HOW ABOUT WE DONâT HURT REAL PEOPLE OVER FICTIONAL SHIPS
Warning for needles, links to disturbing images
[Tweet: A fanartist was offered hand made cookies at a con. Only to find out they have needles inside and pierced her tongue]
The fanartist in question is Avimedes, a Taiwanese fanartist who draws primarily for Undertale. On May 10th she posted on her Plurk (warning for images with blood, needles) that she was given cookies as a gift; she ate one and a needle pierced her tongue.Â
Here is a translation of her post:
Warning, these photos contain a lot of blood.
Iâm very sorry that I havenât had a chance to say my thanks (for the convention?) and I am venting. But I received a needle in my dessert gift from the convention. Thank you, I have one more piercing now.
I am not trying to ask for comfort, I am only trying to tell everyone how serious is this matter, so do not comfort me.
This matter is unable to be investigated and hopeless to be investigated. This matter has made me lost of trust towards something, but from today onwards, I will not be accepting any more handmade food by others.
Any more follow up and notice will be posted(if thereâs any), thank you for your attention.
From discussion (Twitter, Reddit) it seems likely that she was given these cookies because she draws Sans/Frisk art, and a âfanâ decided that drawing a ship they didnât like was worthy of attempted murder. Had Avimedes swallowed the needle it could have done considerable and possibly irreparable internal damage.Â
So I will say this again: DO NOT HARM REAL PEOPLE OVER FICTIONAL ENTITIES. I donât care what the content is. These purity crusades need to STOP. The amount of vitriol and anger that the anti-shipping circles not only accept but encourage is dangerous, unhealthy, and unless stopped will lead to more people being hurt. Thereâs already been at least one incident of an artist being harassed into a suicide attempt.Â
Your moral indignation/righteous anger/upset feelings DO NOT justify the injury or death of other people. You have every right to protect yourself from viewing objectionable content, but that right stops far, far short of hurting other people. Going on these crusades DOES NOT HELP against the sort of issues that are purportedly being championed; it only causes more harm. We need to break away from this mindset, from purity culture, before someone is permanently injured or dies.  Â
FICTION =/= REALITY STOP HURTING PEOPLE
And dear Antis who say that theyâd never do this, that theyâre âonly educating people on their harmful shipsâ by calling them abusers, paedophiles, racists and whatnot: this is on you, too. By creating a climate where harassing, dogpiling and slandering people for their fandom activities is now deemed acceptable, you paved the way for shit like this. I hope youâre proud of yourselves.
Holy fucking shit that is it. I donât want to see any justification bullshit or any sanctimonious âbut but but *I* donât do thatâ - you enable this crap every time you start acting like your particular fannish brand of shit doesnât stink and EVERY damned time you act like itâs acceptable to go after someone for having a differing opinion. This is flat out fucking attempted murder.  In case you are aware, this is not fucking sane.  And this is the behaviour you have normalised.  You have literally fucking normalised attempting to murder people over fucking fandom opinions. Â
Iâve been in fandom a long fucking time. Iâve seen a lot of batshit, and yes, I am not afraid to say it. I mean *serious* batshit. Â Â Iâve seen that batshit - usually driven by a childish, solipsistic sense of self-entitlement - get exponentially fucking worse in the past few years. Â And now weâve come to a complete fucking crux of fuckass crazy. Â I never thought Iâd say this but goddamn fandom needs a fucking leash and a good backhander.Â
Holy fucking shit, man. This shit needs to stop YESTERDAY. Before somebody actually DIES.
Anti behavior has escalated at an insane rate over the past few years. And THIS SORT OF SHIT is what we need to worry about normalizing. Not people creating content for a ship you donât like. And yeah, that includes content you have deemed âimmoralâ such as incestuous, abusive, and underage ships.
FICTION IS NOT REAL. It does not harm anybody, despite all your kicking and screaming that it does. If you are on tumblr or ao3 or any internet fandom space, YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BEHAVE LIKE AN ADULT. YOU control what media you consume. If there are ships or tropes that genuinely trigger you, it is YOUR responsibility to avoid them. We have ample tools to that purposeâfilters, blacklists, blocks. It is NOT your responsibilty to do your damnedest to eradicate the content you donât like.
It was abhorrent enough when it was just emotional abuse. Harassment, âcalling out,â dogpiling, doxxing, and generally making fandom such a hostile and toxic environment that fear of being targeted has hampered the productivity of creators or forced them out of fandom altogether. But PHYSICALLY harming somebody is beyond the fucking pale.
How somebody comports themselves in reality says MUCH more about their moral fiber than what sort of fiction they chose to engage with. And guess what? You guys are not the Paladins in this scenarioâyouâre the goddamn Dark Knights.
Iâve blogged about this abhorrent purity âcrusadeâ going on in fandom aimed at wiping out what they consider to be âunhealthy shipsâ - and if it hadnât before, this has gone too far. Fandom is about creativity and exploration and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. And fandom will always resist hatred and violence and attempts at creative repression.
If you donât like something, youâre free not to read or look at it. But thatâs it. Threatening or sending hate to a creator is way over the line.














