John Green, who is most famous for his novel-turned-movie, 'The Fault in Our Stars', started his lengthy Tumblr post yesterday by saying, "I do not sexually abuse children".
He went on to say, "throwing that kind of accusation around is sick and libelous and most importantly damages the discourse around the actual sexual abuse of children".
On he went: "When you use accusations of pedophilia as a way of insulting people whose work you don’t like, you trivialize abuse."
In a post that circulated the site on Thursday, a Tumblr user, apparently going by the account name virjn, slammed Green and his works.
The post read: "I bet john green thinks people don’t like him because he’s a “dork” or a nerd or whatever.
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 desirable. which is f******? weird?
Also 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 scoots his lawn chair close to all the girls."
Even though the user has since deleted the post from his/her own Tumblr page, it has been reposted by other users with Green's response attached over 46,000 times.
Green, who has a strong online presence, responded to the post on his own Tumblr, bluntly denying all allegations. He also announced he would use his blog differently moving forward.
John Green's book Paper Towns, which hit shelves in 2008, has been adapted into a movie that will be released next month
He wrote on his Tumblr: "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."
He continued: "So we all seek (and seek to share) the jolt that accompanies outrage and anger. As studies have shown, the complicated dopamine rush that comes with righteous indignation is very powerful, and I’m indulging it simply by responding to the outrageous accusation that my work is somehow evidence of sexual abuse.
"But the outrage cycle is exhausting, and while there are wonderful examples of outrage fueling long-term, productive responses to injustice - We Need Diverse Books and the UPLIFT both come to mind - too often the Internet moves from jolt to jolt, from hatred to hatred, ever more convinced of our own righteousness and the world’s evil. And getting caught up in that is very painful.
I realize that will seem privileged to many of you (and it is), or like an excuse (maybe it’s that too), or lacking in empathy (maybe so), and I’m sure there is plenty here to deconstruct and reveal my various shortcomings (which are legion).
But this stops being a productive place for me to be in conversations if I’m not allowed to be wrong, if my apologies are not acknowledged alongside my misdeeds, and if I’m not treated like a person."
Paper Towns, starring Cara Delevigne and Nat Wolff, is a coming-of-age story centering on Quentin and his enigmatic neighbor Margo, who loved mysteries so much she became one thanks to a sudden disappearance
I think at this point it’s impossible to continue to use tumblr in the way I’ve used it since 2011. My life is different (in ways that are both good and bad); this community is different (in ways that are both good and bad); the world is different (in ways that are both good and bad).
I'm not angry or anything like that. I just need some distance for my well-being."
He finished off his post with his catchphrase acronym, DFTBA (Don't forget to be awesome) and made a mention to people who were sending him hate messages.
"To be clear, sending hate to people who say this stuff is counter-productive and only continues the outrage cycle, so please don’t abuse anyone. Thanks," he wrote.
While having to deal with sex-abuse accusations, one fan also slammed Green on Friday for using the word 'retarded' in his book Paper Towns, which has been adapted into a film that will be released next month.
"Yeah, I regret it. At the time, I thought an author's responsibility was to reflect language as I found it, but now...' he wrote in the first Tweet, adding: 'Eight years later, I don't feel like a book about humanizing the other benefited from dehumanizing language."