14 year olds shipping discourse is inbreeding with itself to make the discourse equivalent of a brachycephalic bulldog at this point. They’re inventing new extremely vague moral purity categories at a rate nearly equivalent to the Mormon church
* For the record btw a paraphilia by definition is just any sexual desire classed as “unusual” by the dsm, which can include anything from apparently getting horny about imagining yourself as a vampire (?) to being attracted to fictional characters, to being attracted to trans people. It’s not an issue unless it has the capacity to cause real harm to yourself or others, at which point it becomes a paraphilic disorder
It is indeed literally just a form of OCD!! I used to have these kinds of thoughts where I’d read a fic and immediately after have long depression spirals thinking that I would be arrested and everyone would hate me for being a terrible person! Now I am on medication! Please seek help if you’re a teenager and deep into this way of thinking for real
It’s very important not to underestimate concerning behavior and thought processes just because it’s presenting itself in fandom discourse. Fandom/shipping continues to be looked at as a lesser hobby, something unserious, and therefore not worth worrying about. I believe that line of thinking is exactly why it’s gotten as bad as it is, at least in part.
People have been pointing out fandoms rapid decline into an obsessive (and often times destructive) purity cult for years, but it was repeatedly dismissed - because fandom is seen as petty, childish, or inconsequential. It underplays entirely how, to a lot of these younger people, fandom isa huge part of their life. It’s their main form of entertainment or socialization. Their line of thinking doesn’t cease to exist the moment they log off. It bleeds into other things. Being hyperaware and paranoid about what you like in fiction, because it’s a 1:1 reflection of your morality, doesn’t seem healthy in the slightest. It’s no surprise that it’s common to see these same people also having a moral panic about a 4 year age difference in real life.
Yes, fandom is fringe culture, though not as much as it used to be. At it’s core it will still be a bizzaro level of passion for fictional characters. It’s inherently goofy, and it’s very easy to shrug off obsessive levels of puritanism in a large portion of youth when its about cartoon characters. But, however fringe fandom is, it’s still a part of our culture. These are still real people thinking and behaving this way, even if it’s over fictional characters. It’s not something we can take lightly, especially not nowadays.
