TW: Discussion of [Rape] [Beast], your mental well-being is important - if you don’t feel in the right headspace to engage with these topics please skip the whole of this

Edit: originally posted in auralescentbaddies regarding hate against creators of fictional pornographic audio content concerning dog-human beastiality.

Hi there. I’m confident you already have an idea of what and who this is about. I’d like to add some information for those that are interested as well as voice my opinion on how things have played out the past few days.

It’s legitimate to dislike beast, rape, incest, scat, and more content. It’s legitimate to be disgusted and repulsed. It’s legitimate to voice your discontent on wherever something is allowed or forbidden on GWA. It is legitimate to discuss about GWA rules as a community. However it is not legitimate to blatantly insult someone. Demanding for a human being to be put to death over audio content is not okay. Even if it’s exaggeration. That’s the main thing I’d like to say. If you’re not interested in psychological talk you are free to stop reading here.

I’ve seen the phrase “get help” used a lot. But paraphilias are actually not something that can be healed. Mental health professionals can only “treat” affected people by helping them engage with their preferences safely, legally and ethically.

Humans are individuals. Psychology can and will never give a single one reason for aspects of a persons mind. Sexual preferences are not in the realm of control. Asking someone why they get turned on or off by something is like asking why they like or dislike the taste of certain foods. One can not know. Sure, maybe there are some ideas, like formative experiences in adolescence, strategies for processing traumatic incidents or just the linkage to a pleasant person that introduced you to it. Still these are nothing but vague postulations, our psychological knowledge is strongly limited at this point and one right answer fitting everyone is quite impossible.

In short: different people get arousal out of different things. Sexual pleasure is a basic need for the great most of people. Now how and why introduce moral to this? Western democratic societies moral compass has been highly influenced by Kant and his “The freedom of the individual ends where the freedom of others begins.” At this point we need to differentiate between “real” and “fantasy”. A persons thoughts and fantasies are generally not the concern of others. Absolutely everything is allowed in one’s own head. This is something many struggle to grasp. Shouldn’t one try to not think “wrong thoughts”? Modern psychologic knowledge advices against that. Forcing one self to “not think” of something can not work. Moreover trying to do it is likely to cause self-hatred and mental health issues, like depression and obsessive disorders. Many of us may think that someone into things we are disgusted by deserves to hate themselves. But what comes from hate? Contrary to popular belief humans are actually quite bad at hating themselves long-term. We’ll automatically try to resolve cognitive dissonance (this means thoughts, in this case sexual desires and moral beliefs being contradictory, e.g. a person believes it is absolutely wrong to be turned on by beastiality, but they are). From here on affected people need to choose a new way of thinking.
1. Trying to alter their thoughts. As I mentioned before, this does not work! 2. Resigning in self-hatred -> high probability of mental illness and suicidal behavior. Should you, the reader, believe this is the right way to go I beg you to reconsider your personal ethics. 3. Altering their moral beliefs. Option 1: “Beastiality is actually okay.” This right here is a critical point. Such thinking inspires consumption of abuse material (pornography showing actual acts of zoophilia) or the abuse (actual acts of zoophilia) itself. This is something we as a society rightfully do not want. Animals are incapable of consent. We legitimately condone sexual behavior involving animals. This is what we all strive to eradicate. But how to actually achieve that? Option 2: “Beastiality is not okay, but sexual fantasies involving beastiality actually are.” Fantasies are unrestrained. Fantasies do not equal real acts. Fantasies serve a purpose. Fantasies are safe. Fantasies are not abuse. In this incident a fantasy was shared with an audience that couldn’t relate and was repulsed by it. That in itself is completely ok. But it does not make the people engaging in the fantasy bad humans. Harshly shaming won’t ever help anyone, since you cannot shame sexual preferences out of people. Letting others indulge in their fantasies without insulting them also renders Option 2 a lot more attractive for affected people.

However it is logical for an audience that can’t relate to not want to encounter the explicit depictions of such fantasies. The omission filters on GWA are a great way to ensure that. The rule to use unmistakable [Tags] is there for this exact reason. Please make use of them for your own comfort and the community’s sake as a safe place.

If you reached this point you’re actually a champ! Have a few sips of water and a good stretch!

For transparency: I’m using my main account. At the point of posting this I don’t plan to give that account up. I remind you that, I too, am a person with feelings. If you want to insult me please do so, degradation is a kink of mine! (Sarcasm hint: this is a nervous joke, absolutely don’t do that please.)

Lastly I’d like to say that I personally am very much not into beast content, so don’t think of that as my motivation for this. I’d just like to have GWA be the relative safe space I’ve been getting to know it as. Sexuality is a very sensitive aspect of our psyche and mental health is kind of my passion.

Now have a pleasant time zone!