What is “Pro-Fiction” and why am I Seeing it on Twitter?

Disclaimer: Examples of creators being pushed to self-harm and suicide are linked below. These are disturbing, frightening, and disgusting events that, in some cases, have ruined the lives or careers of the creators mentioned.

This article covers what Pro-Fiction means, as well as why the movement arose. That means we're talking about "Antis," the alt-right, QAnon, moral panic/the Satanic Panic, and similar groups.

Some creators do not want to be contacted about what happened to them, and we intend to respect that. Thus, No Gold Here will not be contacting those harmed for statements, and will instead use statements already given by these creators. We will also be linking more resources if you'd like to learn more about this phenomenon, including prominent members of queer and fandom communities (which overlap a great deal) who talk more on the topic, archive events, or discuss the legality of art and censorship as a whole.

Content Warnings: Suicide Baiting, Attempted Suicide, Self-Harm, Harassment/Bullying ("Cyber" Bullying), Right-Wing & NeoNazi Behaviors/Ideology, Censorship of Queer Creators, Ableism, Queerphobia/Transphobia/Homophobia, Violent Threats Against Others

EXTRA WARNING: Some of the links to videos and articles discuss disturbing events in detail, including an incident where a minor was doxxed and found by the man who prostituted her on a website on the dark web.

In recent years, moral panic has gripped the hearts and minds of younger generations, resulting in some disturbingly right-wing ideals being pushed into queer, art, literary, and fandom spaces. These ideals have included censorship of certain topics, the de-platforming of those who create or enjoy those topics, and many harassment campaigns that have landed many people (some minors) in the hospital. Similarly, two queer, disabled people had their careers and income destroyed by this moral crusade.

Because of these and many other incidents, a subculture has cropped up specifically to advocate against this sort of behavior. This subculture has been called a number of things, including "Pro-Ship," "Pro-Kink," and "Pro-Fiction."

Unfortunately, before we can accurately define what "Pro-Ficiton" is, we have to explain why the movement arose. This brings us to the modern age of fandom and conservatism, the "Anti," "Anti-Shipper," or, in their words, the "sane and reasonable people who are just against incest and pedophiles."

The entire movement rings similar to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, with the general assumption that all fictional content that does not portray their preferred moral compass will "normalize" criminal behaviors and give predators (they often use "pedophile" interchangeably with this word) a "safe space" to harm children. Much of their argument involves rhetoric akin to "video games cause violence" and the idea that you are "normalizing" a dangerous behavior or criminal act simply by consuming media which portrays this content. The talking point are eerily similar to Q-Anon "pedophile ring" accusations and buzzwords, as well as other anti-queer conservative actions such as book burning.

They are vehemently against things like art therapy, frequently accusing survivors of "re-traumatizing" themselves or, worse, harassing said creators under the premise that the will become like their abuser(s) because of the content they produce. "Antis" are known for their pension to send death and rape threats, real life images of gore (human and animal), and doxxing: the act of finding and revealing someone's personal information in order to cause harm to them outside of their social media (such as contacting their parents, jobs, sending pizzas or other foods, SWATTING, and similar acts. Doxxing someone can also be used as blackmail).

"Antis" have doxxed minors between the ages of thirteen (13) and seventeen (17), harassed eighteen-year-olds (18) for dating their seventeen-year-old (17) classmates, called for lobotomies to be brought back, claimed content creators deserved "the electric chair" for drawings and fanfiction, gotten queer and disabled minorities blacklisted from industries, accused trans women of being pedophiles and running them off nearly every website where they were selling their works, and, most famously, hospitalized at least three content creators due to their vicious harassment.

While "Antis" pervade mostly fandom spaces, they do, paradoxically, enjoy a great deal of "problematic" content. They are just as likely to vehemently denounce a series, show, or book for being "problematic" as they are to claim they are "consuming that media correctly" (we have not been able to find a unified or even vague statement as to what that means, exactly). Some of the media fandoms "Antis" are most prevalent in are as follows:

Steven Universe
Undertale / Deltarune
Homestuck / Hiveswap / Friendsim
Hannibal
Animal Crossing
Boku no Hero Academia / My Hero Academia / BNHA
Kimetsu no Yaiba / Demon Slayer
Genshin Impact
The Warriors Series by Erin Hunter
Wings of Fire by Tui T. Suterland
Gravity Falls
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Voltron: Legendary Defender
Amphibia
South Park (yes, really)
Cookie Run
Disney's "Encanto"

Similarly, some of the media they most often (but not always, as the "movement" varies so widely) denounce are:

Boyfriend Dungeon
Beastars
Killing Stalking
Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (yes, it's on both lists)

Now that we have a better understanding of "Antis" (somewhat), we can move onto the meat of this discussion: "Pro-Fiction."

"Pro-Fiction" is a term used to describe someone who does not care what kind of fictional content a person writes, draws, roleplays, or creates. A person who is Pro-Fiction will quietly block or mute any content that makes them uncomfortable, rather than going on harassment campaigns, trying to de-platform the creator(s) of said content, or trying to dox people for enjoying a certain kind of content.

This, of course, is not necessarily the absolute: people are people, and Twitter, like most social media today, thrives on outrage. Humans are (surprise!) human, and not all who choose to go under a certain moniker are going to follow it religiously.

There have been several "emoji codes" and terms being thrown around (mostly, but not exclusively, in fandom spaces) these days, most of which have cropped up circa 2016 as indicators for other people viewing the creator's page. Some of these codes have been misconstrued as "pedophiles" trying to "signal" to one another that they are "safe." This, however, is not the case.

Some of the "emoji codes" that have been dubbed "pedophilic indicators" are as follows:

🌈🍖

🍐

🗡️🕊️ or 🌷🕊️ (?)

The first, dubbed "rainbow meaties" by fans, was originally indicative of the Hannibal fandom, and more specifically, shippers of Hannibal and Will. The icons are meant to describe "gay cannibal(s)", or a similar sentiment. It was later adopted by many other Pro-Fiction people (also sometimes called "Pro-Shippers") to help identify themselves as "safe" from the Anti mindset.

Here is a great definition of the "rainbow meaty" emoji code, written by Elmatador369 on Urban Dictionary:

The second was a similarly-clever indicator denoting the term "P.E.A.R." which originally meant "Pro-Expression, Anti-Repression." The term had misinformation spread about it much more quickly than the "rainbow meaty" emoji code, specifically because it did not actively exclude MAPs (Minor Attracted Persons), as it would go against their core statement. It did not, however, advocate for pro-contact or offending MAPs, like many Antis claimed.

Unfortunately, the term garnered such vitriol that the original Tweet discussing its meaning has since been deleted. Many people were approached by other random Twitter users who had a pear in their bio (regardless of the context) asking if that person was a pedophile, as if that is a completely normal, sane thing to ask.

The final indicator, which had very little traction, was a reactionary movement when a user who identified themselves as "Pro-Ship" gave their "hot take" about whether or not a furry artist should be harassed for a commission wherein the furry was wearing a Confederate flag bikini. The ensuing chaos got out of hand quickly, with the only causalities on either side being the movement itself and the PoC who either agreed or disagreed with the original opinion.

This was the website detailing the movement, but it has since been abandoned. As it turns out, changing around the labels doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Similarly, the movement also became plagued by alt-right thinking and censorship, creating its own unique cluster of issues. Much of this movement gave off white savior vibes and was generally regarded as uncomfortable by the other mentioned emoji-groups. Unfortunately, as the information about it has been deleted, we cannot provide further details at this time.

Needless to say, "Pro-Fiction" circles are not universal, and similar to "Anti" circles, they all have their own ideals and preferences. The "unifying force" of people under the "Pro-Fiction" banner is that they are against the harassment of artists, writers, casual fans, and anyone else "Antis" have chosen to target on their moral crusade. The only "qualification" to be "Pro-Fiction" is that one is against harassing others over fictional content (drawings, writing, etc.).

Quotations aside, many of the "Pro-Fiction" crowd are often related to the more broad anti-censorship movement, which harbors many bad faith members who simply wish to be racist, homophobic, or sexist without consequence. Their talking points typically include a derogatory uses of the terms "SJW" (social justice warrior) and feminist, as well as accusing studios like FUNimation of "pushing a political agenda" despite their lack of progressive stances on matters such as monopolization of the anime industry and historically ignoring some problematic remarks and actions by their voice actors. They have had a myriad of other minor issues in the past as well.

Ultimately, people under the moniker of "Pro-Fiction" want to be able to enjoy media without harassment. They want to make their favorite characters kiss (or bang, or cry), draw and write things they enjoy, and geek out about developments in their favorite series. Fandom has come into the mainstream over the last decade, turning the once visibly strange and weird culture into something to be moralized like everything else in our day-to-day life. They don't want to pretend the type of anime they enjoy is comparable to activism, and, often, just want to be left alone.

So when you see a person on Twitter with a "Pro-Fiction" emoji code or remark in their bio or pinned tweet, remember: they aren't some sensationalized hate group advocating for child predation to be made legal. They're fans, they're queer, and they're very, very tired.