"What Harry Potter Fan Fiction Taught Me About Sex
Learning to appreciate my chamber of secrets."

"But what about the nonphysical? Where would I be mentally after that? Would my emotional reaction to it differ at 15 years old? What about 18? Would I want to tell anyone? How would people react if I did tell them? Did I care what my friends thought? Rather than simply being told I shouldn't do it, I sat down and pondered whether or not I would ever actually want to. Writing fan fiction meant reasoning through actions and the resulting emotions in a way my teachers never asked for, even after my supposed spouse killed our egg child."

A funny piece that I related to in parts.

Tags:

fanfic

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

yourlibrarian

Ah, I remember reading this (mostly because of the fate of the soft boiled egg triggering memories of Buffy's "Bad Eggs" episode).

There's been quite a few of these types of articles that have showed up online in the past few years (basically "fanfic was my introduction to/taught me about my sexual self"). But this one does a better job than many of exploring why fanfic can be more useful than the messages teens are getting elsewhere. That's a great quote you picked out.

From:

ahbuggrit

It resonated because while sex ed is often lacking in the physical reality people go through, people don't really talk about the emotional/mental impact it has. Whereas fanfiction, with its focus on characters, allows for the exploration. You don't really see that anywhere else, except for the shaming version of the 'don't have sex!!' education.

From:

full_metal_ox

Another nice thing about fanfiction is that it serves as a sim wherein people can make, in safety, what would be catastrophic sexual and romantic decisions in real life. Whatever threat Edward Cullen, Christian Grey, or Hannibal Lecter might pose to their fellow characters, a reader can put them safely back in the book (or video case, or computer file) when she's had enough of them.

(Also, I don't believe that the perennial genre of Mumbledyteen Me!-By-Proxy x Mumbledlysomething Bishie McStudmuffin really ought to be judged as child porn--particularly if McStudmuffin's [or his actor's] career has been predicated upon being desired. Should Studmuffin decide to respond in kind to his tweeny fan, that's a whole 'nother can of #MeToo.)