I know it must be very easy to vilify other fans and be malicious toward them from behind a screen, and on this website or other platforms like Discord and Twitter, because there’s an inherent anonymity and you don’t have to look anyone in the face. But it’s frustrating, upsetting, and honestly disgraceful. 

Like it or not, accept it or not, you don’t know everyone’s personal lives. You don’t know why they ship what they ship or read what they read or write what they write or draw what they draw. And instead of accepting and respecting other people for what they choose to do with their personal lives, which is nobody’s business but their own, some people in this fandom–on all sides, mind you–jump right to bullying, anon hate, harassment, and name-calling. When you vilify fans, bully them, harass them, or are otherwise malicious toward them, you’re hurting real people. You’re dictating how you think other fans should be living when you know nothing about their lives.

For a fandom that is so vocal about acceptance, it’s honestly an embarrassment how little acceptance there actually seems to be of other fans. This fandom is snowballing into such a toxic environment that I feel very lucky I’ve found a few great communities that are accepting–and it shouldn’t be a surprise that those communities are on Discord and have nothing to do with any particular sectors of fandom on tumblr. (And it shouldn’t be a surprise that the mods and the rules of acceptance and no hate are big pieces of why those communities are so relaxing and safe.) 

Good morning! I’m salty.

I think we, as a general community, need to start taking this little moment more seriously.

This, right here? This is asking for consent. It’s a legal necessity, yes, but it is also you, the reader, actively consenting to see adult content; and in doing so, saying that you are of an age to see it, and that you’re emotionally capable of handling it.

You find the content you find behind this warning disgusting, horrifying, upsetting, triggering? You consented. You said you could handle it, and you were able to back out at any time. You take responsibility for yourself when you click through this, and so long as the creator used warnings and tags correctly, you bear full responsibility for its impact on you.

“Children are going to lie about their age” is probably true, but that’s the problem of them and the people who are responsible for them, not the people that they lie to.

1) chosen to go onto AO3 in the first place

2) chosen the fandom you wish to read about

3) had the chance to filter for the things you do want to see like a specific pairing or a specific AU

4) had the chance to specifically filter out any tags you don’t want to see like, oh I don’t know, incest and non-con and dub-con and paedophilia

5) had the chance to set the rating level if you wish to remove any explicit content at all

6) have read the summary of the story, which aren’t always great but are the only indicator of what the story will be like writing wise so something about it was good enough for you to click on it.

7) have read the tags of the story which will tell you what is actually in the story. If you have used filters to remove stories with things you don’t want then there shouldn’t be anything in here that’s a shock to you but maybe there is. That’s why the tags are there for you to check for yourself.

8) Then you have to actually click on the story. You cannot see anything other than the summary or the tags without personally deciding that you are going to open and read this story.

9) Only here, at step number nine, do you get to the adult content warning pictured above. You have been through eight different steps, the last six of which have also been opportunities for you to see that this has adult content. And AO3 has *STILL* stopped you to ask one last time “are you sure you want to read this because it has things that only adults should see in it”.

If after this point you are reading incest and paedophilia then it’s probably because you specifically went looking for it.