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I'm probably going to regret this because I haven't drafted this first, but I want to talk about repulsion. Repulsion is instinctive. It's what keeps us from eating shit or spoiled food. Since we're big brained, civilized creatures, we're also repulsed by a lot of complex things.
And I think it's important to realize that being repulsed by something doesn't automatically make it morally wrong. I'm saying this because a lot of the discourse I'm seeing on my TL right now mostly boils down to "this is gross."
And some of the things antis deem "gross" are objectively harmless. Take for example the amigarumi dolls of Dragon!Hannibal and Will having sex that was tagged as "bestiality." That was not bestiality. Bestiality harms real animals. Crochet monsters fucking hurts no one.
The only reason that people were tagging that post is because they thought it was "freaky" and weird. And to an extent it objectively is? Like, monsterfucking is definitely a kink and not everyone is into it. But something being squicky /= it being harmful.
Another thing I want to address is an anti that said that writing underage fanfic was "just as gross' as IRL pedophilia. Let's parse that a bit. What they're really saying is:
"The idea of people writing underage fic upsets me as much as the idea of people molesting real kids." This is the problem with using your gross-out-meter as your moral compass.
Because while you may find imagined abuse and real abuse equally disgusting, the consequences of imagined abuse and real abuse are very different. Real abuse destroys lives. CSEM is illegal not because it is "gross" but because real children were violated in order to create it.
The same is simply not true of drawn underage fanart. Please do not call drawn art or written erotica "child porn." It isn't, and equating it to material that was created by hurting real children is offensive to the survivors who have actually been exploited and appear in CSEM.
Yes, I've heart your arguments about how underage fic and art can be used as grooming materials. My abuser groomed me using his regular fine art, his hot tub, and his own children. Anything can be used by an abuser as a grooming tool. That's not a good enough reason to ban it.
Because the reality is that many survivors find so-called "problematic" works cathartic. And before you ask, yes, I've discussed my media consumption with multiple real therapists and all of them have agreed that reading and writing about CSA is a healthy way for me to process.
It is perfectly normal and understandable to be repulsed by fanworks depicting CSA or rape or abuse. Again, that repulsion instinct is there for a reason. But you can't let your own disgust at something determine if it should be allowed to exist or not.
Because disgust is relative. There's always going to be that person that is more fascinated than repelled by the gross thing. And that fascination is not always an indication of deviancy.
People are fascinated by taboo, dark things. People watch true crime television and rubberneck car crashes and yes, read about rape or CSA or incest. Fascination with the thing from a distance /= wanting to experience the thing up close and personal.
If you find the thing repellent rather than fascinating, look away. No one's making you watch. Curate your media experience. Block, blacklist. Don't go looking for things that repel you. Unless, you know, you have the maturity to admit your fascination overrides your repulsion.
In which case, there are a million darkfic writers who will cater to those fascinations. Whatever else you do, don't go looking for content that upsets you and then lash out at the content creators when you get upset. That absolutely is a maladaptive coping strategy.
Anyway, tl:dr: Just because something is gross doesn't mean it's evil. Don't let your gross out meter guide your moral compass. And for fucks sake, don't harass content creators who tag and label their work and are creating for only those who want it.
Oh, also if you want a longer and more coherent argument in defense of darkfic I wrote an essay on the topic a couple of years back that I think is still relevant.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/8018749
https://archiveofourown.org/works/8018749
