#anyways please rant to me about why you think a certain dynamic does (or doesn’t) work :))

[cogaytes]

Ok, I’m also not someone who thinks smut is disgusting- in fact I’ve written smut for kotlc before- but i read the post in question and its tags and I have a couple points, I guess.

A lot of the smut is on ao3, which has a notoriously amazing tagging system! It’s very easy to filter out explicit and mature fics. Now I can’t speak for wattpad, because wattpad has a terrible tagging system, and tagging is definitely a discussion to be had, but I also mainly use ao3 anyway, so…

I cannot speak for everywhere, but the age of consent for sex *between minors* in my state is 13. I.E. two thirteen year olds could have completely legal sex. In fact, a 13 yr old and a 17 yr old could have legal sex, provided it was consensual, although there are still probably unhealthy power dynamics at play in that relationship. The age of consent between adults and minors is 16 in my state (likely to account for relationships between older high schoolers) provided that the adult does not hold a position of power over the minor, such as being their teacher or boss

on that point, a lot of the people who *dont* like the existence of smut seem to be infantilizing the characters. In the tags of said post, I saw a lot of “why are they thinking about SEX, they’re 16! Practically toddlers!” or assigning moral value to smut “writing smut is always weird, but if it’s about babies- sorry, minors- then it’s straight up evil!”

Rape and sexploitation are absolutely terrible things to happen to a person. Writing about fictional characters having consensual sex is not inherently abuse. In fact, writing about a fictional person being raped does not necessarily mean the author is a rapist or porn addict. Sometimes people write stories to send a message. Sometimes that message happens to include sex

on that note, sometimes people write stories for fun! Even if that fun includes sex! Even if that fun includes the characters involved being minors! Sometimes it’s integral to the timing of a fanfic for it to take place at a certain time in canon, and the characters might be minors at that point!

also @ people who think smut is gross: please don’t infantilize the fanfic authors too. I saw some “if it’s an adult writing smut it’s pedophilic. If it’s a kid, then they are too young to know any better!” As a transmasc, let me tell you how sick I am of people telling me I’m too young and or stupid to know shit about my gender and sexuality. Just stop.

sex is going to exist no matter what. Even between minors. Even between *adults and minors*. Smut is also going to exist, but if you place a ban on it existing, it’s probably just not going to be tagged. Humans are a sexual species, teenagers in particular. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HAVE SEX. And you know what? Sex doesn’t have to be disgusting and taboo. Sex can be art. Art can be about sex. We don’t need to become Quakers about it.

and also, if you’re sex repulsed, that’s okay. Many people are, and ace erasure is totally a problem. But don’t attack other people for doing something completely natural

anyway, this got kinda rant-ish, sorry

i don't feel like i have much to add outside of this, so just posting ^^