[ SECRET POST #2623 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2623 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #375.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I promise I didn't invent adultism on the spot just to annoy F!S. Nor is it a recent invention, or from Tumblr. (If you want links, I can track some down, but I'm tired from the way this conversation balooned, and I'd assume you don't care about a random corner of SJ with no direct relevance to your life.)

Honestly, I don't know why kids in fandom are lying about their age less than they used to. I hear that this makes things awkward and scary for adult fans, and that some kids' parents are controlling bozos who don't know how to resolve their differences like civilized people.

I'm not familiar with this visual novel, and looking at some of the comments below, I'm sort of inclined to agree with you. But I also assume that people join fandoms that are relevant to them, regardless of how old they are. That was definitely the case when I got into stories with themes that adults would be very upset at, if they knew. Because, well ... they weren't looking at me, or why it was important to me. They were just imagining a hypothetical child, and convinced that none of us could belong in [visual novel fandom redacted so it doesn't derail the conversation].

[(Anonymous)]

Tbh, I think the term you want is ageism not adultism.

[(Anonymous)]

I considered that, but the OP's gripe wouldn't have been aimed at a senior citizen. It was specifically because these other fans aren't adults yet.

[(Anonymous)]

While the term ageism is generally used for discrimination for older citizens, it's use is not limited to that age group. It is used for discrimination against any age group, if we are going by definitions. Plus it sounds better than adultism.

[(Anonymous)]

That's just a different branch of ageism, though. You can be ageist against young people or ageist against old people. Just like you can be racist against blacks or Middle Easterners.

Though, I don't think preventing kids from participating in R18 spaces when it's in murky legal waters falls under ageism.

It's reserved more not taking kids seriously when they report abuse and such.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Adultism exists as a separate term because there are forms of ageism that are only aimed at children.

The OP wasn't preventing children from anything. They were complaining that there are children in their [based on a sexually explicit thing] fandom, and asserting that this grosses them out.

The term is not "reserved for" or limited to any particular expression of adultism.

[(Anonymous)]

Reserved might have not been the best term, but I think people using the term ageism for stuff like this dilutes the original meaning and makes it more difficult for people to take actual instances of ageism seriously. Like what has been done with the term ableism.

I hardly ever seen ageism in fandom to refer to the discrimination faced by older adults in the work force, the disgusting mistreatment of the elderly in nursing homes, or disregard for taking kids seriously when it concerns abuse and neglect. Rather I've seen it used for shit like this.

And don't get why it wouldn't gross someone with presumably a large age gap. I mean, in a fandom space, especially a small one like DMMD where interaction, and especially on a platform like tumblr, between fans will probably eventually end up with unintended smut exchange between a minor and an adult, where the adult most likely wants to avoid that. OP didn't say that they found kids looking at smut grossing them the fuck out. It could be the fact that kids, who admit they're minors, are in a fandom that's explicitly R18 by the source material grosses them the fuck out.

And I still don't how your adultism is different from ageism and why a separate term is needed. Would you mind elaborating?

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

There's two different schools of thought with regards to that. Behavior that is prejudiced or *ist can be demeaning, inappropriate, and worth identifying as such without being any kind of emergency. I wasn't trying to rally anyone to my side or launch a counter-attack by using the word adultist. I was telling the OP that I thought the sentiment they were expressing contained prejudice.

You see it used like this because you're reading conversations in fandom, and these are the most visible examples of adultism in fandom contexts: adults disparaging and avoiding kids with various justifications for doing so.

As I see it, the valid reasons for being afraid of having sexual conversations with minors involve out of date laws that don't take into account the fact that you often can't judge someone's age just by the way they write. I can understand being surprised that someone is underage, especially if you have a set stereotype of what all kids are like and they don't fit it. But being offended and disgusted that they're sharing your fandom is less benign. Accepting the idea that kids explore sex, but getting irate at the thought that they'd become fans of an explicitly sexual canon and go where people who like that hang out ... is like saying "its okay-ness depends on whether it affects me personally." A lot of commenters complained that the kids weren't hiding their age, and I can accept that not having plausible deniability is scary. The OP, though, was grossed out that kids were there at all.

I had two reasons for using the more pointed term. One, this is an attitude that's aimed exclusively at kids. "Aren't you too old to be in fandom?" is a different complaint, and IME one that most of fandom repudiates much more strongly. Two, if you always borrow the more inclusive term, it's easier for people to argue with the part of it that doesn't apply to them. The fact that they don't avoid old people has no bearing on how they treat children, and vice versa.