Over at MC Stories, there’s a recent post on the forum where one of their authors claims Patreon’s Trust & Safety team has flagged their account for violating their rules about rape content:
Per our guidelines, we have zero tolerance for the glorification of sexual violence, and this includes non-consensual sex.
We don’t allow rape and sexual assault, such as: coerced consent (e.g. blackmail scenarios, “hypnosis”, drugging, or “consent” obtained through deceit).
Content glorifying sexual violence cannot be funded by or linked to or from your creator page in any way.
Several other authors have responded claiming they’ve gotten the same flags and noticed a ramp up in this recently. They’re discussing the possibility of finding a new funding site, or even starting one.
A couple of people asked me a while ago if I had a Patreon account, so I looked into it. I decided against getting one precisely because of the guidelines you quote. They’ve been in place for a long time, and I’ve been surprised that they weren’t enforced previously.
While I don’t approve, I understand how it can be a difficult thing for companies to support. I guess I’ll just have to wait for a sugar boy to show up on my doorstep instead—one who will give me money and/or sex, and ask only that I keep writing my stories in return (and who is patient and understanding about my release schedule ).
The problem generally is the payment processors. I believe that the current thing is due to hate speech and how you define that, but often the credit card companies won’t allow the platform to have certain types of content.
I’m surprised that some adult related industry company hasn’t created a Patreon equivalent. Porn companies are happily selling all kinds of stuff and still taking people’s money.
It’s disheartening to hear that some authors have had their accounts flagged for violating Patreon rules regarding the glorification of sexual violence, particularly non-consensual acts.
Once again, people want everything to it into neat little boxes with no regard for context and nuances. The reason why portrayal (not every portrayal is a “glorification” BTW) of sexual violence is bad is because people theorize it could encourage people to engage in it, which falls in the same category of those trying to censor violent video games. But there’s never been any study that established those kinds of causation demonstrably. So, OK, maybe people want to act “just in case”.
But for hypnosis non-consent stories, there is absolutely no danger that they will inspire people to go out and hypnotize straight people into sex: it cannot be done in real life. So this is just stupid and not protecting anyone.
In fact, there is a case that by allowing “fantasies” about such behavior, it makes the real behavior less likely because it fulfills the fantasy in a way that’s less threatening to reality. That’s what seems to happen: doing these things in real life (those that are possible to do) is messy. It never holds up to the fantasy of it. Let’s try to treat people like adult and not try to control everything they read. That’s thought control. Punish bad actions, not bad thoughts.
Spacepupsilver lost his Patreon account last year and his artwork has all always been completely unrealistic and obviously nothing that could be acted out in real life. It’s very cartoony.
Patreon didn’t pull any punches there, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t with anyone else. Anyone posting MC w/sex content on Patreon that hasn’t gotten in trouble with them yet has merely been lucky. There is nothing else at play here, it’s luck. And it will run out.
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