soldierlex

"It's fiction, it's not real!"

Yes, the characters and the scenarios they're in are fictional, but the chemical surge in your brain from frequent exposure and/or sexual gratification derived from viewing that stuff is very much real.

Your reward center can't tell the difference between what's fictional and what's not. It doesn't go "oh, this child is not real, I'd better turn of the chemical reactions!" It just gets bombarded with a crap-ton of feel-good chemicals and associates that goodness with whatever stimulus caused the arousal.

If you consistently view content of, for example, children being sexualized, where that pedophilia is painted as acceptable and enjoyed, you are conditioning an arousal response to children and/or childlike characteristics.

You can go on and on about how you're immune and fiction can't affect you, but you aren't. Psychology says so;

The sexual script approach has been widely used in the literature to examine the relationship between pornography consumption and the endorsement of specific sexual attitudes and behaviors (Wright et al., 2022). The 3AM Theory (Wright, 2011) provides further insight into this relationship by suggesting that individuals acquire new behavioral scripts through media exposure (Acquisition). These scripts can later be triggered by similar media content (Activation) and applied in real-life situations (Application). According to this model, pornography provides consumers with sexual scripts where violence is depicted as normal, acceptable, and even enjoyable. The activation of such scripts is influenced by content-related factors (e.g., attractiveness), individual characteristics (e.g., gender, motivations), situational factors (e.g., sexual arousal), and the accessibility of the script (e.g., vividness). The application of these scripts is further influenced by beliefs and moral standards. If a script conflicts with internal moral values, it may be suppressed (Wright, 2011).

The normalization of violent sexual behaviors in widely consumed media, such as pornography, contributes to the justification of violence during sexual encounters, shaping societal views on acceptable sexual practices. 

Source here for the above two.

"Dark romance novels promote and romanticize abuse, illegal activity and a lack of consent. The novels have real-world implications and should not be dismissed just because they are fiction."

Source

Psychological research heavily links the consumption of media that glamorizes sexual assault to an increase in Rape Myth Acceptance. These myths are false cultural beliefs that excuse perpetrators and blame victims.

Source

2. "Fiction doesn't affect reality!"

Where did this narrative of "fiction doesn't affect reality" even come from? There are multiple real life examples that show the opposite.

Jaws is a fictional movie. Yet it lead caused a massive, wide-spread panic surrounding sharks and their "potential for bloodlust", leading to the overhunting of millions of sharks, almost to the point of near-extinction.

Minstrel shows were fictional depictions of black people, yet they managed to influence the perception of us as "stupid, violent and sexually immoral". Stereotypes we still struggle to shake to this day.

Media often presents manipulative relationship dynamics as evidence of deep, passionate love rather than abuse. Stories like “Twilight” or “Fifty Shades” present controlling, possessive behavior as romantic devotion. Stalking becomes “persistent courtship,” isolation becomes “wanting to spend all our time together,” and manipulation becomes “caring so much that boundaries don’t matter.”

Romanticized portrayals can teach audiences that controlling behavior is normal or desirable in relationships. Dramatic portrayals can make people miss subtle real-world manipulation.

Source for the above two

A study published by Oxford University Press, called "Fantasy and Reality: What is the truth?" states;

When I discuss the effects of exposure to mass media with various audiences, one of the comments I hear most often is that anyone old enough to “know the difference between fantasy and reality” is not affected by media content. In other words, fictional stories do not influence us because we “know they are not real.”  This fantasy/ reality argument represents a major misunderstanding of the psychology of the media…

An article published in association with the American Academy Of Political and Social Sciences, called "The Impact of Factual versus Fictional Media Portrayals on Cultural Stereotypes" states;

Sociological research suggests that human minds are hardwired to first accept everything we comprehend as true, and only later exert the mental energy to evaluate and reject what is false. Because fiction bypasses our natural skepticism, it serves as one of the most potent forces shaping human culture, law, and empathy.

3. "I use it to process my trauma!"

That behavior is known as "reenacting" your trauma. It does not help.

In general, reenactments are an unconscious attempt to reconcile, reframe, or repair a trauma that occurred in childhood. Sexual reenactments are no different. Most sexual reenactments originate due to childhood sexual abuse or sexual assault in adolescence or adulthood. Although not every former victim of sexual violence will have a need to reenact their trauma, many do. This is because most sexual trauma goes unprocessed. Most sexual abuse victims don’t talk about it due to feelings of shame and the fear that they will not be believed. Many try to put it in the past the way friends and family encourage them to do. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work, and they end up reenacting the abuse in some way. As it is with other forms of abuse, typically, former victims tend to either reenact their trauma by continuing to be victimized or by becoming abusive.

Source

Ongoing reenactments are a reflection that a patient is continuing to act in stuck and rigidified ways. In addition, reenactments often lead to revictimization and related feelings of shame, helplessness, and hopelessness. Consequently, an important goal of treatment is facilitating an understanding and control of reenactments. Reenactments are caused in part by powerful unconscious forces that must eventually be verbalized and understood. Thus, in order to address reenactments and to break their repetitiveness, the therapist should help the individual to understand why they occur. However, before proceeding into this phase of treatment and exploring past traumatic relationships and experiences, the therapist must first have achieved a strong and solid therapeutic alliance with the patient. In addition, the patient's safety must be firmly established, and any acute problem areas, such as chemical abuse problems or ongoing self-destructive behavior, need to be stabilized. Once these issues have been resolved, exploratory therapy may begin.

Source

It is a maladaptive coping strategy which functions much like a band aid on a bullet wound.

Using sexual content to cope can reinforce traumatic neural pathways or lead to an escalation in the intensity of content needed to achieve the same numbing effect, potentially recreating aspects of the trauma.

You are not healing. You are numbing yourself, and you think that because you don't feel anything you are fine. This is not fine.

Experts do recommend interacting with the cause of your trauma, but not through violent pornographic material. Experts recommend addressing the root causes of the trauma through trauma-focused therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) rather than relying on sexual behaviors, which are viewed as symptoms of unresolved distress rather than solutions.

4. "Anti-ship is pro-censorship!"

According to Marriam Webster, the act of censoring is defined as;

Let me be clear when I say this;

Anti-shippers do not want these topics to be removed from media as a whole.

There are many tasteful ways that these topics can be explored in a narrative which can make for great storytelling and help victims feel represented.

All we want is for these topics to be taken seriously, and not portrayed as something good or acceptable.

5. "Anti-shippers are puritans!"

It's honestly so funny to see y'all misuse that word all the time.

Actual Puritans are against sex being in media as a whole, whether it's vanilla or not.

Actual Puritans are religious fanatics who believe a parasocial relationship with god is the only means of salvation from sin.

Anti-shippers don't want that. Anti-shippers want you to stop wanking it to written/drawn child porn.

Anti-shippers do not want sex to be entirely removed from any piece of media.

So we do not meet the dictionary definition or historical characteristics of actual Puritans and, therefore, cannot correctly be referred to as Puritanical.

Do your research before you go name-calling.

6. "Anti-shippers are fascist!"

What exactly relates fascism with anti-shipping?

Fascism is the belief that your nation and/or race are above all others. How does that correlate with being against the romanticization of abuse?

7. "Anti-shippers are perpetuating purity culture!"

Again with the misused terms 🤦🏽‍♀️

8. "Don't like, don't read!"

Is just another form of anti-intellectualism. The fandom equivalent of "it's not that deep". If you don't want to be criticized, then don't post it.

9. "Video Games make you violent hur de hur!"

Video game violence doesn't hijack your dopamine pathways the way sexual content does.

The sheer flood of positive chemicals released during sexual gratification can be accurately compared to doing hard drugs - the only difference is that hard drugs prolong the chemical flood to unnatural lengths.

Video game violence, on the other hand, simply reduces emotional and violent impulse control. It doesn't necessarily "make you violent", it just shortens your fuse.

source

Violent sexual content is a completely different ball game. And according to the studies provided above, it does, indeed affect you negatively.

10. "They're just pixels, we're not hurting anyone!"

Sure, they are just pixels. But that's how it all starts.

It's not the fictional characters we're worried about - they're fictional, after all - its the consumers of that content.

Pedophilia, zoophilia, necrophilia and the like are paraphilic disorders.

A paraphilia is defined as;

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition; DSM-5), paraphilias are defined as any “intense and persistent sexual interest other than sexual interest in genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with phenotypically normal, physiologically mature, consenting human partners”

Not all paraphilias are bad, they only become bad when they involve harming others (i.e. pedophiles harming children, zoophiles harming animals). Then, it is known as a paraphilic disorder.

An article on Paraphilia published on MD Searchlight says;

These types of disorders often lead to harming others, which can result in legal problems. This fear of getting into trouble with the law can discourage these individuals from seeking help. Generally, those who do get professional help are often required to do so by law, or persuaded by their family, friends, or partners.

An article published by Psychology Today, on Paraphilias, says;

Behaviorists suggest that paraphilias begin through a process of conditioning: Nonsexual things can become sexually arousing if they are repeatedly associated with pleasurable sexual activity.

The process of encouraging a paraphilia by repeatedly viewing or masturbating to related content is called "habituation".

And, in the context of harmful paraphilias, refers to a behavioral escalation where the individual becomes desensitized to the initial stimulus, leading to an increased need for stimulation or more extreme behaviors to achieve the same level of sexual arousal.

Read up on "Drug Habituation", which is very similar.

Eventually, jerking off isn't going to be enough.

Eventually, fictional sexual material of children and animals are not going to be enough.

The thing about paraphilias is that they escalate. You may think that they're small and harmless for now, but, with continued encouragement, it only gets worse.

The same way a drug addict becomes tolerant to a lower dose and begins to seek higher and more dangerous ones, you will eventually see fiction as insufficient and move on to harming real people.

A short animation of T4T mizumafu to Kero Kero Bonito's song Flamingo. Timed to the lyrics:

"Black, white, green or blue,"

Mizuki dots Mafuyu's face with the matching colours.

"Show off your natural hue, flamingo."

Mizuki gets out a paint bucket with a Flamingo on it and covers her hand with the trans flag colours.

"Oh, oh oo-oh."

Mizuki dances with her shoulders in time to the singing.

"If you're multi-coloured that's cool too."