Fanfiction is something that no one really talks about in a public way other than with their friends, but everyone knows what it is and maybe have read a few stories (most don’t want to admit it, though.) We all know the iconic “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy that was a blockbuster movie series. It was originally a “Twilight” fanfiction posted online by author E.L. James.
Remember that cringy but addicting movie “After” on Netflix staring Josephine Langford? Anna Todd posted the story on Wattpad as a One Direction fanfiction, with Harry Styles being the original bad boy in place of Hardin Scott. Within the past year, it has become a trend on Tiktok to live your life as you are “Y/N” in a fanfiction. For those who aren’t familiar, “Y/N” stands for ‘Your Name’ and is used by fanfiction writers to allow readers to insert themselves in the stories they are reading to have a more immersive experience while reading. But fanfiction runs much deeper than that, especially how it introduced the exploration of the sex world to the “Wattpad Generation.”
I have been an active fangirl since my One Direction days in sixth grade and have come across a few fanfictions on Instagram when I first opened up my account. It wasn’t until I made my way onto Tumblr a year later and was thrown into the world of fanfiction stories and saw how great these works can be. And to be posted on Tumblr, Wattpad, and other websites for free? It is quite insane.
There are many types of fanfiction that are written. It can be something that is a soft and gentle snapshot into an ideal life with the person you are reading of, or it can be a certain troupe like an enemies-to-lovers story with tons of twists and turns with a nice ending. I have seen stories set in a mythical setting with princes and princesses. My guilty pleasure stories are the ones that are set in a mafia setting where the life being told is dangerous and risky. A big section of fanfiction works is written with more explicit themes and involves more sexual content. These are called “smut” works.
Family and life education that is being taught in schools only explain the scientific and biological aspect of sex, but smut fanfiction show more the emotional and intimate part of it to a generation that knows how fake porn can be. All the stories do follow a formula of each partner going down on each other and then having penetrative sex, but authors include more of a storyline to make it more interesting to read. Over time, a person who reads enough smut fanfiction can be as knowledgeable about sex and different kinks without ever having actual sex with another person.
Is this knowledge realistic enough for the world of sex in real life? It truly depends on the fanfiction they read. Almost everything we consume in the world of art and culture has some sort of twist of reality in the scope of the original artist. Fanfiction is no different from that. It can be quite dangerous for a person to base their entire knowledge of sex off of works to romanticize emotional and physical abuse, especially if they are exposed to those themes in fanfiction from a young age.
The Internet is free, along with any of the stories published on Wattpad and Tumblr. This is how many people are having their sexual awakening at a very young age. We learn about sex from how schools and our parents are teaching it from a very technical, cut and dry perspective. Reading fanfiction that adds emotion and intimacy to sex makes it more real, and that’s how the “Wattpad Generation” interprets it.