Valentino Is A Pedophile

Valentino is a pedophile

Or at least heavily coded to be one.

This post will focus on many triggering topics, such as the cultural glorification of pimps, the normalization of pedophilia within media, the glorification of sexual assault and abuse, child sexual exploitation, exploitation on the sets of hollywood, the book lolita and the 1997 films, blaxploitation, sex work and adjacent topics.

Before I start, I'd like to direct you to this video. It goes into depth on the film adaptations of Lolita and the directors behind said adaptations:

What is a pimp? A pimp is someone who predates on young and/or vulnerable people, offering security (whether it be physical, financial or emotional) in return for sexual favors and exploitation. Pimps are involved in the sex and human trafficking rings. Pimps are often found to be pedophiles and predate on specifically under developed and/or low socioeconomic communities and their vulnerable members (including children). This includes poc, queer, disabled, and any other type of minority that may feel the need to seek supports not provided by the government/society.

What is blaxploitation? Blaxploitation is the exploitation of Black, primarily American issues and culture, often through the lenses of white directors in media. This media was made to relate to African American Urban communities in the Americas during the 1970's. Although "exploitation" is clearly within the word, Black actors did have some say in the characters they play, making this topic ambiguous among the communities that these films were directed towards.

What is Lolita? Lolita is originally a book made by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita's intentions were to show the true nature of pedophiles through the lense of a pedophile themselves. The protagonist is clearly bias and truly disgusting, though this is purposeful. Vladimir made this book as a way to explore this condition and criticize the sexualization of young girls. It was within his wishes to NEVER HAVE A GIRL PORTRAYED ON THE COVER OF HIS BOOK, as he understood how society treats young girls. This wish was ignored. Vladimir was approached many times by film companies wishing to adapt his novel, he turned them down multiple times, until he simply gave in, and the first Lolita film was made.

What were the lolita films? There has been multiple Lolita films over the years, see the linked video for more context. For this discussion I'll be focusing on the Stanely Kurbik's and Adrian Lyne's films from 1962 and 1997. These films had a large impact on how the media views young women and were a large part in normalizing sexual misconduct to young girls and women on the sets of movies and shows. These movies prioritize the sexual gratification of Humbert over the psychological horror that is a Middle aged man gaining the trust of a mother to groom and abuse her child. Almost villainizing Dolores as a "temptress" or "nymphette". Terrifying enough, on the sets of these films, the YOUNG TEEN GIRLS were preyed upon and abused in ways that Humbert himself would have to Dolores.

How does this all relate to the portrayal of Valentino?

Valentino is a pimp, duh, so all of the social connotations of a pimp related to him.

Valentino is specifically based on the blaxploitation stereotype of a pimp. This is a issue as its a racist stereotype.

How is Lolita involved in this? Charact design is an important feature of story telling. Lolita's iconic imagery of Heart shaped glasses appears in Valentinos own design, this paired with the context that majority of pimps are indeed Pedophiles and prey on young people leads to a disgusting revelation.

He's a Villian, why should we care?

Currently the romanticization of pimps are at a all time high, and not only in the Helluvaverse fandom. See source two for more information. But to keep on topic we'll be focusing on Hazbin hotel and its fandom.

The overall lack of seriousness around the character and mishandling of his general characterization of being a pimp and abuser is laughable. Hazbin hotel has the issue of not treating their villians with any sort of seriousness, and this paired with their inability to take sexual assault, exploitation and harassment seriously has lead to a lot of fans sharing the inability to treat these real life events with the empathy and seriousness they deserve.

This is seen in two trends within the fandom:

First Raph, Raph is a storyboard artist and a close friend to Viv. Raph is the vocal center of all fans of Val, and all fans of Val tend to follow in their lead. Raph has sexually harassed a minor, sexually roleplays in all age/family friendly conventions as angel dust, getting abused by Valentino. But what's most concerning is that there's speak of Raph seeking out a real Pimp to be under. This is not safe, and not behavior they should be proud of or modelling to their audience of unstable and vulnerable people.

Second is this stupid trend the fans of Val have made

Just... just look at the text and wording... I literally cannot-

The merch store for this show also turns the act of pimping into something to be proud of. This is something I'd see in a Andrew Tate store...

Viv often also promotes the romanticization of abuse within fandom along side general rape culture. This along side sending harassment to Limus for getting a sign with their critical video of Angel dusts portrayal over protecting her old VA, Michael Kovach from sexual harassment and assault from a Valentino cosplayer is INSANE.

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Wha- proshippers do realize that morality and representation still matter when they write fanfiction..... right?

That's the thing about proshippers. They claim that they just "like" a villain. But will then defend and fetishize them for their actions.

This along side the VA for Valentino seconding all of this behavior and promoting the show to literal CHILDREN is a genuine threat to any vulnerable person who interacts with the show or fandom.

Sources referenced: 1. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1137&context=dignity 2. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/05/pimps-use-instagram-to-glorify-sexual-violence-and-abuse-investigation-finds 3. https://www.womenslaw.org/about-abuse/forms-abuse/sexual-abuse-and-exploitation/forced-prostitution/basic-info-and-0 4. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/883/ 5. https://goldenglobes.com/articles/golden-age-blaxploitation-black-stars-black-audiences/ 6. https://www.britannica.com/art/blaxploitation-movie https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/0803/080398.opin.opin.2.html