Shoutout to younger people in fandom:

ifshehadwings:

whosagoodshipyouareyesyouare:

uniwolfwerecorn:

• It’s okay to enjoy “problematic” fiction.

• It’s okay to draw fanart and write fanfiction that appeals to you, and you alone.

• You’re allowed to ship whatever you want. Let me repeat this for emphasis: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SHIP WHATEVER YOU WANT PERIOD.

• Your own enjoyment and entertainment are valid  reasons to write, draw, or consume something. 

• If this enjoyment takes the form of sexual gratification, that’s also a valid reason to writer, draw, or consume something.

• Fiction does not have to be morally pure. Fiction allows us to explore things that we wouldn’t want to experience in real life, things like violence, sexual violence, drug abuse, sexual taboos, or kinks: all kinds of weird or disturbingt things, and that’s okay.

• No, the narrative does not have to condemn these things explicitly.

• You don’t owe other fans an explanation or apology for the things you enjoy in fiction 

• If someone asks you to reveal personal information, it’s okay to tell them to fuck off. 

• There’s no such thing as a fandom police. Whoever claims to have the authority to tell you what is or isn’t acceptable for you to enjoy, is just arrogating that right. Their strategy only works if you let them have this power, so don’t. 

• It’s up to each person individually to create a “safe space” for themselves.

• Other people’s mental health is not your responsibilty.

• Not wanting to hear about anyone’s personal trauma does not make you a bad person.

I agree with everything here, but especially with this:

No, the narrative does not have to condemn these things explicitly.

Fiction is so much more than the didactic utopias, how-to guides or cautionary tales current discourse wants it to be. And it saddens me that there are people – young people! – who want it to be so limited and tame.

Your only responsibility is to tag your shit appropriately. Or to indicate that you have chosen not to do so and that the reader/viewer proceeds at their own risk. We as a community are pretty good at giving people the tools to avoid content that could be harmful to them … or that they just plain don’t like. 

Like what you like, create what makes you happy, remember to list the ingredients on the tin. That’s it.