Creating in a Moral Panic

A toast to my fellow creative degenerates and "groomers".

“But by saying (Art) is problematic you are saying that it constitutes or presents a problem, to which my first instinct is to reply: I hope so.

Art is the realm of the problem.” - Jen Silverman, Art and Its (Im)Morality

People respond strangely and strongly to Art.

There’s the historical examples of artistic censorship of works lucky to be featured in galleries with the validity to go with it. Piss Christ, Rothko’s work being defaced, Mapplethorpe’s queer and kink work being called child pornography, Tom of Finland’s lengthy history of having his uniformed Leathermen censored when being gay behind closed doors — much less publically — was illegal.

We can also point to the old and recent book bans of queer and minority creatives from schools, activitst art being defaced, likewise political-comic work ceaslessly being censored from regimes.

And yet — this discussion is rarely (if ever) focused on the censorship and art posted by furries and fan-creators of video games, anime, or other series who want to see their favorites in sexually compromising situations with the characters and artists both frequently being queer. Kink artists who put enormous love in their original characters and kinks, grew up on deviantART and are left homeless by the shifting sands of deplatforming and doxxing, death threats, and harassment campaigns. Hobbyist and professional illustrators and fanfic writers alike with a powerful need to create splattergore, naziexploitation, eroguro, and horror that veers into achingly human and messy themes intertwined with catharsis. Throw in indie game creators here, too.

Why talk about art censorship of something seemingly so niche and “low brow”?

As one of these creators, I am extraordinarily tired of seeing no space for controversial art, despite some platforms claiming to welcome all "content creators" with open arms as long as it increases their monthly engagement or doesn’t dare ruffle the feathers of Paypal or the advertisers.

(As sex workers and controversial creators know intimately well, it always goes back to the payment processors.)

I am so fucking tired of seeing weekly harassment campaigns with a brutal amount of doxxing and death threats against my fellow creatives and friends who draw fictional incest, underaged characters, non-consensual sexual work when the very same topics are allowed in Pulitzer-prize winning books and Golden Globe winning movies bankrolled by enough money to live comfortably. I am done with seeing the hypocrisy of the mass-media accepted works who never have to worry about being kicked out from stable housing and employment for the sin of Art.

There has never been a utopia of no artistic censorship.

And yet, I know without a shadow of a doubt we are surely in a moral panic now — one that crosses over traditional political parties and cultures.

I grew up as a religious fundamentalist; this playbook’s patently obvious and has been done before. This is my answer in return.

This substack is here to highlight the individuals — frequently queer, multiracial, disabled — behind these works of art that are frequently controversial, that are often targeted with harassment campaigns or silently deplatformed from social media sites. Let's let them have the floor for a change and have an earnest conversation of what their art means to them, what it means to us as the viewer and as society as a whole, and the why - why do they risk everything for their art?

Harassment campaigns often artificially tilt the dynamics of power against creatives in brutally cruel ways; like invisible prisons, they are designed to create isolation, guilt, shame, societal pressure to repent of one’s percieved “sins” despite no physical actions of violence. Put bluntly, harassment campaigns are designed to fuck with the head, and drag our fellow humans down to the ground to be trampled on — and we can change that with good-faith visiblity, nuance, and the freedom to speak and create.

It is my greatest wish to push back at the senselessness of this moral panic, especially in some little way that gives agency back to creatives. I don’t expect perfect agreement — in fact, I hope for healthy disagreement and discussion — as at the end of the day, this is how we open minds.

Thank you for reading.

- krad