lines-and-edges:

“All fictional content is just fine and totally harmless to everyone” is not my actual position; I believe in nuance and social responsibility and that a lot of things are up for debate.

But as long as there are people out there who think it’s OK to harrass and threaten kids for exploring their sexuality in fiction, and as long as the community that just wants to criticize is not actively taking steps to oust these predatory individuals, they are pushing people who are horrified by the stalking and harrassment to adopt that as a fall-back position.

Or, in other words, matter how not-OK any particular piece of fiction or art might be, it is always more OK than targeted harm to actual human beings, especially vulnerable children. And that’s a hard line.

And as long as that’s happening on as large of a scale as it is right now, anyone who cares about the safety of minors online should be concentrating on cleaning that up, and people who focus on the contents of purely fictional works instead, or put far greater emphasis on these, are at best misguided and at worst trying to take the attention off their own predatory behavior. This focus is a red flag.

I’ll be happy to discuss the potential indirect harms of more and less permissive stances on media content with a community that demonstrates a commitment to fixing their missing stairs, not ignoring that they exist.

Hint: The missing stairs are the ones engaging in harrassment and abuse, not the ones who reblogged a “bad” fanart once.