decepticonsensual:

fierceawakening:

elfwreck:

princesse-de-la-rue:

Give me someone who has some fucked up tastes in fiction, but is kind and respectful to real people, over someone who only ever ships the healthiest ships and stans the purest characters, but is rude and cruel to real people, any day of the week.

Your goddamn fictional preferences don’t show what kind of person you are; your actions do.

It’s not a hard concept to grasp.

All the people I’ve met who ship hardcore mindgames/ abuse/ sex-pollen/ noncon/ chan/ cross-generation/ torture fic… are absolute sweethearts who will go out of their way to help other fen, who will support others going through crises, who will tell people, “that relationship sounds abusive – here’s what you can do to get out, and if you’re not willing to give up on it, here’s the techniques you can use to claim the space you need within it.”

It’s almost like reading abusive filth about corrupt perverts gives you a sense of awareness of where the lines should be, and how important it is for people to be compassionate to each other – because we understand what kind of things can happen when people are not.

That.

I’ve had the same experience.  And honestly – I’ve mentioned this before, but when I was younger, some of the most important conversations I had about what consent is or what abuse looks like came out of fandom, and specifically, discussions around pieces of fanfic.  These weren’t conversations I was having at home, or with my IRL friends, and they sure as hell weren’t conversations I was getting through school.

Wow, it’s almost like reading and talking about fiction plays a crucial role in exploring ideas and moral questions. 🙂

I also know fans who are there solely for the sweetest and healthiest of fluff who are absolutely wonderful people.  But the small subset who believe that anything that is not Cinnamon-Roll Pure is not just something they want to avoid, but something that should not be allowed to exist – I’m wary of those folks, specifically because of that black-and-white approach.  It seems it’s a short distance from, “Your ships must be the purest of the pure, or else they are Bad,” to, “Your ships must be the purest of the pure, or else YOU are Bad.”