You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Underage Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart and those who write and draw it are not pedophilic.
Wait. I'm not arguing right now whether or not underage fic or art are legal or whether or not they have literary or artistic merit or whether or not it's right or wrong for such works to exist. I seriously don't have the energy to get into that particular discussion at the moment. But. I'm saying that underage Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart and those who write and draw it are not pedophilic.
Why do I feel I need to say this? I've received more than one very well-meaning comment in more than one place over the past few days from people who are obviously not trolls who make the erroneous statement that Harry Potter fiction is filled with pedophilia, that any student/teacher pairing should be banned and that the journals of those pedophiles who write or draw those pairings should be suspended.
These are comments from people who seem to be truly very nice, very kind people. Who are honestly concerned. Whom I'd probably quite like. Who are entirely misinformed about a) pedophilia and b) Harry Potter fanwork, fanwriters and fanartists.
It's just...please don't call me a pedophile, directly or through implication. Please don't reference my work as being pedophilic.
You see, for me, personally, that is the biggest slap in the face you could ever give me. I'm a sexual abuse survivor. I spent six years of my childhood being molested by two friends of my family. It began when I was six; it ended when I was twelve. I was twenty-three before I ever told anyone. It remains one of the most difficult experiences of my life; it has left more scars on my psyche than you can possibly imagine; it caused me to spend years of my life trying to harm myself in various ways.
I went to therapy for a very long time. But do you know what helped me more than therapy ever did? Fandom. Harry Potter fandom. And writing Harry Potter fiction. I've been told that I address many of the same themes time and time again in my stories, and that's very true. Because for me, writing is the best, healthiest way to work through things in my head. For example, after my father died unexpectedly three years ago, grief and how it's dealt with became a huge part of the stories I write, particularly in regards to the loss of a parental figure. I do not write stories that are outright sexual abuse stories. But my experiences influence my writing. Greatly. And they influence the pairings I've chosen to write about in this fandom, without a doubt.
There's a reason why most of what I write is teacher/student fic, there's a reason why I often tend to write it from the student's (or former student's) point of view, there's a reason why those characters tend to be rather strong-willed, there's a reason why my Snape tends to be reluctant to begin relationships with students when they're underage (or even, on occasion, overage), thre's a reason why most of what I write is R or NC-17, and, yes, I'm quite aware of my reasons for being fascinated by the cross-gen dynamic. Trust me when I say that I've been through enough therapy to be very self-aware in some aspects of my psyche. :)
I have gone out of my way in writing my stories to make certain--whether I write Snape/Draco or I write Snape/Harry--that Draco and/or Harry are above the legal age of consent in Britain: sixteen. The great majority of my fics have them either seventeen (the wizarding age of consent) or older. I've often written them in their 20s and 30s. This is because for me, that's my comfort zone. Much as (again, for me personally) writing non-con is extraordinarily difficult and not really within my personal level of comfort, I can't write the characters younger than British age of consent--which is ironically now underage for Livejournal. Ergo, in further irony, in the eyes of some individuals I must now be a pedophile, yes?
...right. Er. No.
Nor should any other writer or artist of underage fanwork, whether or not they are an abuse survivor, be considered a pedophile.
I have friends on LJ, both those who have been abused as children and those who have not, who have written Harry, Draco, and other students as younger than age of consent in adult/minor fic for numerous quite valid reasons. Either they wanted to explore the psychological/ethical/moral elements of a relationship where the younger character is below the age of consent, or the story of how such a relationship would develop intrigued them--much as it has done for writers and artists throughout literary and art histories (don't make me whip the much-dreaded, much-overused Nabakov et al out on y'all), or, sometimes, they wanted to work through what had happened to them as children.
Because, yes, just as many rape survivors write rape fic to deal with their experiences, many sexual abuse survivors write underage fic for the same reason. Please note, no, not all sexual abuse or rape surivivors choose this method of working through their life experiences, not everyone wishes to, but a goodly number do. So to call the ones who do perverts and/or pedophiles? Whoa. Hi, yeah, not really so cool, you know? Utterly painful for us, in fact, because when that sort of statement is made, our experiences are cheapened, to begin with, and then turned upon us, making us not survivors, but abusers, and just...no.
I'd like to point you to this 2000 study that Duke University conducted.
An excerpt from the news item: A new study at Duke University may help therapists find better ways to treat adult victims of childhood sexual abuse who are dealing with emotions avoided for years following the traumatic experience.
The study, which began enrolling participants last week, aims to learn about both victims' experiences and their methods for coping through a series of writing sessions.
"We're trying to understand the process of coping with difficult emotions related to childhood sexual abuse," explained Elizabeth Krause, a third-year graduate student in psychology working on her doctorate and lead investigator in the study, which is being conducted at the Duke Psychology Clinic. "We're interested in survivors' own words about their trauma-related emotions, as well as in the impact of writing on their recovery."
Every therapist I have had has told me to write about my experiences. Has in fact insisted on it. Nearly every sexual abuse recovery book and workbook suggests writing excercises for abuse survivors.
Some survivors who are natural writers, who have grown up with stories in our blood, who spent our childhoods daydreaming about worlds inside our heads to distract ourselves, to comfort ourselves...of course we turn to the familiarity of words and stories and fiction to deal with past abuse, in whatever way is most helpful for us. And there's a huge range of expression in that regard.
And I, for one, have found a community here of supportive women (and a few men) who, regardless of whether or not they're survivors themselves, have given me the freedom and safety to express myself. And for that I thank them. The general, calm openness and acceptance of virtually all topics in this fandom, regardless of their acceptance by the mainstream, has been so very, very healing for me whether or not I participate in those forms of art. And just because these wonderful, supportive people read or write or draw fiction that is outside the mainstream, does not in any way, shape or form make them pedophilic.
I am not going to say that pedophilia doesn't exist at all in the Harry Potter fandom. Perhaps it might in some dark corner, just as it might in the Supernatural fandom or the Smallville fandom or, hell, the Jane Austen fandom for all I know. That sort of thing can exist anywhere, I'm all too aware; one of my abusers was a deacon in my childhood church. But the vast, vast, vast majority of those of us out here, those of us writing and drawing what Livejournal has now deemed underage? We're women (who, frankly, are far less likely to be pedophiles than men, studies show), we're at times abuse survivors, and, regardless of whether or not you find underage fic or art moral, ethical or legal, the fact of the matter remains that we're most certainly, most definitely not pedophiles.
If you want to know what an actual profile of a pedophile is, I'd suggest you read A Profile of Pedophilia: Definition, Characteristics of Offenders, Recidivism,Treatment Outcomes, and Forensic Issues by Ryan C.W. Hall, M.D. and Richard C.W. Hall, M.D., PA, published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. In addition, you may want to look at the American Psychological Association's DSM-IV definition of pedophilia.
Like I said above, I'm not arguing here whether or not underage fic or art is legal, moral, ethical, or right. I'm not really even arguing here whether or not it should or shouldn't be written or drawn. I'm just saying that for people to blithely call all Harry Potter underage fanfiction pedophilic is wrong both in definition and in intent and is highly offensive to both sexual abuse survivors and to women who were not sexually abused who would never consider the abuse of a child.
It's just something to think about before you decide to term it such.
Wait. I'm not arguing right now whether or not underage fic or art are legal or whether or not they have literary or artistic merit or whether or not it's right or wrong for such works to exist. I seriously don't have the energy to get into that particular discussion at the moment. But. I'm saying that underage Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart and those who write and draw it are not pedophilic.
Why do I feel I need to say this? I've received more than one very well-meaning comment in more than one place over the past few days from people who are obviously not trolls who make the erroneous statement that Harry Potter fiction is filled with pedophilia, that any student/teacher pairing should be banned and that the journals of those pedophiles who write or draw those pairings should be suspended.
These are comments from people who seem to be truly very nice, very kind people. Who are honestly concerned. Whom I'd probably quite like. Who are entirely misinformed about a) pedophilia and b) Harry Potter fanwork, fanwriters and fanartists.
It's just...please don't call me a pedophile, directly or through implication. Please don't reference my work as being pedophilic.
You see, for me, personally, that is the biggest slap in the face you could ever give me. I'm a sexual abuse survivor. I spent six years of my childhood being molested by two friends of my family. It began when I was six; it ended when I was twelve. I was twenty-three before I ever told anyone. It remains one of the most difficult experiences of my life; it has left more scars on my psyche than you can possibly imagine; it caused me to spend years of my life trying to harm myself in various ways.
I went to therapy for a very long time. But do you know what helped me more than therapy ever did? Fandom. Harry Potter fandom. And writing Harry Potter fiction. I've been told that I address many of the same themes time and time again in my stories, and that's very true. Because for me, writing is the best, healthiest way to work through things in my head. For example, after my father died unexpectedly three years ago, grief and how it's dealt with became a huge part of the stories I write, particularly in regards to the loss of a parental figure. I do not write stories that are outright sexual abuse stories. But my experiences influence my writing. Greatly. And they influence the pairings I've chosen to write about in this fandom, without a doubt.
There's a reason why most of what I write is teacher/student fic, there's a reason why I often tend to write it from the student's (or former student's) point of view, there's a reason why those characters tend to be rather strong-willed, there's a reason why my Snape tends to be reluctant to begin relationships with students when they're underage (or even, on occasion, overage), thre's a reason why most of what I write is R or NC-17, and, yes, I'm quite aware of my reasons for being fascinated by the cross-gen dynamic. Trust me when I say that I've been through enough therapy to be very self-aware in some aspects of my psyche. :)
I have gone out of my way in writing my stories to make certain--whether I write Snape/Draco or I write Snape/Harry--that Draco and/or Harry are above the legal age of consent in Britain: sixteen. The great majority of my fics have them either seventeen (the wizarding age of consent) or older. I've often written them in their 20s and 30s. This is because for me, that's my comfort zone. Much as (again, for me personally) writing non-con is extraordinarily difficult and not really within my personal level of comfort, I can't write the characters younger than British age of consent--which is ironically now underage for Livejournal. Ergo, in further irony, in the eyes of some individuals I must now be a pedophile, yes?
...right. Er. No.
Nor should any other writer or artist of underage fanwork, whether or not they are an abuse survivor, be considered a pedophile.
I have friends on LJ, both those who have been abused as children and those who have not, who have written Harry, Draco, and other students as younger than age of consent in adult/minor fic for numerous quite valid reasons. Either they wanted to explore the psychological/ethical/moral elements of a relationship where the younger character is below the age of consent, or the story of how such a relationship would develop intrigued them--much as it has done for writers and artists throughout literary and art histories (don't make me whip the much-dreaded, much-overused Nabakov et al out on y'all), or, sometimes, they wanted to work through what had happened to them as children.
Because, yes, just as many rape survivors write rape fic to deal with their experiences, many sexual abuse survivors write underage fic for the same reason. Please note, no, not all sexual abuse or rape surivivors choose this method of working through their life experiences, not everyone wishes to, but a goodly number do. So to call the ones who do perverts and/or pedophiles? Whoa. Hi, yeah, not really so cool, you know? Utterly painful for us, in fact, because when that sort of statement is made, our experiences are cheapened, to begin with, and then turned upon us, making us not survivors, but abusers, and just...no.
I'd like to point you to this 2000 study that Duke University conducted.
An excerpt from the news item: A new study at Duke University may help therapists find better ways to treat adult victims of childhood sexual abuse who are dealing with emotions avoided for years following the traumatic experience.
The study, which began enrolling participants last week, aims to learn about both victims' experiences and their methods for coping through a series of writing sessions.
"We're trying to understand the process of coping with difficult emotions related to childhood sexual abuse," explained Elizabeth Krause, a third-year graduate student in psychology working on her doctorate and lead investigator in the study, which is being conducted at the Duke Psychology Clinic. "We're interested in survivors' own words about their trauma-related emotions, as well as in the impact of writing on their recovery."
Every therapist I have had has told me to write about my experiences. Has in fact insisted on it. Nearly every sexual abuse recovery book and workbook suggests writing excercises for abuse survivors.
Some survivors who are natural writers, who have grown up with stories in our blood, who spent our childhoods daydreaming about worlds inside our heads to distract ourselves, to comfort ourselves...of course we turn to the familiarity of words and stories and fiction to deal with past abuse, in whatever way is most helpful for us. And there's a huge range of expression in that regard.
And I, for one, have found a community here of supportive women (and a few men) who, regardless of whether or not they're survivors themselves, have given me the freedom and safety to express myself. And for that I thank them. The general, calm openness and acceptance of virtually all topics in this fandom, regardless of their acceptance by the mainstream, has been so very, very healing for me whether or not I participate in those forms of art. And just because these wonderful, supportive people read or write or draw fiction that is outside the mainstream, does not in any way, shape or form make them pedophilic.
I am not going to say that pedophilia doesn't exist at all in the Harry Potter fandom. Perhaps it might in some dark corner, just as it might in the Supernatural fandom or the Smallville fandom or, hell, the Jane Austen fandom for all I know. That sort of thing can exist anywhere, I'm all too aware; one of my abusers was a deacon in my childhood church. But the vast, vast, vast majority of those of us out here, those of us writing and drawing what Livejournal has now deemed underage? We're women (who, frankly, are far less likely to be pedophiles than men, studies show), we're at times abuse survivors, and, regardless of whether or not you find underage fic or art moral, ethical or legal, the fact of the matter remains that we're most certainly, most definitely not pedophiles.
If you want to know what an actual profile of a pedophile is, I'd suggest you read A Profile of Pedophilia: Definition, Characteristics of Offenders, Recidivism,Treatment Outcomes, and Forensic Issues by Ryan C.W. Hall, M.D. and Richard C.W. Hall, M.D., PA, published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings. In addition, you may want to look at the American Psychological Association's DSM-IV definition of pedophilia.
Like I said above, I'm not arguing here whether or not underage fic or art is legal, moral, ethical, or right. I'm not really even arguing here whether or not it should or shouldn't be written or drawn. I'm just saying that for people to blithely call all Harry Potter underage fanfiction pedophilic is wrong both in definition and in intent and is highly offensive to both sexual abuse survivors and to women who were not sexually abused who would never consider the abuse of a child.
It's just something to think about before you decide to term it such.