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lightpunster · 4 years

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Ambiguous-Immortal-Teen Relationships: A (Very Long) Precedent-based Plea for Tolerance

Hey so I know this is going to make people mad but I need to get if off my chest. We all know that pedophiles have organized and invaded a lot of social media sites (Tumblr, Twitter, etc.) and are attempting to label themselves as an oppressed group. This has made a lot of fandoms increasingly vigilant and intolerant of any content that could be construed as pedophilia. While I condemn pedophilia and agree that we need to fight this movement, I am concerned that a lot of the hyper-vigilance and virtue signaling I have seen in this regard is misguided. Let me explain. The fandoms I am referring to are for animated shows, whose casts are often comprised primarily of teenagers. While there are adults present in these shows, I have seen little content pairing them with the underage cast in this context (although I acknowledge it exists). Instead what I see a lot is pairing of underage main characters with characters who appear to be a similar age, but are “ambiguously immortal”. Some examples of this are the ship Stevinel from Steven Universe, which pairs a 17 year old boy with an immortal ageless alien, and Rosegarden from RWBY, which pairs a 16 year-old girl with a 14 year-old boy who, in addition to his own soul, has the reincarnated soul of another man inhabiting his body.

Now to some of you, especially those of you familiar with discourse around these shows, these ships may sound like pedophilia; and I could argue that despite clear age differences, they have similar values and experiences and are at similar stages in development and blah blah blah. However, I am always worried about these arguments (on their own anyway) because I know these are pedophile talking point in real life; “They acted older!” or “I have a young soul!” are NOT EXCUSES for pedophilia (there are no excuses, get help). So why should fictional media be any different?

Do any of you remember the YA series Percy Jackson and the Olympians? In one of these books, the titular Percy, 16, is trapped on an island with a teenage-looking girl named Calypso who falls in love with him and they kiss. It turns out that she is an immortal Titan who has been cursed to live on this island forever, falling in love over and over with the teenage guys who wash up on her island. What about the animated series Avatar the Last Airbender? Aang, 12, is the reincarnation of thousands of past Avatar, and those past lives watch over him and he can commune with them through meditation. In the series, he falls in love with and kisses Katara, a 14-year old girl, who he later marries. Multiple of his past lives and his next life are also shown to have relationships with teenagers. Any Twilight fans out there? Remember when 100+ year old vampire Edward made out with 17-year old Bella? That was mainstream for a while. I know we’ve got some Adventure Time watchers out there. Remember when 800+ year-old candy-elemental Princess Bubblegum kissed 14-year old Finn in season 3? I think she actually kissed him twice in that season. Finally, I think it’s a little less mainstream, but in YA novel Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox, 14-year old boy genius Artemis and 80 year old elf Holly Short (80 is basically a young adult elf) travel back in time. Because of some weird timey-wimey stuff, Artemis is “aged up” to 18 and Holly is aged back to her 30s (equivalent of “adolescant”/teenager) although they retain all of their memories. And you guessed it; they kiss. If you think all of this media is pedophile propaganda, then my argument is not going to convince you so you might as well leave. However, I hope that some of you are thinking “Wait a minute, I remember that! Why didn’t I think it was wrong at the time?” Well I’m here to tell you that it was not wrong. All of the things I’ve just mentioned do not actually exist. Not only are they fictional characters in works of fiction, but the actual mechanics which enable them to happen do not exists and are impossible; there are no immortal aliens or titans, no reincarnation, no vampires, none of it. So when you call those things pedophilia, a sexual attraction of humans above the age of 18 to humans below 18, it is not correct legally or morally. Essentially, I believe that when we talk about magical beings who live a long time, it makes no sense to judge a relationship appropriate or inappropriate because the other character is under 18. For some relationships, it will be fine and healthy and beautiful; for others, it would be toxic and dangerous if they were 17, 18, 19, 35, etc. Age is an ok metric for teenage and young adult humans when it comes to maturity and ability to avoid being taken advantage of (less good for older adults, but of course absolutely critical for children). However, it does not transcend all fictional species or scenarios when you start throwing things like magic and immortality into the mix. So all I’m asking is that when you see content for ships likes these, whether cannon or fan-created, please do not rush to call those creators pedophiles purely because of age of the characters; make a judgement base on the character of the characters: are they really toxic for each or might they actually be good together? And if you decide that the relationship IS toxic or IS pedophilia, feel free to point that out...but make sure you are criticizing the ART, not the PERSON. I’d like to remind everyone that art is not reality; you may FEEL differently, but actual evidence has shown that depictions of pedophilia do not encourage pedophilia any more than playing violent video games encourages violence, and everyone has a right to enjoy media in their own way. Save your energy for fighting real pedophiles, not imaginary ones.

#percy jackon and the olympians #twighlight #artemis fowl #adventure time #avatar the last airbender #rwby #steven universe #rosegarden #stevinel

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