I think I need to stop reading slash

[irrelevant]

I'm not saying male child prostitution doesn't happen, because it does, too often. But just like not all street kids -- male, female, both or neither -- are junkies and/or dealers, not all of them are prostitutes.

I lived under the radar between the ages of fifteen and sixteen. I was a runaway. I had a place to go back to, in theory, but at the time, going back seemed worse than always moving, not being sure where or if I was going to sleep from one night to the next, not being sure if I was going to eat.

Sometimes I flopped with kids who worked the stroll, a few guys, mostly girls.

There was nothing edgy or attractive or fascinating about any of it. It was survival. Some kids did it. A lot of the ones who did, did it because they were on something they wanted to keep taking, but not always. It wasn't a universal thing.

Street kids are a mixed bag, like every other group. They are where they are for a lot of different reasons; mostly you don't ask. You take what somebody else feels like sharing -- which isn't much -- and you let the rest lie. Most of the time, knowing doesn't make any difference. You're usually too busy trying to keep yourself going to be curious, anyway.

Some people are willing to do some things. Others aren't. You don't think too hard about it. You don't pass judgment.

I don't have a problem with someone doing what they have to do to survive, or someone else writing about them doing it.

I have a problem with every street kid, fictional or non, being shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all mold of perception. I have a problem with writers willing to use a purely theoretical history of prostitution as a romantic plot point or an excuse to make their porn/pairing fic edgier.

I don't like what it says about the perceptions of slashers in general that so many of them seem to have this equation in their heads: cute male street kid = prostitute = wow, what a great way to up the angst/hotness factor of my fic!

And before you ask, yeah, I think Pretty Woman is one of the most appalling, tasteless movies ever made.

Underage prostitution happens, and it sucks. It sucks a lot. Writing about it realistically serves a purpose, because people sometimes need to be smacked upside the head with the shitty side of reality. But if you're using the gritty places in someone's background as an excuse to write porn, I will always think you're doing it wrong. And if you automatically assume that of course Jason Todd and Duo Maxwell are former child prostitutes, we're probably not going to get along real well.

Seriously, it's almost as off-putting as Frank Miller's unfortunately characteristic bastardization (she is slinky and hot and I think about her when I masturbate THEREFORE SHE MUST BE A WHORE) of Selina Kyle's backstory. And that's pretty fucking off-putting.

Comments

[kaigou]

But if you're using the gritty places in someone's background as an excuse to write porn, I will always think you're doing it wrong.

You mispelled, "...I will know for a fact you're doing it wrong." Glad to help!

[irrelevant]

Dear me, how on earth did I miss that one? Forget my head if it wasn't attached, tsk-tsk. *grin*

[gloss]

BRAVO. YOU ARE AWESOME FOR THIS.

But if you're using the gritty places in someone's background as an excuse to write porn, I will always think you're doing it wrong.
It's the combination of automatic assumption + fetishization/sexualization of prostitution that really puts me off. Talk about exploitation.

[irrelevant]

I think It's mah kink, don't judge! and I'm exploring this terribly sensitive issue via porn FOR GREAT JUSTICE have become get out of jail free cards in fandom. People pay lip service in their ANs to how horrible the reality of what they're writing about is, but this is just fantasy, oh I'm so naughty, and omg, hot!

I'd get crucified by fandom in general for saying this, but I think fantasy isn't always safe or harmless. I think there are things cluttering up the nasty corners of our hindbrains that we need to bring out into the open and look at, and decide if maybe they don't need to be examined and dealt with and possibly rejected.

The same way bigotry, prejudice and ignorance need to be rejected.

Sorry, man, I'm way too sensitive about this kind of thing. Sometimes I wish I could just shut down my brain and enjoy fandom the way so many people seem to, but... not happening.

[gloss]

I'd get crucified by fandom in general for saying this, but I think fantasy isn't always safe or harmless. I think there are things cluttering up the nasty corners of our hindbrains that we need to bring out into the open and look at, and decide if maybe they don't need to be examined and dealt with and possibly rejected.
I agree entirely. I mean, I all but LEFT fandom (or, well, LJ) for almost three years because I felt this way and couldn't take it any longer. Fantasy is -- I don't know what it *is*, but if it's just in (general you) your head, then it doesn't affect me. But if you write it and publish and distribute it? It's no longer fantasy, at least not in the same way. It's a text and a speech act, and it can have consequences and impact.

Oddly (or not so, really), Jason Todd was near the center of what drove me away from LJ, too. I think he's a lightning rod for so many issues - particularly class and underaged sexuality - that it kind of stands to reason. I hate that he's used like this; it just recapitulates what canon has done to him again and again, as well as what society does to kids like him. (Poor, marginalized, etc. Not undead revenants.)

Sorry, man, I'm way too sensitive about this kind of thing.
You don't have to apologize - not in your own journal and definitely not to me. I don't think you're oversensitive at all; I think fandom in general is a space for self-pleasure and the that criterion all too often drowns out every single other consideration. That you're *not* ignoring other criteria is a good and admirable thing.