Child porn = Harry Potter? NO-NO!
Well, I’ve just come back to LJ and I’m a bit… dumbfounded about their new policy regarding child porn and how it has affected our HP fandom. While I’m pretty sure the 99,99999% of people find child porn aberrant, (I’m myself included, of course), to consider *any* drawing of fictional people (as any HP character) under 18 years old in a sexual situation as child porn is bit… well…
English is not my native language, and that is why I find the word “teenager” enlightening. A teenager is not a child. Two old teenagers (sixteen, seventeen) fumbling around, exploring, yes, even having explicit sex, is not aberrant, is… almost natural. That is the age when young people finds about sex. That is how the thing goes since the night of the time, no matter what religions and social convections want to impose on us nowadays. Not that long ago, in our occidental society, legal marriages were set between 15 years olds. I don’t think that is good, mind you, but the development of young people includes the awareness about sex.
It’s not porn. It was never about porn.
And now, LJ consider depicting that awareness between fictional characters a crime. Sigh. I’m a fanartist, so naturally I’m a bit worried. All of my sexually explicit drawings depict adults, as my preferred ship is old Severus/Remus, but it pisses me off that I cannot draw them younger. That doing it so, makes me a “child molester”. I’m a 28 years old woman, with an established relationship since more than three years, and my boyfriend knows my HP-fan facet, knows that I write and draw slash and doesn’t mind. I’ve always felt fortunate that I didn’t have to hide my fannish interests from anyone. Till now… I suppose.
English is not my native language, and that is why I find the word “teenager” enlightening. A teenager is not a child. Two old teenagers (sixteen, seventeen) fumbling around, exploring, yes, even having explicit sex, is not aberrant, is… almost natural. That is the age when young people finds about sex. That is how the thing goes since the night of the time, no matter what religions and social convections want to impose on us nowadays. Not that long ago, in our occidental society, legal marriages were set between 15 years olds. I don’t think that is good, mind you, but the development of young people includes the awareness about sex.
It’s not porn. It was never about porn.
And now, LJ consider depicting that awareness between fictional characters a crime. Sigh. I’m a fanartist, so naturally I’m a bit worried. All of my sexually explicit drawings depict adults, as my preferred ship is old Severus/Remus, but it pisses me off that I cannot draw them younger. That doing it so, makes me a “child molester”. I’m a 28 years old woman, with an established relationship since more than three years, and my boyfriend knows my HP-fan facet, knows that I write and draw slash and doesn’t mind. I’ve always felt fortunate that I didn’t have to hide my fannish interests from anyone. Till now… I suppose.