Sexual Harassment + More

Hello amino. Today I've come to talk to y'all about something serious and rather important for everyone to read and listen to.

I'll try to keep things to the point so that details don't become confusing.

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What's going on in the community currently?

Right now, there's been a lot of accusations of different sorts of sexual misconduct between people in the Smash community. It seems to be a catalyst of events happening, with person after person becoming accused by the victims.

Even though it's messy, this shows that we as a community have failed these victims. All we can do now is give them our and time to heal. Something that's also important for us, would be to become educated on such matters.

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Why Education is Important?

There's a lot of and other language being thrown around and it's understandable if not everyone know what they mean. Grooming? Statutory Rape? Gaslighting? Not everyone is familiar with these concepts, so it's important to recognize what they are and how to handle them best.

Knowing is half the battle. If you know what it is, you can understand if it's being used against you. This can help you escape potentially dangerous situations later on.

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What is Sexual Harassment?

Either frequent or semi-frequent instances of an individual making unwarranted sexual comments or advancements to someone else is considered as sexual harassment. This includes remarking on someone's appearance with sexual intentions, asking for nudes, sending innapropiate images or requests, etc.

Sexual harassment can be initiated by anybody regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Someone who identifies as part of the LGBT community can still sexually harass someone who is Cis and straight. Women can still sexually harass men. Sexual harassment isn't always initiated from a man directed to a woman.

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What is Grooming?

I am not an expert on this topic, so a lot of the information i gained is from this article.

Grooming is the act of building a relationship with someone to manipulate and abuse later on. There is normally some sort of power dynamic that comes with age as well. This leasa to acts of sexual misconduct, for the ab to then further manipulate the victim.

Grooming is usually done between a minor and an adult, but not always. It varies by country, but typically the age in which someone is an adult would be 18. Under that, they're considered as a minor. This is important because in the smash community there's ALWAYS a ton of impressionable minors around that can and will do things under the influence of older people in the community, usually figureheads and/or top players.

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What is Gaslighting?

Through means of manipulation and other psychological methods, gaslighting is the act of making the victim feel as if they're insane. This is often done to make it feel as if the victim is alone in their situation, and that their friends/families have no say or don't care about the victim. This makes it so that the victim can only turn to the ab for help.

This can be dangerous, since gaslighting allows for the ab to control and manipulate the victim even further. If the victim can't comprehend the situation or turn to others for help, then it won't be difficult for the ab to control their actions.

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What is Coercion?

Coercion is the act of begging, pleading, convincing, making threats and more to get the victim to do what the ab wants. Normally, it's asking and convincing to perform sexual requests if not sex itself. Victims of coercion usually say no at first but then become manipulated somehow into doing something they're not comfortable with, all to consent to whatever the ab wants.

that if you say no to any sexual requests, the other person MUST respect that. Don't let them try to convince you to do anything you're not comfortable with doing. Being coerced to say yes isn't truly consent.

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What is Statutory Rape?

Statutory Rape is the act of sex with a minor where both parties consent. Legally, a minor cannot consent to sex despite wanting it from the other individual. If person A is 21 and person B is 17, person A can be in serious legal trouble.

Even if both Person A and Person B are minors, Statutory Rape can still be filed. It's very important that in this community you understand what you're getting into when you decide to have consensual sex with anyone that is a minor or if you're a minor yourself having sex with an adult. As a general rule of thumb, don't have sex with minors regardless of consent or if they initiate anything.

Note: Statutory Rape laws may differ between states and countries. Please be aware of what's legal in your respective area.

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Giving Consent

In regards to giving consent, you can give the green light to do anything at your own discretion. You can ALSO choose to rescind your consent at any point.

You can definitely be comfortable at one point with anything and then be uncomfortable anytime after. You're allowed to choose when to stop at any given moment.

This is important, because if you're uncomfortable and want to stop something but the other person pressures you to continue, they could be manipulating you or threaten to harm you in some way.

What are some Warning Signs?

It's important to notice the warning signs. You know what they are but what do they look like?

Some general red flags include, but not limited to:

· Very personal questions

· Spamming your inbox to gain a response

· Making innapropiate requests

· Change of behavior around certain topics pertaining to sex, relationships, etc

· Constantly challenging your beliefs

These warnings may seem vague but what's important would be the context of the situation. If you ask yourself "am I potentially being manipulated here?" or "are they making me uncomfortable in this situation" then it's possible that they're trying to gaslight or groom you, which can easily lead to other forms of sexual abuse/harm that may or not be mentioned here.

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How can you notify a leader of this community?

The s here will do everything in their power to protect you. Please a leader specific about anything in regards to sexual abuse and harm. If given enough evidence or reason, we can ban the ab.

If you wish to remain anonymous, that is possible as well. Simply us through an alt or mention that you don't want your name to be used. We value your safety as well as your wishes when you report someone.

To a leader, here are some steps:

On the side tab, scroll down until you see the "All " option. Click it.

Once you do, note that the first people you see on the list will be Leaders, as shown here. Currently there's three on this platform.

Next, click on one of the leaders. If it's urgent, look for a mod who's online. They'll have a green dot where it says "chat" as shown.

If no leaders are online and it's urgent, please a curator. They can help get the help of a leader quickly as we all share the same chat.

If absolutely NO ONE is online, please find a way to reach out to us through discord. My info is always in my bio near the top. There should always be someone online, but discord and even twitter can be methods of reaching a .

It's important that you have evidence of this, either thru screenshots or other possible evidence. Otherwise, it can be quite hard for us to take action. Not to say we won't believe you, however.

As a note, false claims of abuse simply WON'T be tolerated. It's not funny, and it's inexcusable. You may be striked or banned for it. If you're looking to make up false allegations to discredit someone simply for your hate on them or otherwise, you're effectively causing other people with their true stories to be silenced further.

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How can you people outside of amino to seek further help and possibly press charges?

Talk with your parents, a teacher, counselor, therapist, etc. Someone you can trust with this information, regardless if you'll get into trouble. This is pretty serious, and the leaders here on amino can only do so much to help. We can ban or deal with whoever has abused you, but it's often hard for us to take legal action for you if needed.

If you are seriously hurt by whatever that's happened to you as a victim, please be sure to surround yourself with a healthy system and het additional professional help as needed. Your safety and happiness is important, don't let anyone take that away.

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If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or DM a .

I request that you don't take this opportunity to comment with whatever happened on Twitter. This post is for teaching and education, not necessarily the discussion of current misconduct of of the smash community. Thank you!