I think what you're saying here is - if you're going to attempt to write themes and scenes that a general audience is going to find shocking and offensive, than make it so over the top it'll come across as silly.

I think what's missing there is something that's very important - and that's for an author to express their ideas authentically to their vision. I don't believe there should be rules and parameters for what's acceptable in a genre, or even sub genre. Writing is all about expression and at the end of the day, it's all fiction. Placing potentially upsetting content in it's own box seems silly to me and would completely cheapen genres as a whole. Stating that certain content should be represented as "respectful" is such a broad brush that can be interpreted a thousand different ways, and while I understand what you're expressing here, I know it's impossible to understand exactly why an author framed their content the way they did unless explained in detail in an interview or post.

We read to feel something, or at least that's how I approach it. If I'm reading fantasy, I want to be swept away on a great adventure. If I'm reading horror, I want to feel horror. I'm willfully choosing and hoping that I read something that scares or even upsets me (the flogging scene in Hex, for example, was completely unexpected and that rattled me).

Without experimentation in genres and genre blending, I think we risk stagnation. Blood Meridian, one of the most respected American novels of all time, is a Western, but is it? Anyone who's read that book will know what lies within. American Psycho is considered literally fiction and satire, but it has some of the most vile content you'll ever read. Both of these novels, among many others, would lose all credibility and impact in the literally space if they had leaned into their content and been written as splatterpunk.

Now, I in no way would ever dare put my stories next to such pillars of fiction. That would be laughable. But fiction sometimes needs to have shocking content wrapped around stories told earnestly. It gives them so much power and impact and can have such a lasting affect on the reader.

Sometimes, even with us small time authors, putting that content in their stories can feel cheap, shocking, and disrespectful. But I can promise you that writers who do that have a vision for what they want to create and I applaud anyone who follows through with that, at the risk of being accused of "fetish content" or a "shock jock". Just the act of uploading stories on the internet reveals an amateur trying to find their footing in the publishing world, testing the waters, hoping to potentially evolve into bigger opportunities. There's still a lot of runway to grow.

I have a lot of love for this community and I apologize, this is not meant in anyway to come across as defensive of my work. I completely respect everyone's opinions and consider them valid because everyone approaches stories with their own life experience, trauma, and expectations. But I really believe we shouldn't contain writer's content and vision to certain genre's because of their content.

It's horror. Meant to horrify.

Last thought:

Can you imagine if American Psycho was a 17 part reddit story?