[ SECRET POST #3888 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3888 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #557.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

TW: rape and child abuse

[(Anonymous)]

Argh. Author. Your inadequate warnings are worse than no warnings at all. You did warn for rape, but you also warned for "consensual underage sex."

Except, your 15 year old character has been so abused he barely speaks a word and acts more like 5 or 6 than 15. That's not consensual. I don't care if he's an Omega and needs sex (this is one of the reasons I usually avoid ABO, but it was a pairing I like and the warnings specified consensual). Still not consensual for the older character to take him up on it, especially as it happened pretty much right away with no therapy or anything other than a bit of physical healing with the doctors. WTF?

I'd rather you say Author chooses not to warn. Don't pretend something is consensual when it isn't. Ugh.

Re: TW: rape and child abuse

[(Anonymous)]

Urg, I'm sorry OP. That should have been labeled dubcon at the very least.

I forget if it was properly warned for in later tags since when there's a lot of them I don't always do more than skim, but I once saw Obi-Wan/Anakin tagged with underage clicked assuming they were setting it when Anakin was 17ish and being safe with their tagging. NOPE he was 9 and freshly rescued from slavery. The backbutton was my friend there.

Re: TW: rape and child abuse

[(Anonymous)]

Tbh, there's a pretty big difference between consensual/non-consensual labelling in fanfic vs. real life. Or I shouldn't say it's different, exactly, but if I saw a "non-con" warning I would expect to see a clearly forced rape scene or at least clear indication that one of the characters doesn't want it or is coerced into it. A character actually wanting it, no matter their mental capacities, doesn't strike me as a "non-con" warning for fic unless, say, there is later a portion where the character does consider themself to be raped (like drunk sex followed by a character coming to consciousness and clearly feeling shocked and horrified by what happened) - or the narration is focused in on the person having sex being predatory.

Not that there's no freedom to discuss consent in fandom, but fanfic warnings aren't only warnings, they are kink tags and general categorizing methods as well. It's not really a statement on real issues of consent. I don't know the fic in question, but if a abused character really wants sex, and someone has sex with them, it's at least shallow consent and therefore I'm not sure it merits a non-con warning.

It's especially worth noting that when fanfic uses supernatural scenarios (like omega-verse), we can't really judge it by real life criteria. Plus, while you can argue it's dirty and predatory to prey on a teenage character without a childlike mentality, in the context of fiction, can you just deny that character any agency over their own sexuality?

So anyway, you probably will disagree with my opinion, but I don't think fanfic tags even remotely have the capacity to demonstrate issues of consent beyond a very superficial level (especially in the context of romance fic, which is well-known for being murky in that area). Personally in real life, I don't believe minors can "consent" to sex with adults, but in the context of fiction, a 16-year-old having enthusiastic, "consensual" sex with an adult wouldn't be correctly labelled "non-con" because that isn't the focus of the scenario at all. Without reading the fic you described, a dub-con tag might've been a better fit in this case, but I wouldn't label something non-con unless the characters are specified to not want it, or the narration otherwise indicates it is non-consensual.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I would actually have been fine if they just put underage sex. It was the specifying of consensual that bugged me. Better to leave the warning out than to put something that is blatantly wrong. If not non-con, then at least there was some dubcon going on there. It certainly wasn't clearly consensual as the warning claimed.

Re: TW: rape and child abuse

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, inaccurate warnings are the absolute worst. I once reported an AO3 for being tagged "no archive warnings apply", when it in fact contained rape. Like, a lot of rape. Pretty much all of it involving at least one minor.
The mods contacted the author, the author didn't respond, the mods changed the tags.