Creepypasta is inherently cringy. It's foundations are built on the backs of mentally ill teens and young adults from the late 2000s-2010s. Of course it's self indulgent, we were suffering and needed escapism. Of course some of the portrayals of mental illnesses are less than perfect, we were navigating an ableist world while struggling with said illnesses. Hell, many of us were being abused and the idea of a found family made it so we could make it through another day.
I've been in the creepypasta fandom since I was a little girl. 9 years old, in fact, 2009. The dawn of ARGs becoming popular. I've only recently began creating content because I felt the community has matured enough that if someone didn't like what I did, they'd move on rather than rant and rave over how garbage my art is. That's mostly the case. Mostly.
See, I'm seeing a rise in "mature" portrayals of these characters. Not NSFW "mature", that's always been there. I mean supposedly gritty, realistic, "made for adults" kind of spins. It'd be fine if the people doing it weren't fucking trampling on the heritage of the community in the process. We're a goofy community, and the slenderman is our dad that makes us waffles. We write bullshit, but still entertaining stories about serious topic, then put those characters in goddamn tutus. You can have your cake and eat it too. You just don't have to be unpleasant about it.
My favorite example of this duality is @carnalhaus 's Nine Jeff. His story is heartachingly sad, it's fairly realistic, it's got mature and NSFW themes at times, and yet... we've got art of him in a cat maid outfit. And it's fantastic. The duality of this fandom is what makes it so great. Shunning one part in favor for the other is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the media. Being all high and mighty about how "mature" and "realistic" your interpretation is isn't unique. It's sad.
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