#leave fanfiction alone and advocate against actual rapists instead

[arggghhhsstuff]

First of: readers are able to differentiate fiction from reality. And what they enjoy in fiction doesn't have much to do with their life. It's not because someone is a slasher movie fan that they kill people, it's not because someone read hardcore smut that they get any action. So when say that fanfiction makes rape 'more normal' in the eyes of rapists I don't follow. They know it's illegal, they just don't care.

If we want to stop rape there are many things to do. Educate people. Teach kids about their bodies and consent so they know when something is wrong. Make sure the justice system does its fucking job and doesn't let rapists walk away without concerns. I can assure you fanfiction is the least of our problems now.

And even if it was fanfiction's fault. What do you want to do? Control what people post on the internet? Put a cop behind every computer, spending their whole day reading porn to figure out if it's non-con or not? That won't work. Because it's stupid, yes, but more importantly because nothing good comes out when the government tries to police the arts. What people like, think and create. And you might not like it and you might find it disgusting and wrong but it's still art. It's people writing what they want. Free will, freedom of speech and all that jazz. And if our government officers have that power, the power to get rid of everything they don't like on the stance that it's "morally wrong", what's next? I'll let you take a fat fucking guess on who the government doesn't like in America today.

The only media you can reasonably talk about controlling when it comes to sex is porn videos, because they include actual real-life people and sometimes these people are getting hurt. That's when it gets concerning and dangerous. When people get hurt. Which is not happening with words on a screen.

But forget all that, let's say that fanfiction depicting non-con or unhealthy relationship dynamics or pedophilia or I don't know what else is influencing people to do the same in real life. What can we do about it? Genuinely. What can we do about it. This has been a discussion in the arts communities for centuries and here's my answer: the artist is not responsible for that the public takes from their art. An art piece is never neutral, it's always saying something, yes. But the interpretation is still up to the guy seeing it. If a guy reads a hermione x snape fanfiction and decides to fuck a kid, well sorry to break it to you but that has nothing to do with the author, and everything to do with that guy wanting to fuck a kid.

i love being a pro-shipper. it's fun. people will be disgusted by something they think is morally wrong and i'll be like "it's all in your head though"