Let’s start off with this excerpt from the article:
Here’s the thing: you can make your own list of things that antis have done wrong and the resulting harm. They aren’t perfect, and I have my own gripes about the culture as well. But can you do it without doing any of the harmful things in this list? Furthermore, without deflecting to what antis have done wrong, shifting blame, or treating core issues as isolated events, can you simply address the issues within your community? Can you acknowledge that you have community issues to begin with? Then — and here’s the tough part — can you reconcile those issues with your desire to engage with such content uncritically? Can you accept that being aware and critical doesn’t solve every problem?
Direct acknowledgement of anti culture having its issues has been in this article the entire time. On the other hand, you seem to think pro-shippers have done nothing wrong ever, and did exactly what I asked you not to do — deflected to what antis have done wrong and shifted blame. Let’s be honest for a moment. You were never going to take any part of this article seriously because you think pedophilia and incest as glorified aspects of fandom are merely “problematic.” It doesn’t matter if you trigger-warn for those things, much like it wouldn’t matter if you trigger-warned for an uncritical blackface comic. The issue would be that blackface is being circulated as a form of entertainment. Likewise, the issue with sexualized incest is that it’s being circulated as a form of entertainment. You can avoid prominent issues, or you can address them instead of turning a blind eye to inherently damaging work.
It’s hilarious that you mention Sheith, too. Thanks for letting me know where your head is at. Keith is an adult now after a two-year timeskip. For much of the show, he was a teenager like the rest of the crew aside from Shiro. He was an orphaned kid who Shiro took in and raised. Keith’s mother thanks Shiro for raising him in the show. For years, Sheiths defended a 17 year-old dating a 25 year-old with every excuse in the book, which is exactly why I made the gaslighting section of my article. The creators of Voltron stated in a fan-taken video at a con that Shiro is an adult and the rest of the crew art not adults. This happened at the beginning of the series, and you guys ignored that. Don’t try to say they’re both adults now when that is a recent development and you never cared. I’m not someone with zero context on Voltron that you can fool into viewing the ship as harmless by vaguely describing it LOL.
“Cyberbullying” isn’t minimizing the issue, either. It’s exactly what you described. Taken directly from the cyberbullying hyperlink in the article:
Cyberbullying is an extreme form of trolling in which a particular member of a community is targeted and abused by others. It negatively affects a person in much the same way as real life bullying, leading to depression, anxiety and feelings of isolation… In recent years, a growing number of suicides caused by cyberbulling have caught the attention of the mainstream media… A recent form of cyberbullying on Tumblr is for aggressors to tell their victims to kill themselves, or to wish death or other forms of severe physical harm on them. This has inspired a wave of backlash and anger from other users, especially when these comments and threats are made towards someone whose “crime” was as minor as shipping a pairing the aggressor didn’t approve of.
Yes, when antis or anyone for that matter is violent, you get to address that. No, you do not get to liken a movement full of marginalized survivors to organized extremist violence, nor do you get to condense its purpose to the worst of the group. You’re actually the biased one. I can admit the flaws of antis. You can’t even admit pedophiles like your pedophilic fanworks because you’re deluded enough to assume everyone with your interests is a survivor, marginalized, or a good person. You’re also of the opinion that being a survivor or marginalized means you are free from accountability and what you do must be defended. Let me know when you’re done daydreaming.
Another quote: “Harping about antis sending death threats while ignoring the death threats and other threats of violence your subset of fandom sends.” You aren’t the only ones who have faced extreme bullying online within fandom, but you certainly like to think so. I mean, come on. We’re regularly seen as nazis, white supremacists, TERFs, puritanical nuts, for stating the apparently controversial fact that rape is not sexy. Since those groups are associated with violence, guess what kind of backlash we receive? Violent backlash. Denial of our survival status, treated the same as our oppressors, death threats, gore, and especially rape threats when we speak out about the sexualization of rape. I have seen it happen to minors. Naturally, you ignore that because it’s not convenient for your victimization narrative. I will hold you accountable.
Here’s the thing: pro-shippers usually win this fight and will continue to win because you have an ace, whether you realize it or not. You may think you only fight this battle with survivors and marginalized folks, but there’s more. You fight this battle alongside every predator your community conceals by assuming the benefit of the doubt in spaces cultivated for the enjoyment of sexualized rape, incest, pedophilia, etc. You fight this battle alongside every racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, misogynist, fatphobic piece of shit who thinks fictional mediums are free-game to spread their hateful views, then using the medium as a scapegoat for criticism once people connect the dots. You fight this battle alongside abuse apologists, who love to excuse abuse and subsequently think its uncritical portrayal in media is fine because in their minds, there’s nothing to criticize. For the catharsis of a few, you drag so many people you claim to support further into the abuse apologia and rape culture that is already the undercurrent of the societies we live in. Oh, that’s right! These societies absolutely support positive media portrayals of rape and pedophilia, since it aligns with their values. But you’re for the people. Sure.
You know, when it’s pro-shippers, survivors and marginalized people can do no wrong. When it’s antis, you look past identity to critique the necessary problems. Can you do that for pro-shippers, too? Emphasis on “too” because I’m not asking you to ignore anti culture issues like you ignore pro-shipper issues. Be as unbiased as you think you are and apply those critical thinking skills to your subset of fandom culture as well. You miss a point I made about this discussion being an intracommunity issue. This isn’t marginalized creators vs. non-marginalized folks or non-creators. This isn’t survivors vs. non-survivors. Antis and pro-shippers are in all four of those categories. Violence against the most vulnerable of society is not the point because the most vulnerable of society are both antis and pro-shippers. But if you didn’t make up this lie, you wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, so here we are.
Also, I’m not going to let you ignore this either:
The epiphany that fictional media affects reality first came into collective consciousness through blackface. Over 180 years of blackface characters in entertainment media, and antiblackness is now ingrained in American pop culture, as well as worldwide. This epiphany then extended to general portrayals of black people and other minorities in media. And with accidental blunders like Lolita, a fictional novel recounting the sexual assault of a young girl through her abuser’s perspective, this media-reality connection extended to portrayals of sexual assault in media, particularly its framing. Sorry, this didn’t come from radfem, anti-kink, Christian purity movements online in the 2000s. Pre-existing biases set the tone for inflammatory or poorly-framed fiction to be made & to reaffirm those biases. There’s almost two centuries of proof.
Anti logic is not meant to tear down people in fandom. While there are horrible people doing horrible things who are antis, addressing indirect harm against the most vulnerable of society via fictional mediums is a long-held critique that precedes fandom and the internet. Gather your receipts. Make your arguments. Tear us down so you can have your romanticized abuse fiction, right alongside blackface and female characters gratuitously raped to titillate the male viewers, alongside homophobic fiction that reaffirms society’s homophobia and comedy making light of assault because it’s simply an “exploration” of “dark themes,” a foray into taboo territory, a “thought experiment.” I hope you and other survivors’ healing is worth this disgusting world you’re helping to shape and reinforce all for a ship. Congratulations. You have thoroughly wasted my time crafting a reply to your disingenuous bullshit. A reply you didn’t deserve because you did many things this article calls out. But I’m sure you have nothing better to do, so you’re welcome.
