A Big Pet Peeve of Mine

Okay, so this is basically just going to be me ranting here. Just a fair warning. Also a little NSFW.

Okay, so a few of you may know that there was a classic cartoon x MLP crossover contest going on. I don’t know if it’s over, but I do know that it has happened. I know someone who entered it, and I glanced through the ruleset. It seems like an interesting concept, one that has interestingly not been tried much, and I think it’d be fun to participate in.

I didn’t write for it.

Aside from the fact that I don’t particularly participate in contests (I want to write stories on my own terms), and don’t know many classic cartoons, a quick glance through the ruleset revealed to me something I got really ticked off about, driving me away from it even more.

It states that the stories have to be E or T, fetish free, normal stuff. However, when the rules clarify that there’s a few fetishes that can be done if lightly, such as stating, “You can trust that if it’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon, there’s going to be some crossdressing.”

And—

Just. No.

Stating the entirety of crossdressing is a fetish is tone-deaf at best and offensive at worst. It can be yes, but you know what can also be a fetish? Literally anything. You think that portraying someone walking in sandals is a fetish because foot fetishes exist? You probably don’t, because not everyone has a foot fetish.

To clarify, I have no problem with the tag on clop stories, I’m not gonna play White Knight there, because as I said, it can be a fetish. People can be into it, but that’s more or less declaring that this particular form of crossdressing is a fetish, and that’s fine.

However, saying that an innocuous boy in a dress in a story clearly not meant to be for adults is catering to people with a crossdressing fetish (which is being done at the US state level right now, mind you) is completely missing the point.

People often crossdress to express themselves, to defy gender expectations, and sometimes they do it simply because they think it’s fun. They don’t put a dress on because it turns them on most of the time. I shouldn’t have to get kicked from school because I’m wearing a skirt because it’s “NSFW” (me being a trans girl is not the point here, Indiana has already made it very clear what their opinion on that is, and that’s a completely different can of worms), that in itself is literally a violation of the freedom to express ourselves. Sometimes guys just want to wear skirts.

So, calling the entirety of crossdressing a fetish may make these guys feel inferior, like nobody accepts them. I don’t know, I don’t speak for these people, but I’d assume that being told that your daily clothing of choice is NSFW would make anyone feel down.

So, don’t call the entirety of crossdressing a fetish. It isn’t. And it really pisses me off.

And until next time; don’t do that shit.
-Dashie