[ SECRET POST #3055 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3055 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 072 secrets from Secret Submission Post #436.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 3 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Why on earth would someone hundreds of years old be interested in a teen?

Because that is the fantasy? That of all the people that person has met in the hundreds of years they've been on this planet, THIS person is the one above all others that they choose (I could also be facetious and suggest that there aren't too many hundred-year-olds pottering about so their dating pool would be pretty slim if you insisted they only dated their own age group). And 100s of years old is usually presented physically as an attractive young person.

One of the core elements of these ships is the fantasy of power imbalance, although not, perhaps, as you perceive it; the fantasy is that Buffy, the one the viewer is meant to relate to, has the power - of redemption, of control, of love, of life and death - over Angel. In the same way, a lot of people who ship teen/adult as adults do so from the POV of the teen, not the adult. In that case it's a fantasy of the relationships you would have liked to be in when you were a teen, with the more mature knowledge you have of how relationships can be. At it's core it's fix-it fic (the same way I'd argue that adults writing high school AUs are writing fix-it fics, and creating the world they'd have liked back then from the wiser position of being older).

If that kind of dynamic is a huge squick for you regardless of the character's ages then of course it's not going to appeal to you. But despite your insistence that you'd never call someone out for liking this stuff, you're pretty judgmental about why someone might enjoy it.

[(Anonymous)]

As I said, I can understand why someone younger would like the idea. I can't say that I never had fantasies when I was a teenager about a character/actor/whomever being so caught up in me that an age difference wouldn't matter. I just can't understand an older person having that fantasy. Wanting to be the one to go after the naive person with little to no worldly experience. Yes, the pool of hundred-year-old partners would be small, but there is still the pool of people who have had at least some life experience. Like the show Forever. Sure, Henry Morgan is unlikely to find anyone to match his hundreds-year-old self. But both of the relationships they portrayed him having as an immortal were with adults who had some worldly experience.

If that kind of dynamic is a huge squick for you regardless of the character's ages then of course it's not going to appeal to you. But despite your insistence that you'd never call someone out for liking this stuff, you're pretty judgmental about why someone might enjoy it.
I am completely judgmental as to why an adult would want to see a teen with an adult. As I said several times, I understand why the fantasy would appeal to a younger person, but an older person having this fantasy bothers me. I just don't go around telling people that this bothers me. I keep my judgment and comments to myself. (Except in an anon situation where I am not actually commenting directly to the person and am instead just venting, as in this case.) Does it matter that I judge this fantasy internally? Will people feel it through the internet and start quaking in their boots that "oh no, some person on the internet is secretly judging my fantasy somewhere"?

[(Anonymous)]

Again, you're obtusely or otherwise, missing the point that the vast majority of people in fandom who have this kink identify with the younger party whether they're adults or not. You seem to think that everyone who ships something with an age gap is basically a predator, so yes, if that's your attitude it kind of does matter.

[(Anonymous)]

As someone who both likes and writes May/December relationships:

I am completely judgmental as to why an adult would want to see a teen with an adult.

In my case, it's because I like age gaps. When I was a teenager, I didn't get along with people my age at all. It wasn't until I hit my thirties that I started finding people in the same mental space as I was, and having gone through similar experiences. I shipped teenager/adult when I was a teenager, because adults were the people that I bonded with. Now that I am in my thirties, I still find older men attractive. And by that I mean men in their 50's, 60's, or even older. I am older, but the age gap is still there.

Just because I am older doesn't mean I don't remember how it felt to be a teenager. Even if I can look back and laugh at some of the foolish things I did. I was also denied part of my sexuality back when I was a teenager. I didn't understand it, AND I was so sheltered that if I'd had the knowledge people today have, I would have known what my abuser (who wasn't an adult, but a fellow teen, BTW) was doing to me.

I like writing self-actualized teens (yes, that's a fantasy. I get that.) because if I could go back and be a teenager again, I would prefer to do so with the knowledge and wisdom I have gained by living longer.

Just my perspective.