You're not even good enough to be my fake

We are told from day 1 that our urges are natural, but we cannot act on them. In spite of the raging hormone levels that come with puberty, we are expected to forgo sexual exploration at the point where it is probably most necessary.

We come to understand that it is healthy, and expected, to look at pornography long before we turn 18. However, we are also taught that we CANNOT do this. It is a crime, and though the legal scare is never acted on, the same parents who explain that urges are healthy and porn is typical, often discipline their kids for accessing it.

Anything that might stimulate sexual ideas or interest will be met with cries of “think of the children”, pornographic derivative art will often be hidden away, pushed into alternate channels by moral panic guardians who attempt to stymie the creation of such art. Kids are led to believe that this is unsafe. That they must be protected from what they need to explore.

A child is put through a balancing act. They often cannot count on school education to teach them the realities of their sexual urges, so they must turn to the methods that are understood to be illegal, discipline-worthy and unsafe: porn, erotic art of shows they’re familiar with, masturbation and experimentation with others. All this throughout puberty, a period that lasts YEARS.

Explore, but don’t get caught. It’s shameful to access this content, but you’re expected to. You must break the rules to be healthy.