Twitter Discovers Blistering Take That Says Fictional Characters Can't Consent To Sex Because Authors Are Making Them Do It

While there are many subcultures on social media that prove to be hotbeds of controversy, there is arguably no greater source for wild hot takes and spicy discourse than the social media ecosystem surrounding books.

In the past year, we've seen "Book TikTok" (or "BookTok") erupt in discourse after it was accused of sexually harassing a hockey player, a woman on "Book Facebook" faked her own death for apparent sympathy, and now a person on Book Twitter has baffled many on the internet by insisting that fictional characters can't consent to sexual activity because an author is making them do it.

A screenshot of the discussion was captured by Twitter user @Swilua and went viral yesterday on the platform, perplexing many.

The person who posted their belief that fictional characters engaging in copulation is problematic "because they don't have agency" appears to have had their account suspended. The conversation happened in May 2022 under a suggestive illustration of X-men character Rogue.

As the screenshot of the bewildering take spread, multiple Twitter / X users pointed out that by this logic, fictional characters can't do anything of their own free will, which is technically true and asinine to point out, as the characters do not actually exist.

By this same logic, as many noted in the recent discussions surrounding the post, any author who has ever killed a character would be a murderer.

Others argued the take was the absurd endpoint of so-called "puritanical Zoomer culture," which has been the cause of some hand-wringing among Millennials in recent years.

The age of the person who posted the original take is, however, unknown.

Though the humorous take spread widely on social media, it's unlikely to be adopted by modern authors, who will probably be unable to find a way to make the imaginary characters who live in their heads consent to the actions their creators want them to do.