Loyal Vassal · 1d
Hey I have a question! What do you think of ppl who claim they were made susceptible to grooming due to consuming age gap fiction young? Like I have this really distinct memory from back in the day (before proship discourse was a thing!) of seeing someone say their consumption of sebaciel made them seek out older men and romanticize relationships with them as a 14 yo…I read this post when I was 12, and I thought, ‘are you dumb?’ A bit mean of my young self at the time, but the question remains: what sort of effect does this thing have? It definitely happens sometimes, but I’d guess it’s pretty rare and maybe depends on other factors…but that makes me wonder how this stuff plays out overseas where there’s so much high schooler x working adult shoujo? I realize those manga are usually pure fantasy material where the older partner doesn’t try to get with the protag before they’re an adult, but still…
I mean, the first thing I'd think is they were probably too young to be reading such things lol...tbh, when people say that my first thought is I'm sorry that they probably didn't have better support or education in their lives to help them relate to fiction healthily, and know what makes up healthy relationships irl. It also reflect sadly a failure of the structure around them and adults around them to prevent grooming.
Honestly tho I think it's natural for teens and young ppl to fall in love with and have crushes on older people, and so it makes sense that fantasy-material will often include fulfilment of those fantasies. Idk we'd have to look at statistics to see what's more common to pop up where and in what genre, but I feel like that probably reflects both that fantasy-desire, as well as probably dynamics from real life (especially older works where young women often marry men who serve as more "mentor" figures first). It can be problematic but i would say the trope follows the reality more than vice versa
