Oh dear

[serai]

It looks like mucun has closed her slash site:

http://havens.sakura.ne.jp/ban/

Wonder what happened? Anybody here read Japanese? It looks like she left a note.



ETA: OK, I've been over to Rei's journal and read the latest on the brouhaha.

And I can say that I am now officially disgusted with this fandom. I suppose it's a branch of my disgust with this prudish, finger-pointing, dirty-minded culture in general, that can see some kind of twisted sex in a rather sweet image of affection between friends. God, people can be filthy sometimes.

Feh.

Comments

[serai1.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the tendency to censor expression out of fear is truly ruining this culture. In my view, freedom of expression should not be curtailed just because somebody MIGHT be offended somewhere, and that goes for any artwork. If some parent is worried about what his/her child might see, then it's his/her responsibility to steer the kid away. It's NOT the artist's responsibility to change her work, methods, or choice of publication. It's not my place or anyone else's to mind their children, and I'm getting pretty fucking sick of constantly being bombarded with this kind of crap because of "Oooo! ThE Children!!!"

For one thing, kids are resilient and not even a tenth as prone to scarring and psychological damage as we're all being indoctrinated to believe. It's the adults who get all dithery over the sight of an innocent kiss, a feeding breast, or the possibility that adults play strange games when they get together. Americans have slowly tortured their worldview into this weird position where the slightest indication of physical joy, intimacy or comfort is immediately interpreted as "sexual predator" behavior, and thus are basically constrained to an everlastingly uncomfortable round-robin of jumping at shadows and pulling against chains to keep themselves balanced on the precarious tip-toes of ever-tightening notions of propriety.

Which, interestintly enough, presents an image that any B&D enthusiast could identify. It's called "predicament bondage", and seems to be quite the turn-on for those jolly deviant folks who love to tie each other up. It seems a person can get quite a nice, colossal orgasm trussed up like that. Curious corollation, what?

Personally, I can think of no greater danger for children these days than this culture-wide hysteria about "pedophilia". What's damaging is not the mythical pervert jerking off behind a tree. It's the millions of parents, officials, TV shows, ads - the entire cultural milieu, in fact - constantly trumpeting the supposed dangers of modern life, and the alleged necessity to be ever-vigilant against some drooling phantom of darkness. Seems to me there's vastly more change that kids are gonna be scarred by the boogeyman of their parents' imaginings than by any actual person that might wish them harm, considering what living in that kind of paranoid atmosphere can do to the curiosity and energy of the average kid.

But do the prudes and hysterics ever think of that? Of course not. If they were really trying to protect The Children, they'd never let them ride in a car, or eat processed foods, or swim in the ocean, or all manner of other things far more statistically likely to put them in danger than whatever nebulous Kreugeroid might be hiding in the bushes.

It's all too idiotic, and this culture is just too enthusiastically embracing this culture of fear, for me to have any sympathy for such a viewpoint. Maybe if the finger-pointers weren't quite so lip-smackingly self-righteous about their proclivities, I might be inclined to feel for a few people who actually DO have cause to be upset. But those with real cause are few and far between, and I have found that they are usually the ones who prefer to mind their own business. It's the ones who feel they have the right to run roughshod over anyone else that are just feeding their own egos, and are focussed more than anything on re-ordering the world to their own standards, not trying to actually make things better for anybody.

ARGH.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Common sense meaning what you define as common sense, I take it? Seems to me "common sense" changes depending on one's history, as you've just outlined in your comment. Of course there's danger in the world, but what does it profit anyone to be raised in fear of others just because something might happen? I don't see that as a viable way to raise a generation, making them paranoid and suspicious of people around them.

Ratings are very nice for those that want them. What seems to be getting past you is the fact that not everyone wants them. As I said before, I don't like them. If you're dead set on having that kind of information beforehand, then keep to the journals that have ratings. It's presumptuous to assume that every artist must arrange and present her stuff to your approval. If you went to a gallery opening and complained to the artist about the way the pictures were presented, what do you think the painter would say? Probably something along the lines of "The door's over there," I'd imagine.

If you don't like my conclusions about this issue, fine. Please feel free to think what you like about me. However, since this is my LJ (as I've pointed out in this discussion), I will keep my opinions about this matter, thanks. mucun did not in any way deserve any of that, artists have the right to do as they please with their work (and Rei is more than polite about the way she posts hers), and people should learn to have a sense of proportion about the "harm" that art can cause.

But seeing as how that's a debate that's been going on since the time of the Greeks, I don't expect any solutions any time soon. Seems to me the most adult thing to do is simply to avoid those things one does not approve of, and not get all upset when confronted with unexpected things. A picture of a kiss is not the same as a hand up a child's skirt, and it would behoove an awful lot of people in this country if they'd just remember that rather obvious fact.