You can stop saying that cartoon fan art and fanfiction is “illegal” now.
And before you cry about anyone “supporting pedophilia!!!”, the point here is that what you’re complaining about (aka, shipping teenage cartoon characters, which has been a thing for decades) IS NOT PEDOPHILIA. Literally no one else has ever even considered it to be that before, and you’re abusing what that word means.
According to the 18 U.S. Code § 2256 (yes, the same code that antis have been using a screencap of, but omitting the last part of in order to conceal the truth):
“The term “indistinguishable” used with respect to a depiction, means virtually indistinguishable, in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults.”
Also note the phrase “recognizable as an actual person” in 9ii.
(For real though–I have to laugh if you’re gonna tell me cartoons and anime characters look like real human beings. Like, who the fuck has eyes the size of fists and heads the size of pumpkins??? You guys are idiots…)
This is also further upheld by the Supreme Court ruling of Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition, and again in Ashcroft vs American Civil Liberties Union (the PROTECT Act has also had related portions–specifically 1466A, which antis love to parade around–judged as unconstitutional on a federal level, as was a result of United States v. Handley, in which the defendant was convicted due to a guilty plea bargain, and not actually convicted on the initial charges of obscenity. The plea bargain was made under the belief that the jury chosen to judge him would not acquit him of the obscenity charges if they were shown the images in question). Handley’s case is the only one so far that dealt solely with drawings of characters that did not exist in real life (as in, without further discovery of more serious content in the defendant’s possession–or ties to illegal sites–which is what occurred with other cases that antis tend to cite).
Also:
- 13-17-year-olds (aka minors) only make up 15% of this site’s user base. Meanwhile, the site has always allowed adult content. This means that staff is trusting you to browse appropriately, and to take responsibility for your browsing using the tools they have given to you (like blocking, and filtering search results). They are allowing you to be here under the assumption that you are mature enough to handle it. Your behavior is only showing staff that they might want to raise the minimum age limit (which is 17+ for mobile users, by the way). When faced with the choice of either trying to monitor/control millions of people, or simply adding a new age limitation, a company will always choose the easier option. Don’t ruin the site for all the teens that aren’t huge, easily-offended pissbabies.
- No, fiction does not affect reality the way you want to believe. The statistics for rape, child abuse, assault, murder, etc. have all experienced a dramatic decline over the past few decades, in spite of our media becoming more graphically violent, and pornography being more easily accessible. Your logic just doesn’t hold up to the facts (by the way, this also applies to stories with mature themes like rape or murder, or stories with abusive or taboo relationships. IT’S JUST FICTION, PEOPLE. It’s a reflection of various aspects of our humanity, which includes the things we most fear. Writing and reading about them is one way we can strip them of that fear and power they hold over us. It doesn’t mean we stop recognizing those things as morally wrong–it’s just a way of reconciling their existence, and coping with it).
- No, children wouldn’t find truckloads of porn in Google’s Safe Search. In fact, for most fandoms, you’ll have a hard time finding adult content even with Safe Search OFF. Google tailors its results to your browsing. If you’re finding “problematic” content, all that proves is that you were searching for it in the first place.
- The internet is not a babysitter. Small children shouldn’t be on it unsupervised to begin with. If you wouldn’t let them go to a heavily crime-ridden neighborhood by themselves, then they shouldn’t be online by themselves. Public spaces are not “safe”. It’s not the job of millions of strangers to constantly look out for other people’s children (nor are they obligated to look out for you, for that matter). That’s the responsibility of their PARENTS. PERIOD.
- An abuser can groom a victim without ever using anything sexual whatsoever. It’s about trust. It can be something as simple as an interest in model airplanes–does that make those “problematic”? As for those abusers, chances are that they’re not some random stranger on the internet, but someone known to the victim. You may not want to hear this, but the greatest threat to children statistically? It’s their own mothers.
- Antis only came about within the past two years. Before that, there was no real drama in fandoms beyond the occasional shipping war, which no one treated like anything but a shipping war. You are the ones that made fandoms toxic. Fan art and fanfiction didn’t affect any of us the way you’re claiming before. Hell–people have been sexualizing cartoons for literally as long as they’ve existed. That’s almost 100 fucking years, and it hasn’t caused a goddamn thing. You’re abusing and trivializing extremely serious issues in order to use as leverage to threaten and silence others, and you bloody well know it. You choose the things that you’re aware that everyone hates: Pedophilia, abuse, etc. You know that just mentioning these things causes an instant knee-jerk reaction–one that few people will bother to look into beyond the initial claim. You’re deliberately emotionally manipulating others. Those are the tactics of abusers (and don’t even say “UM you’re calling survivors abusers!!”, because those who have been abused are the biggest demographic at risk for becoming abusers. No, it doesn’t mean every abused child grows up to be an abuser, but the number of serial killers that were abused as children is hard to ignore).
- Adult content of fictional characters could actually help prevent cases of child sexual abuse. But then, we all know this was never about children for any anti, or you wouldn’t limit your concern to just the cartoons that you’re personally interested in. Honestly, I would think you’d be more concerned about the fact that sites like Pornhub and Redtube require no age verification, account, password, or credit card to access.
- Point blank: What you are doing is called “crying wolf”, and it has real consequences. For example: Anti-vaxxers. All it took was one man claiming a link between vaccines and autism, and now diseases like polio are turning up again because of people who refuse to vaccinate their children. If you make claims of pedophilia where it doesn’t actually exist, you are hurting legitimate claims of pedophilia.
So, anyway, if you could stop accusing teenage girls (yes, the majority of the people you’re harassing are young women–usually minors themselves) of being “pedophiles” over something that’s 100% legal (which is shaming them during a period of their life where they’re using fan art and fanfiction as a safe means of exploring their own sexuality, and is honestly misogynistic as hell of you), and that was going on long before you came along without any issue, that’d be super.
Oh, and by the way–if you choose to falsely accuse another user of pedophilia, that IS enough of a violation of the Terms of Service for staff to delete your account. I’d tell you to just ask “bipolaramyrose”, but well…she no longer has an account for that very reason.
I’m going to tag a few blogs that may be interested in this:
@educating-antis, @shippingisnotactivism, @shipwhateveryouwant, @antisdontdoshit, @antiantis-saltmine
Feel free to tag anyone else you think might find this useful. Lemme know what tags I should add to the bottom for better exposure as well.
I want to see this post everywhere. I especially want to see this post on the blog of people who have ever reblogged a piece of erotica/sexually explicit content. It’s time to give back to the artists who have provided for you – regardless of their preferred medium. This is the least you can do, to speak for them when militant groups are trying to silence them. Especially on platforms like Tumblr, ideas can spread like wildfire, and the pervasive appropriation of criminal terminology for the sake of censoring content needs to stop.
Whoever has used criminal terminology in an attempt to discredit legally permissible content is implicit in watering down important definitions and creating opportunity for the ‘normalization’ these users are trying to prevent. Every instance of ‘calling out’ someone over legally permissible content and falsely accusing them of criminal behavior is an instance of ‘libel’. (As mentioned above.) If you take an extremist stance on fictional content, you’re doing demonstrably more harm than good. You need to stop. It needs to stop.
Here are some free-form posts (partially sourced) I’ve written regarding the subject, and related subjects:
„Antis will not, ever, be held responsible for their own consumption of problematic content, no matter which level or iteration we’re talking about.“ – A post regarding how the way Antis think content is spread and affects people is highly flawed.
„More often than not (on Tumblr especially), it’s always about someone’s personal agenda, and what they want - and if they can’t have it, and if not everyone wants the same, they’ll fucking come for whoever wants something else.“ – A post about the logical structure behind 'shipping discourse’.
„That’s not just accusing someone of thoughtcrime, that’s accusing someone of being a criminal, because crime exists as a concept. That’s some next-level moral policing.“ – A post on how the criticism 'aging up fictional characters’ receives is inherently flawed.
„Fictional characters aren’t real people. Real people law doesn’t apply to them. You need to understand this.“
– Regarding 'pedophilia’ discourse specifically, and how it creates an overwhelming amount of 'alarm fatigue’ among Tumblr’s userbase. (That’s bad. That’s real bad. You’re essentially enabling actual predators to slip through the cracks.):
A thread specifically about the definitions of 'pedophilia’, and the importance of consent. A thread specifically about how the effect fiction has on people is misunderstood and misrepresented, also frank talk about 'grooming’ statistics.
A thread about how censorship is already affecting large swaths of LGBT+ content creators.
„Shipping is amoral. Every single instance of it, whether generally considered ‘good’, or ‘bad’. Theoretical concepts are amoral.“ – A post regarding how theoretical concepts can’t be judged on the same basis as actions.
„It took 1333 words to determine whether ’fiction influences reality’ is a statement that could be true, and the conclusion I came to without referencing any proof whatsoever and treating it as a 'simple’ logical problem is … inconclusive. It’s too vague, too depending on many factors to be generally true.“ – A post further deconstructing 'fiction affects reality’ rhetoric.
„Propositions for studies like these also don’t attract sponsors/funding. The thing is – and this might be naive – that alone to me is an indicator for how important or relevant the subject actually is. That’s quite the mouthful, and I realize as much. Yet, when the assumed outcome is a 'null hypothesis’, I feel that says something about the hypothesis itself.“ – A post regarding studies centered around the idea how and if 'fiction affects reality’.
And here’s a brief introduction to LIBEL LAW – just in case any one of you want to sue the people making false accusations. I also included links to legal sources for those with limited or low income. Some pro-bono lawyers specialize in 'cyber bullying’, which all of this bullshit absolutely falls under.
Every single argument used by 'Antis’ has been proven wrong or flawed over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. By others, by common sense, by basic logic, by science, by law. They still cling to their aggressive rhetoric and spread it with a complete disregard for the health and safety of other users, because they want to police and control shared content according to their own wants and needs. It’s a selfish, ignorant, hostile and harmful movement.
If you know all this, if you’re aware of all this, and you still choose to subscribe to their ideology, then I don’t know what to tell you – other than that your future self will be ashamed of your present actions.
The 'Anti’ mindset creates a community where aggressive bullying has become an accepted norm, where criminal terminology is being abused to slander innocent individuals, where words lose all meaning because their definition depends on individual motivation and intent, where death threats are frequent and just as often dismissed as a 'joke’ – over what amounts to mere words and lines on paper. This is the most toxic Tumblr has ever been.
