Lewding Is Not Fan Culture!

One of the most disturbing rules of the 21st century is that, when something exists, there is porn about it. Unsurprisingly, even a cyborg warrior like Alita isn't safe from this rule, and a few days ago, fans of the movie like myself became aware of one "artist" drawing NSFW pictures of Alita.

Many fans immediately expressed their discomfort with this kind of pictures; especially the drawing with her early body, indeed representing a (kind of) immature person who still has to find her place in the world. While Alita matures over the movie, using this underage-girl-body was perceived as low-key pedophilia. But, to be honest, I think this allegation goes a bit too far.

It is, of course, impossible to draw any conclusions about the person behind that tweet. But this kind of drawings is not new - pretty much every famous fictional female character (and a lot of non-fictional people) has been depicted this way, almost always by teenage boys. More precisely, the kind of teenage boys who are bragging about insane numbers of girls they had sex with - while in reality, whenever they had the chance, they were either too drunk, or too scared, or both.

In their desperate longing for admiration by their peers, they startet drawing their sex adventures that only existed in their dreams. They drew girls from their class, from other classes, and, of course, women they've seen in video games, movies or TV shows, as long as they were at least somewhat pretty. And sometimes, they traded their drawings to other boys who were less talented at drawing, or had no own TV or computer in their room and couldn't watch porn for inspiration.

Today, these boys aren't restricted to the schoolyard. They can trade their pictures worldwide. And thus, lewd became a youth / young adult subculture. Lewd is not about admiration. It is not a fan thing - actually, it's the opposite!

Fans of Alita (and Alita really is just an example in this case) see her as a person. Yes, Alita is pretty. But she is so much more then that, and we fans see that much more in her then just a pretty face and an awesome (berzerker) body. We see the faceted character she has. Her strength, her dedication to do good, her unconditional love. Her personality, her spirit, her soul. The gorgeous acting performance that brought her to life.

Yes, we sometimes dream about meeting Alita. But we dream about seeing her in the motorball arena, raising her sword towards Zalem, with us chanting her name. We dream about giving her chocolate, having a drink at the Kansas together, comforting her when she mourns for her lost love Hugo, listening when she complains about Ido being over-protective. We dream about being her friend.

We dream about meeting Rosa Salazar - to personally thank and praise her for her acting. We admire Alita, and we admire everyone who contributed to the movie. We want to accompany her on her journey - not make her a part of our journey. Would she offer us her heart, like she does for Hugo, we, like Hugo, wouldn't take it.

Lewd is not about admiration. It's about possession. Those who engage in it don't want to accompany her - they want to own her. They don't love her. They don't see any of what we see. They, truly, see her as a sex bot. As a chance to grab some cash from teenage boys looking for a wank. And the only reason for them to lewd Alita is that she's popular. The same people most likely have lewd pictures of Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, or Rey.

Therefore, lewd is no part of fan culture, and it never will. Except the studio supports it...

Star Wars / Reylo lewd