tarajenkins

"You know, something that gets me every time I see it: the feminist bashing within the MLP fandom, particularly the splendid gents that crawled from under the rocks in this entire Down With Molestia awareness campaign.

Fucking feminists, you said. Feminazis, you spat. 

Lauren Faust is a feminist. The one whose coattails you're riding is proudly what you shit on every time someone dares rain on your dudebro parade.

Lauren Faust is a feminist, and feminist ideals are what made generation 4 everything you love. 

But you guys don't want to consider that. Maybe she isn't a feminist now, I saw one poor soul try to reason. It seems to be too much for your sweaty little minds to wrap around, that feminist ideals can lead to something so wonderful. You find rape porn and underage horse porn is so much more rewarding. You think racism is cool. You think homophobia and transphobia are neat. It seems like it's easier for you to delude yourselves into thinking somehow, Lauren doesn't mind that not even her own OC is safe from your lack of self-control. Or when she is, you fucking turned it into a dudebro pity party of being oppressed because you made porn of her personal OC and expected her to be okeydoke with it. Or worse, someone said she should take it as a compliment.

Rape culture is about the mens problems, one of you said. Everyone takes rape seriously, said another. That's why rape makes such a good threat for you to make anonymously, amirite?

Lauren Faust is a feminist. She would be, and has been, disgusted by those of you who took what she worked hard to fight against and twisted it into a gross sexual power trip anyway. 

It isn't all of you. The bronies who actually live up to the ideals of the show are the ones she praises. The good folks we met at Bronycon are the ones she praises. Not you Internet tough guys, who abuse the shit out of a 17-year old rape survivor. You're everything wrong with this fandom and humanity in general. You're the ones that give us a bad name, and I am sick of seeing the fandom sweep you under the rug when you act out. It's time you got unilaterally called the scumstains you are.

Be a REAL tough guy. Tell the creator of your obsession you stalked and drew rape porn to bully a 17-year-old girl into silence. Tell Nicole Oliver you stalked and drew rape porn of a 17-year-old girl to show her the Molestia meme is all about freedom of speech, not a good measuring stick as to what a cesspool of the species you are. Go on, I dare you. Stand up for your vaunted ideals, both of THEM spoke against it too, you know. Go on. You just don't want to hear it, because they would have the same reaction as the rest of the decent side of this fandom. 

They would call you fucking sick.

By the way, how's the social work going for you guys who tried to discredit her because you said she did none? Have you donated to RAINN yet? 

….guys?"

Now. I am saddened that someone thought to call Pixelkitties a "rape apologist" instead of actually debating, however, I disagree that online activism has little merit. Online activism is still someone behind that keyboard giving a damn to speak out and try to change minds, minds that in real life have those same harmful attitudes. Online activism is the bed where the seeds of real-life activism can be sown. It could be the place some people feel safer speaking. There are any number of reasons, but it boils down to someone still cares to set something bad aside and say hey, this is bad, instead of being afraid to break the silence that too often keeps abusers safe and secure in their position, that silence that gives acceptance to more and more open abuse. You saw it at work in Steubenville, where even now, the focus is not "don't rape", but rather, "don't get caught". Or "those young men have lost their futures". Y'know. I mean, I know some of the dudebros claimed rape culture is not real, but it kiiiiiinda seems it is. Steubenville is just ONE example that this crime is not taken seriously. It's easy to find many other examples.

The internet is not a vacuum. We are the same people online and off. If anything, the internet is a distillation of our true natures.

And if the Molestia meme, which was around long before John Joseco, wasn't bad enough, the reactions of some of its defenders positively scream that yes, there is something wrong in our fandom, and yes, it almost seems that trivializing rape makes people think it's okay to throw it around as a show of FORCE to SILENCE A MINOR.

I've seen George Carlin brought up a lot as a defense of the Ask Princess Molestia blog. But like this article details jezebel.com/5925186/how-to-mak… , there is a very big difference. His tone was against the perpetrator. Ask Princess Molestia would have you see her as this sexy, desirable thing. That is the difference between positively reinforcing the victim of a crime or exploiting them. I was deeply disappointed and disturbed by John Joseco's irresponsible "answer" to the legitimate concerns at the core of Down With Molestia, which was to make fun of those voicing them, inciting more of the "dudebros" Ian detailed in his post. It smacked of Tosh 2.0. I knew that con management would be responsible in limiting access to Molestia based works without a petition, but I honestly thought the creator would recognize the problematic content and address it thoughtfully. Hell, even Family Guy knew Quagmire was not a foundation for real entertainment.

This wasn't even the first time I've seen this attitude at work in the MLP Tumblr community. Both myself and have been subjected to threats of harm for daring to speak out on the subject, or been taunted. "RAPE RAPE RAPE! You're such a sissy. Grow up.", one anon said back then. Requests for Chrysalis to be raped or be a rapist in the askbox of Cupidite led to me closing off anonymous asks.

These people, who drew rape porn of a minor's OC in an attempt to bully her, are calling their Sarkeesian-esque cyber mob tactics a "win".

Do NOT let them call that kind of behavior a win. My Little Pony should be the LAST place a survivor feels unsafe. The Down With Molestia movement was disorganized, largely unplanned, but the core message is solid. Surivivors are not a punchline, or something to fetishize. Do not let that behavior and that vocal minority define our fandom when we can speak out that we will "love and tolerate" the right things. Our silence is their strength. It's time to make our voices the strongest of all.