Not being comfortable with transgressive art is fine, but it's another thing to censor people and deem them "degenerates" just because their art makes you uncomfortable.

Antis are prone to using the same language used by alt-right/fascist groups, such as "degenerate" and "degeneracy", to label proshippers, calling for them and their art to be "exterminated".

Deeming people to be "porn addicts", "porn brained" or "perverts" is also commonly done by antis to shut down anyone willing to discuss sexual topics with them in any nuanced matter. These terms are also frequently used by anti-porn "activists" and TERF/"gender-critical" groups, which are known for pedalling fascist rhetoric.

Check out Fujoshi.info's Anti-Fan and Anti-Fujoshi galleries to see instances of this.

This mirrors the kind of rhetoric that was used constantly by anti-violent video game activists during the 80's, 90's and 2000's in an attempt to censor videogames, such as GTA, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Call of Duty, Postal, etc, but there is little to no real evidence that suggests this is actually true.

Antis usually use this argument to justify censorship of sexual content they deem "immoral" (eg: sexual dead dove fics), but almost never use it against violent media such as horror films or M-rated games (that many of them are actually fans of).

The idea that depicting/engaging with dark things will cause the viewer to seek said things out is also reflected in the Hays Code, which was used from the 1930's to late 1960's to heavily censor most Hollywood movies of the time and dictate how they were made. It censored depictions of many things taken for granted in modern movies today, such as nudity, sex, violence, profanity, queer and interracial relationships and any criticism or satire of religion.

"No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin." - a principle of the Hays Code.

Fictional characters are not real people. They cannot experience pain, trauma or fear like a real, living person can. Being uncomfortable with art depicting certain characters in certain situations is fine, but prioritizing the "well-being" of a cartoon character over that of real people leads to the crimes of real abusers going unnoticed.

Take the creator of Mighty Magiswords, Kyle A. Carrozza, for example. He openly advocated against lolisho art and even got an animator (Ang Vondra) blacklisted from the animation industry for drawing shotacon on a private alt. However, he was arrested in 2024 for the possession of real CSAM.

It's also very ironic that antis say this, as many of them like to turn IRL sex crimes into petty jokes and insults. Take insults such as "Diddy", "Epstein" and "Epstein Island" for example, which are commonly used by antis to insult lolicons, shotacons and those who defend/respect them (Instances of this can be seen in the Fujoshi.info Anti-Fan gallery).

This reasoning is similar to that used to justify banning books as well as school curriculums designed to properly educate children about themselves and the world around them (eg: LGBTQ+ inclusive education, comprehensive age-appropriate sex education, critical race theory).

The thing is, though, is that much like banning books or certain school curriculums, banning proshippers and their art does nothing to actually protect kids or abuse victims. The same resources which could be used to educate younger people on consent and internet safety would be wasted on censorship instead.

This argument also ignores the fact that women, including SA/CSA survivors and queer folks, often create transgressive art, such as horror and erotic stories. Take Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden for instance, which is a 1975 compilation of sexual fantasies anonymously submitted by women. These fantasies often involve darker themes such as rape, prostitution, abduction, beastiality and experiments carried out by Nazis.

By following this argument's logic, women, abuse survivors and queer folks are infantilized and demonised simultaneously. They are framed as being too illiterate to understand fiction from reality, as well as supposely contributing to their abuse and discrimination.

A common misconception held by many is that the "pro" in proship stands for "problematic", leading to the widespread assumption that all proshippers like "problematic"/disturbing content, but that's not true.

Just because someone is a proshipper, doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be comfortable with every single dark trope in fiction. There are many proshippers uncomfortable with depictions of gore, non-con, incest, lolisho, etc and that is totally fine!

You don't need to like dark/transgressive art to be a proshipper! The "pro" means "in favor/in support of", not problematic. In other words, just "Ship and Let Ship" and don't harass others just because they like fiction you might not like.

Perhaps if these "normal people" didn't harass others, send death threats, make false predator accusations over drawings, water down the severity of said accusations or spread fascist rhetoric calling for the censorship of transgressive art, then maybe more proshippers would be comfortable being honest with them.

You'd also be very surprised by the amount of antis who have secret proship accounts or kinks that may be considered problematic by other antis.