There is a difference between being a product of a certain cultural mindset and contributing to a certain cultural mindset.
A man telling rape jokes contributes to rape culture, because those jokes make rape survivors feel powerless, like they can’t speak up. They tell rapists or potential rapists who happen to be listening that what they did, or what they could do, or what they might do, is not horrifying and dehumanizing but something normal, something funny, something that the person telling the joke implicitly supports. It tells the rapist, and the victim, that it’s not that bad.
A teenager on the internet drawing fan art is a product of cultural attitudes about race, gender, beauty. They are young and impressionable and doubtless haven’t had time to learn everything that we, grown ass adults, understand about the way people interact. They are going to make mistakes. I know I did; didn’t you? No one who sees a picture of skinny Rose Quartz is going to think “that looks way better” if they already didn’t think that before; no one who was like “I love that Rose is fat” is going to change their minds after seeing that art, and no one who thinks that thin equals beautiful is going to change their mind either. If any of them DO change their minds, it might be because of the discourse surrounding the art– not the art itself.
I understand fatphobia. I know what it’s like being shamed for eating more than the bare minimum in public. I know what it’s like to “overhear” a stranger saying fat people should be shot. I know what it’s like to be told by doctors and parents that whatever is wrong with me would feel better if I exercise more– even if it’s completely unrelated. I know what it’s like to go shopping with friends and have them complain that the smallest sizes are still too big, in a store that doesn’t sell anything that fits you. I know what it’s like to have strangers despise you for existing near them.
I also know that fatphobia is caused by a culture that bases women’s worth on their looks, and with a narrow standard of beauty. It’s supported by shaming actresses into eating disorders because too thin is better than too fat. It’s seen in that fully 1 in 3 smokers don’t quit because they’re afraid of gaining weight– because lung cancer is better than gaining 15 pounds. I know that a teenage girl is far, far more likely to be the victim of fatphobia and misogyny than she is to be causing it.
Stop telling teenage girls to kill themselves over an artistic decision. Do I support it? No, not really. It makes me sad to see so few fan art of fat characters, especially canonically fat ones. However, I also know that this girl has no power– she has no influence on canon or on other bloggers, and she likely wasn’t intending to do harm. She deleted the art and apologized, which is the MOST anyone should have asked, and she shouldn’t have had to really do either. I can’t control what art people make. If I see it and hate it, I can block it.
Stop putting all the responsibility for social justice on the shoulders of young people who are the victims of injustice. Stop pretending that what a single teenage girl does actually impacts the rest of the world, and stop acting like young girls are to blame for the evils in the world instead of the billion dollar industry that benefits from women hating themselves.