I think the moralist argument is that the young are more easily influenced. And I understand being disturbed about the content of fantasies, and fiction propping up patriarchy. I'm being disturbed about mine frequently, but personally I think 12-14 is too late to fix in taste what patriarchy already broke.
I mean, when I became a feminist as a teenager I noticed that my fiction reading preferences were not in line with my politics, and I tried to "fix" it, so from maybe 14 to my early twenties I weeded out for ideoloogy, but it didn't work at all. I still find rape and humiliation fantasies hot, and I still like male characters better, and I still have a thing for authoritarian warrior fantasies with obedience to duty, and for glorified violence, and destiny and a natural order in the universe, even though all those ideas are icky.
So basically since I couldn't change my tastes, I decided that it was best to be aware that the ideas are problematic and still enjoy them in fiction. I do think that fiction has a role as subtle (or not so subtle sometimes) propaganda tool, but I think it is not that effective to fix fiction, but that it would be better to fix the root causes and then the fiction tastes reflecting this may follow.
no subject
I mean, when I became a feminist as a teenager I noticed that my fiction reading preferences were not in line with my politics, and I tried to "fix" it, so from maybe 14 to my early twenties I weeded out for ideoloogy, but it didn't work at all. I still find rape and humiliation fantasies hot, and I still like male characters better, and I still have a thing for authoritarian warrior fantasies with obedience to duty, and for glorified violence, and destiny and a natural order in the universe, even though all those ideas are icky.
So basically since I couldn't change my tastes, I decided that it was best to be aware that the ideas are problematic and still enjoy them in fiction. I do think that fiction has a role as subtle (or not so subtle sometimes) propaganda tool, but I think it is not that effective to fix fiction, but that it would be better to fix the root causes and then the fiction tastes reflecting this may follow.