Red Lurker now on Bsky

@lurkered.bsky.social

Born in the 80ies

This is part of what I'm referring to with many people demanding stories that reassure them they're a good person. They want the moral instruction because otherwise, rather than processing the reading experience, there's a thrum of "am I bad? am I bad? what if someone finds out I'm bad?"

Tumblr post by graftini:

stories about abuse are allowed to exist without reducing themselves to moral instruction. i think sometimes when people complain about the “romanticization” of abuse, what they're actually objecting to isn't necessarily the way abuse is being represented, but the fact that the representation doesn't provide them with constant moral reassurance. like, there is a difference between “this story frames abuse as desirable or inherently romantic” and “this story depicts abuse in an erotic/ambiguous/complicated way and doesn't repeatedly tell me that abuse is bad, therefore the depiction itself is irresponsible.”