It is often said that pornography and erotic material produces such a view, and as much as I like a lot of pornography and erotic material, I have to agree. There is someone who I met on IRC who goes by the name of NovaYoshi who somehow got into the furry fandom as a teenager and seems to have acquired more fetishes then I probably care to list. His stories would probably horrify a majority of people with there utter perverseness (or bore them with their nerdyness, he is also heavily into programing for old systems in ASM). The thing is though, none of these fetishes, as perverse as they may be are actually really that wrong, but the thing that worried me at first was how he would tend to force people on IRC into things.
Even though it's fantasy, the fact that a good deal of erotic material invoves some sort of force or even all out rape is too wide spread to ignore. On the whole, for a lot of people it's harmless and just a fantasy, but I because of how people are exposed to it and how very little is done to prepare children for it, a lot of young people don't really see the ethical implications of it. Bondage for example, and master/slave play is everywhere on the net, even in sites like Gaia Online, which is intended more for teens. And once again, in a normal situation, this would be fine, but when someone young is exposed to it before any type of grounded ethical ideas, it becomes something more sinister.
I have noticed however, a lot of people will realize the implications if they are pointed out. For example, I used to use Jiggles in RPs a lot, but when involved in a questionable situation, she will explain in simple moral and ethical terms what exactly she thinks is wrong. A bit Anvilicious perhaps, but Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped. The problem is, a lot of the erotic stories out there ignore any ethics or moral implications of things. After all, this is fantasy right? And that's all fine and good, but people without a good moral or ethical framework simply get ideas form these stories and run with them, usually not stopping to think about right and wrong. The same may be said with violence in the media: It's not that violence exists, it's that young people who encounter it are not introduced properly to it's downside. At least in violence, some people are willing to address this issue, with sex however, everything is hidden, put in dark little rooms and secret corners, and when young people find it they have no experience to go on because everything has focused on hiding it away from sight.
I brought up some old erotic Anne Rice novels to illustrate that point. I never read them, I just saw a review on them online so I was slightly surprised when the woman I was talking too actually sort of defended them saying they were about teaching the royalty and rulers of a society discipline and self-control, and sex was just a method. So it is some sort of point I guess, but I don't think it's a very good one. So to that statement, I thought I would give what Jiggles' response to that would be:
"It may be true that leaders should have self-control, but it is wrong to force people this way! You can't just punish a person and force them to see everyone as an equal, even if you succeed it hurts people and makes them like slaves. It may give them self-control, but I think in the process it hurts the thing that makes them unique and their self-respect. That's not real equality! I think people can get along and learn control themselves if they are motivated to, and that's why friendship and love are important. Isn't it better to have people want to come together because they respect each other rather then because they don't respect themselves? I know people can be selfish and they have their disagreements, but I believe people can work together beyond that if they try! I don't know much about royalty and leadership, but I think the best leader is the one who loves and stands by people because they truly care, not someone who is forced to repress everything and is molded into a leader through discipline."
Yeah, I know, she is a bit of a love-freak, but hey, she is based on an anime cliché. :P
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