There is no such thing as βa little censorshipβ
The above tagger has subjects they dislike; they need to learn to navigate around them so they donβt need to interact. Thatβs why tagging is so important: allowing the work to be found or avoided as needed.
The problem with βa little censorshipβ isβ¦endless. You want to control what other people are doing: how do you not see how thatβs fucked to begin with?
You want to remove the βgrossβ or the βinappropriateβ subjects, like that isnβt wholly subjective. Incest bothers you? Donβt read incest.
I canβt typically do fics with cheating, but I am not about to go tell the folks who write it that they canβt, purely to make me feel better. My eldest hates unhappy endings, they donβt get to dig up sad ending fics and yell at the author. My middle kid likes a different ship than I do in pretty much all of our common media. I donβt get to tell him he canβt read it anymore.
Fancy, emotionally charged buzzwords donβt change the fact that yeah, all of those are the same concept. You donβt like it, someone else is writing it, others are reading it, and that bothers you. Thatβs on you, my dear.
You will never have the right to tell someone else they cannot read or write it purely because you dislike it.
Learn to block, learn to filter, learn to accept that the real world has people who like things you do not.
This is the donut/diet argument all over again: you canβt have or dislike donuts, so you want to make sure no one else can have it either. Hard no, my friend. You have control only over yourself, and you need to remember that.
βBut those are bad things, Iβm trying to get rid of the bad things only!β No. They make you uncomfortable. There is a difference. Just as there is difference between reality and fiction. Just like what you think is bad may not, and probably will not, line up with someone else.
Fiction is not promoting rape, incest, whatever else. Kids arenβt going to go out and recreate things theyβve read for shits and giggles anymore than playing grand theft auto is going to make them join the fucking mafia or whatever it is. Sims players donβt suddenly rip their clothes off and drown in the pool, reading about Vash banging his brother a la Flowers in the Attic is hardly going to make someone knock on their actual brotherβs door, etc etc etc ad nauseum.
More importantly: there is no end to βa little censorshipβ. Someone else gets to decide what Iβm allowed to read and write, and the organizations with that aim have proven over and over and o v e r to be insane. Anything remotely queer is banned for being Bad or Sexualized (because these people have learned that PROTECT THE KIDS is the easiest way to rally the ignorant masses into believing that the rainbow is somehow preying on childrenβ¦ and thus need to be Controlledβ¦)
You donβt want incest, you donβt want no con, someone else doesnβt want any form of kink, a third busybody canβt stand that boys kiss boys, a fourth canβt handle trans characters, another carves out the ace spectrum, yet more go after the stories exploring gender dynamics in the ABO verse.
Thatβs not even getting into politics, where it turns into now no one can post stories that explore changes in government, that are anti war, that are hopepunk and show all the ways society could be better. Or, on the opposite spectrum, things akin to the anarchistβs cookbook: how to make weaponry to forcibly make things change.
Oh, canβt have books that talk about different religions, either. Canβt have books that let girls know they should be treated equally, that they can do whatever they please, that theyβre more than a walking baby factory. canβt have stories with magic, thatβll lead to evil thoughts. Canβt have stories with explicitly consensual anything, gotta keep the population pure and filled with shame about their desires. (There is a reason so many romance novels have a bit of unsavory shenanigans: the thrill of being wanted so overwhelmingly in a world where feeling that want means you are Not a Good Girl)
Weβre living this, right now, again.
This is why knowing your history is so important.
Look at books have that been banned, burned. Iβm going to oversimplify but: Picture books (and tango makes 3) because two male penguins adopted a baby, and we canβt let our kids know thatβs acceptable, never mind that I, a child of a lesbian, literally bawled my eyes out upon finding that book in my twenties. I would read it every day to my own toddlers, because look! Theyβre like Awa and Gramma! 1984, because the entire point is how burning books is Bad. Animal Farm, the new government is just as bad as the old and we the people deserve better. Gone With the Wind, for being about the American south and not only making it seem like maybe slavery is kinda meh but also hinting at a woman having a sexuality. The scandal. Harry Potter. Not because JK turned out to be transphobic trash, but because itβll turn kids into satanists, yβknow, because of all the magic. A thing that is totally real and possible to recreate. Are you there god, itβs me, Margaret. Because it talked about menstrual cycles.
As an American, seeing headlines where kids are banned from the library because of policies like this is terrifying. Kids in Florida have zero books in the classroom. They have to be screened to be considered βappropriateβ. And that means whitewashed, bland, and unchallenging of the norms the neo nazis are pushing. Canβt have anything about the struggles of the non white populace, canβt have anything at all about the queers, canβt have anything that paints the south in a bad light.
There is a bill currently attempting to pass into law, KOSA: kids online safety act. Under the guise of βprotect the kidsβ the government here is literally attempting to sanitize and censor the entire internet, for everyone. AO3 will be on the list of places theyβre going to try and nuke. Yeah, even your cute vanilla super straight happy ever afters. All in the name of making sure imaginary little Johnny doesnβt think kissing boys, wearing pink, becoming friends with the Mexican kid down the street, or opposing genocide is acceptable behavior.
Censorship is not about protecting you, me, the mythical children, or anyone at all. It never has been.
Censorship is purely about control.
Censorship is about controlling your awareness, your intelligence, your ability to realize you are living in the worst timeline, and your ability to organize and fight back. Censorship is division. Censorship is deliberate cruelty meant to cripple you and make you malleable.
After all, youβve given up your ability to explore new ideas, to think outside the box theyβve put you in. You are tamed, declawed, and too stupid to notice now. Donβt worry your pretty little blonde haired and blue eyed head about it now, Julie, the government will tell you want you need to know. Oh, what happened to your neighbor? Sweetie, what neighbor? No one was ever there. Repeat after me, no one was ever there.
AO3 is protecting my ability to read and write whatever the fuck I want, while giving me the search capabilities to NOT run into shit I dislike. AO3 is giving my teens a safe place to read and explore their own sexualities and interests, to engage in uncomfortable situations in a controlled way. AO3 is giving my teens a place to practice being human.
Censorship is always the bad guy.
AO3 is a fucking godsend, a pillar of creativity and freedom of engagement, and should be revered as such.
