there is a marked decrease in hardcore kink/smut fic, and I absolutely think it's because people are keeping those fics to themselves or their small group of trusted friends
I'm not someone who jumps around to a lot of fandoms at a time; I've only really spent much time (SO. MUCH. TIME.) in two fandoms over the past several years. But I can say that in those two fandoms, this hasn't been my experience. The smut in those fandoms has been varied, and plenty kinky. In fact, the most straight-laced, non-kinky fandom I've ever been in, by far, was a fandom that saw its heyday in the late 90s. (I was in it in the late 00s, and it was still straight-laced as fuck then.) However, I acknowledge that you may well be entirely right about other fandoms I have no experience with. Some fandoms definitely have a stronger puritanical streak than others, that much is clear.
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I'm not someone who jumps around to a lot of fandoms at a time; I've only really spent much time (SO. MUCH. TIME.) in two fandoms over the past several years. But I can say that in those two fandoms, this hasn't been my experience. The smut in those fandoms has been varied, and plenty kinky. In fact, the most straight-laced, non-kinky fandom I've ever been in, by far, was a fandom that saw its heyday in the late 90s. (I was in it in the late 00s, and it was still straight-laced as fuck then.) However, I acknowledge that you may well be entirely right about other fandoms I have no experience with. Some fandoms definitely have a stronger puritanical streak than others, that much is clear.