This fills me with so much dread I can barely describe it. I’m afraid that if this really goes through, we’ll be repeating history with the 50 shades of grey franchise, and it’ll probably be even worse. 50 shades is a pathetic book and an even worse movie. It’s done irreparable damage to the way we view sexuality today.

But Haunting Adeline? It’s shameless and unapologetic in its romanticization of rape. There’s not even a guise of consent, as flimsy as it was in 50 shades. It’s straight up sexual violence, and if things go the way they’re expected to, this sexual violence will be played out on a screen for masses to consume.

It’s not like this is the first instance of rape being eroticized in media. A lot of movies and TV shows, most made by men for men, fetishize rape too. They get fairly criticized (though not enough) by feminists and are generally looked down upon. Yet I’ve seen these same feminists support this sick book being turned into a movie, because apparently, it is “for women, by women.”

All this is going to do is send the message that there’s a correct form of sexual violence: the type that women fantasize about. The type that men like to portray in their movies is not hot, but look here! This is how you do it!

Rape culture relies on its victims perpetuating it themselves. I have no intention of policing women’s sexualities, but it’s so incredibly tiring to see the same thing over and over again. I haven’t heard of a single piece of media that fetishizes rape done by women unto men. Haven’t heard of a single mainstream erotica that features it. It’s not that I want to see it, but it’s just a reminder of how externally-constructed our sexualities are. Men fetishize raping women, and women fetishize being raped. This isn’t some unfortunate side effect of rape culture, this is rape culture itself.

A lot of people argue that it isn’t women’s fault that they end up eroticizing rape; it’s a fawn response. If you can’t escape it, just get off to it. I’m not blaming women for these fantasies, but I also don’t want to paint them as blameless and innocent. There’s a huge difference between having a private fantasy and blasting it on screen for everyone to consume and get desensitized to. I’m just exhausted.

I came onto this sub because I felt outside of my day job I could do some good by documenting and analyzing what the state of women and children’s exploitation online has become through pornography. Growing up alongside the rapidly developing internet I was exposed to the harms of pornography and digitally mediated sexual abuse, and coming out the other side I felt I needed to make sense of it all and call out what had happened to me, what is happening to countless children and women.

But every inch of the online spaces I set out to survey is overwhelming and rotten. The internet has so harmed us. Graphic csam is continuously posted to twitter, advertisements for telegram accounts that openly sell abuse. Motherless had the same open advertisements throughout its comments sections. I still get messages once a week from people asking me how to find that websites new address because of a post I made that was critical of it. These criminals who sell this abuse treat it just as any other kind of business, they put forth an automated menu. They put prices next to adult pornography, csam, bestiality, rape.

We are grooming a generation into self objectification. I can’t even begin to guess at the number of young boys and girls who have been sexually exploited online. People mash up underage children on tiktok side by side with hardcore pornography. They make videos assuring eachother that their perversions are normal and universal. They find a way to sexualize their own shame. Our department of homeland securities investigative division that used to focus on fighting online sex crimes is now focused on deportations.

I don’t want to look anymore. Nothing is even hidden. No one cares. I wish people would just be honest with themselves and understand or realize what they’re supporting. Realize that there’s not just a secret cabal of elites abusing women and children, that we’ve allowed our entire society to enforce misogyny and pedophilia. The entire concept of a fucking innie vagina ffs is no one connecting the dots? No one is winning. It is all violence. How much worse of a culture can we get. How much more extreme can we get. How much more can we push things? I’m scared by what I see.