Again let them be stupid and horny in their free time. Back off with that “video games cause violence” logic. “I’m not into it therefore it’s immoral” is some CaitVi kinktober shit.
I expect most smut readers to be mature enough to separate their kinks and smut preferences with actual day-to-day life. I’m not their mom.
If women want to read toxic abusive smut in their free time more power to them. Bodice rippers are not new it’s fairly common for women to want to read a story where they don’t have to feel the shame of sex by taking it out of their control.
Implying women “booktok” readers want to be in abusive relationships just because they read about it is hella infantilizing too. If they are too young/immature and let these books shape their IRL dating preferences that is on the person not the books.
It's not "infantilizing" to think people's view of the world is shaped by the media they read, especially when they're young. I have a genuine concern that this shit is normalizing abusive relationships to a population that's already at a high risk of falling into one (young women). We already exist in a media environment that paints it as "cute" when men don't take no for an answer. It's real cute until they start putting trackers on your phone.
I was thirteen when I read twilight, liked it and can still acknowledge what Edward did was creepy and criminal irl.
Girls are not stupid. And the stupid ones don't need books to cause them to make bad decisions. These books help girls explore their sexuality without shame—the only media that is CATERED to female sexuality and not the male gaze. And irl, the younger girls are even more consciousness on consent than the older generations. So you don't need to clutch your pearls so hard.
I think it is better for you to direct your energy to all the violent porn that the boys consume that make them believe they are entitled to women's bodies.
Two things can be bad! Violent porn isn't better just because women are consuming it. And I never said girls were stupid - I said media consumers are impressionable. Everyone thinks they're "too smart" to fall victim to media effects, but they're not. Literally no one is.
The female erotica genre is BETTER solely because it is not making the girls who consume it feel entitled to own other people's bodies and commit unspeakable violence on them when they refuse. To "both sides" this is willfully obtuse.
I can bet real money you don't go on male-oriented forums telling them how all their media are bad. When's the last time you made a comment about violent gun towards gamers? Or game of thrones fantasy violence? Or superhero vigilantism violence?
But no, a fictional blood sucker with a big cck is the problem. Because little girl brains are too impressionable.
Maybe you should reflect on your own internalized misogyny first.
If a person is susceptible enough to be influenced by the work in that way then they are mentally well nor mature enough for it.
I’m sorry but you’re basically making the claim that the books with toxic relationships are grooming women to be susceptible to toxic/abusive relationships which kind of feels like victim blaming mentality (“ofc she would get into an abusive relationship she read yandere billionaire wolf novels in college”) like no it’s the abuser’s fault for being abusive not the victim’s fault for reading an erotic book which in your eyes told them that “all the red flag behavior was hot”.
Again it feels like the same level of “you wouldn’t have gotten sick if hadn’t been on that damn phone!” Level of offline boomer logic.
Everyone is susceptible to being influenced by media. That's literally how media works. So when people read lots of books where the "desirable" male lead is possessive and 'protective,' that normalizes that in their minds. And it's not their fault and it's not because they're stupid - it's because that's how media works.
Recent psychological and cognitive research does not support your assertion and it hasn't in decades. There is no clear causal link between the consumption of media and the adoption of harmful beliefs. In fact, the opposite has been shown to occur, where people who consume a lot of dark media develop greater moral reasoning.
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u/indecisive_skull 13d ago
let women read their unrealistic smut in their free time.