John Green has responded to a Tumblr user who accused the Fault in Our Stars author of sexually abusing girls.
The post is so shocking and horrible that it’s no wonder it has Green so outraged.
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“i bet john green thinks people don’t like him because he’s a ‘dork’ or a nerd or whatever,” the post reads, “when in reality it’s because he’s a creep who panders to teenage girls so that he can amass some weird cult-like following. and it’s always girls who feel misunderstood, you know, and he goes out of his way to make them feel important and desireable. which is f***ing? weird?” [sic]
The Tumblr user also said, “he has a social media presence that is equivalent to that dad of a kid in your friend group who always volunteers to ‘supervise’ the pool parties and scoot his lawn chair close to all the girls.”
Green, who is very active on social media, did not take the post lightly, nor should he.
“You want me to defend myself against the implication that I sexually abuse children? Okay. I do not sexually abuse children,” the author wrote.
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“Throwing that kind of accusation around is sick and libelous and most importantly damages the discourse around the actual sexual abuse of children. When you use accusations of pedophilia as a way of insulting people whose work you don’t like, you trivialize abuse.”
Green is far from the first author who has been attacked online because people are unhappy with their work. As a YA author myself, I can tell you that the internet lends itself well to an atmosphere where everyone is a critic, and they don’t mind making their criticisms personal — so personal that it crosses a line into bullying. Some authors, like Divergent author Veronica Roth, have even received death threats.
But alleging sexual abuse is a different line entirely.
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The fact that someone used the characters Green creates as a basis for these horrible accusations is a debasement of his amazing work to the fullest extent and should not be acceptable. These are serious allegations that are spewed so lightly it makes my blood boil for Green.
Even if there was a basis to anything the writer of the post claims (which no evidence has suggested), Green sums it up perfectly when he says, “I’m tired of seeing the language of social justice — important language doing important work — misused as a way to dehumanize others and treat them hatefully.”
The community online and in our own social circles should not stand for this lack of human decency. I know I don’t, won’t and never will. Judge Green’s work however you want. But an attack of this kind is criminal and I hope Green pursues this to the fullest extent allowable by law to set a precedent that this behavior will not stand.
You can read Green’s entire response to the accusations on his Tumblr page.
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