Savathûn Apologist

But her family. Holy shit.

First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever

Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.

And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves three more, and two of those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper

And while one of the two is young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.

And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK

And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”

So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE

And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for

And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker

And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”

And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”

And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah

The thing is, I have posted multiple paragraphs about why how we talk about CSA and its victims matters, and if I want to add an additional few paragraphs about how annoying performative people are, I can do that and it does not magically reduce my actual ire towards predators and it’s stupid to think that it does.

Like. Okay. Let’s use rape as an example.

I think, or I’d like to think, that the cultural consciousness towards rape has at least slightly improved so that now we no longer think of rape as some kind of violent act committed by random strangers tackling women in dark alleys. We are, I’d like to think, aware that we live in a culture that uses this specific image of rape in order to deny or underplay the actual assault because “Why didn’t you do this, why didn’t you do that, why would this nice person do such a thing when we all know that The Rapist a gun-toting maniac lying in wait in a copse after dark?” And I (like to) think that by expanding how we understand rape not as some kind of bizarre end result of some horrible perversion but rather a completely normalized function of a society that doesn’t value bodily autonomy (with The Rapist as a totem to forgive those who don’t match its characteristics), we have made it at least SLIGHTLY easier for victims to come forward about what happened to them and explain how the completely pleasant, friendly person nevertheless committed rape. There is no mental disorder of “rapism” that leads people to do it. Opportunity and selfishness and not viewing the other as a person leads people to do it.

And yet trying to explain that all of these principles are applicable towards how we talk about pedophilia/CSA is like, impossible to fucking do, because CSA is gross! It’s horrible! It’s uncomfortable, and if we’re too critical about the rhetoric surrounding it you’re suddenly allying yourself with those blithering sex criminals!! It’s moronic and childish and harmful but nobody gives a shit, they just care if you’re “insufficiently critical of pedophiles,” a stance taken up only by the biggest fucking idiots on the planet.

And last but not least, never forget to smile!

this is kind of just not true though. like that's obviously the idea behind it but it does not actually work that way in execution, which is suuuper important. i think that witch hat atelier goes pretty significantly out of its way with richeh, rili, and euini to show that masters actually Don't need to put in any amount of effort, and in fact can be actively abusive, while their apprentices still feel obliged to stay with them for reasons beyond 'i'm not allowed to leave'.

like here's the scene from the manga where qifrey talks to euini about this

im sad this interaction got cut from the anime because its soooooo so important... it establishes that the power dynamic between adults and children is such that the child still feels obliged to live and behave by the terms their guardian sets for them, and they're still going to be internalizing everything that is said to and about them by their authority figure. and then there's the fact that On Paper the policy of apprentices choosing their master means any child being subjected to this kind of emotional abuse is doing so "willingly", which provides a structural barrier to actually addressing that abuse, because the adults who do notice and care do not have any formal grounds on which to intervene.