other than an adult show, but i would really appreciate if that stopped, like, yesterday.
i think you guys are forgetting you’re reading content that on every other major site where it’s been hosted, you weren’t supposed to be reading it. ao3 has a rating system that marks explicit works as for adults only. livejournal asks if you’re 18. dreamwidth lets authors demand the same check. tumblr is the only fucking godforsaken place where you don’t have to opt into anything if the blog isn’t marked nsfw, so what do we do? WE MARK OUR SHIT UP. we put it under cuts, we tag it nsfw, we LABEL OUR BLOGS AS NOT FOR MINORS.
you open the content anyway, and i get it. curiosity, cat. you want to have the power to turn ‘no’ into a ‘yes’.
but here’s the thing. you can’t insist we treat you with respect and then expect us to act like you’re stupid. we know what you’re doing, and we know that you know you’re doing it. (still following?) we know you’re reading these entries fully aware that you shouldn’t be. and there are thousands of kids like you, who, unlike you, are managing to fly under the radar. we know because we’ve done it ourselves.
you can’t come into adult spaces and insist that the content be censored for you. I CAN’T EVEN DO THAT IN MY OWN HOUSE. i am a 24 year old woman living under my father’s roof, and i cannot control a) the topics he chooses to discuss b) the volume he chooses to discuss them at. all i can do is retreat to my room, my designated safe space, which doesn’t even do much on account of our loft style floor plan, yet i cope somehow.
let me make this absolutely clear: no one is in your goddamn house. no one’s forcing you to be exposed to what we make. you are on a website where adults are actively trying to protect you and themselves, and you are not meeting us halfway. and what’s being done here on a wider scale? it’s bullying. you have kids online bullying adults, and it’s only because the adults are decent enough to NOT chew any of you out and be responsible for sending kids into fucking depression spirals that no one’s tried to put a stop to it.
not that it would work. if nothing else, you’ve proved you’re stubborn.
we aren’t stupid, and we know you aren’t, either. we understand you want us to just stop making the things you don’t like. that this “invading minor spaces” rhetoric is really a thinly veiled cry for us to stop making adult content altogether. but adults built the communities you take solace in. do you think a bunch of high schoolers just trying to survive their teenage years are modding your favorite community events, chatrooms, making the gifsets, writing the 300k fic, making art in styles that have taken a decade or more to hone?
so now i have a question: what do you think will happen when you grow up in a space filled with adults you spent a considerable length of time harassing? what happens when you’re finally of age to consume the content, but no one wants to take you off their blacklist? i’ve been in communities where people try to hide their identities. eventually it gets out. you can make all the new blogs you want; your reputation will precede you, and people will block you all over again. good luck having any meta conversations with a crowd of people you alienated with your venom as a child.
if you’re 16, you will be a kid two more years.
but you will be an adult every year afterward.
please police yourself accordingly. i know it’s annoying as hell waiting to grow up. i know there are days you don’t think you will.
please let us be happy for you when you do.
pixelskylines
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
2087
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snowghoul
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germansingergirl
