Browsing the site today I came across a piece of work called Yuri by tonee89
fav.me/d2q20ea . The first thing that I thought when i saw the thumbnail was that if the girls were being as sexual in full view as they seemed to be that this image would not be around for long. I checked out the image.. Not only were the girls even more explicit than I expect (one seemingly having the other's nipple in her mouth), but one them at least appeared to be very young. I'm going to avoid discussing the issue of site policy or the ethics of the image, or anything of the sort-- as I feel the comments on the work have that topic thoroughly covered. I want to try to focus on another (to me more interesting) issue.
So I decided to browse the comments. It had about 150 within 16 hours. I expected comments about how 'awesome and sup3r kawai' the image was, accompanied by a similar amount of comments talking about reporting the image. But as I read on I saw just how polarized the responses were. Those that enjoyed the image either said they liked it because it is "cute" or because they said (in so many words) that it aroused them. I'm no stranger to Pedo Bear or lolicon or any of the other related internet trends. It doesn't even phase me any more, but this did. Not for the image itself, but for the reactions it brought out. Right beside all those posts in favor of the piece were posts calling it essentially child pornography.
This really seems to show a truth about the mindset of the site's community. One side of the debate praises this and the other utterly condemns it. But neither really even considers the quality of the work. The content has become so volatile that whether or not it is even any good ceases to matter. This really seems to say that you can make art of whatever quality you like and it matters less than what the content of the image actually is. Obviously very high and very low quality work breaks from this.
It is disappointing to me that this should be so. It makes the community seem juvenile. Mind you I'm not saying this is every one on DA. It does make up a significant chunk of the community though. Maybe I just find it more distressing than most.
I guess I just wanted to fully formulate my thoughts and put it up in a related space.