brain splat: on real person fiction
Jun. 27th, 2014 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avawatsonI started writing this post, then recorded it for a fan medley for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
threepatch, and now here I am back to the working on the lj post. So yes, let me just shoot myself in the foot here poke at you guys about how you feel about this.
I don't pretend to have thought this through exhaustively and I don't pretend to be capital C correct about a damn thing. But here are my thoughts, muddled and decidedly uncogent as they are.
It'd be nice if I had a very high moral high ground to stand on (as, in fact, many people do see RPF as an issue of morality), and I'd feel a lot more secure if I, in fact, I saw things in black and white and felt things in black and white, and I were able to say, with conviction, "Yeah, you know what, there's a line I will not cross and this is it. No RPFs, none, and that's it, that's a squick, it's morally wrong."
But I don't have that line. I mean, not there, anyway. It's not a squick. And if it's morally wrong, I don't feel it sharply and instinctively like I feel other things are morally wrong. Is that...wrong?
I don't seek out RPF; it's not what I'd call my thing. But sometimes a rec will just wind up in my lap somehow, or I'll search out a fic author I enjoyed and find RPF in the back catalog somewhere. I believe this is how I found Daasgrrl's "In His Image" (where John gets with Benedict Cumberbatch) and Pennydreadful's "Mirror, Mirror" (where Sherlock brings home Benedict for John to enjoy because John's a kinky fuck). And as you can see, neither of those are RPF in the sense of OFC/OMC and Celebrity get together. Both are cases where fictional fandom universes and the actor ones collide. And I say actor universe, because I don't much consider that to be my universe; it's its own thing. And I don't know if that matters, except that it does to me. I'm not interested in reading what I would inevitably infer to be the author's stand in having adventures with or dating these people. I am vaguely interested in seeing the fictional fandom universe characters deal with people who I have a fuzzy sense of because they're celebrities who I follow. The actors are kind of like OCs who I didn't need a lot of backstory to flesh out, because they already live in my head. They're ready constructs of people; I don't really know them, but it sort of feels like I do. They're easy to pick up as characters and move around in my head, and therefore in fic...I can see my way to reading about them, or not.
But seeing the actors with some random OC? I'm not really interested, no. I mean, no thank you. And I don't think I'd jump on real person ships either really, like Martin/Ben (freebatch). Again, not because it's a squick or it's morally repugnant to me, but because it's just not particularly of interest. It'd very much be like reading things in other fandoms. Yeah, I could...but why? It'd be like giving me the choice between One Direction bandfic and reading Roane's Pull the Stars from the Sky. Of course I'll pick the one that features my otp.
I do have a problem with fan works being shown to the actors when they didn't in any way solicit them, when they are obviously uninterested and actively disturbed and uncomfortable. But on that front, I don't see a huge difference between making them uncomfortable by showing them porny fanart with their face on it and RPF. I think neither one should be shown to the person, but why am I supposed to be repulsed by the very existence of one and not the other?
And I'll go ahead and say here that I think that that distinction (or lack thereof) is why Amanda Abbington has said the (rather controversial) things she's said about nsfw/gay fanart with Martin's likeness on it and why she doesn't want her children to ever find it. I think, for her, there's hardly any difference, and I guess I can appreciate that on behalf of small children who might find that confusing. But the adult decision I've essentially made is that if we're free to create art with their likeness, if we want to live in a world where the creation of said art is encouraged (even if it's not encouraged to bring to the attention of the actors/creators, because the fourth wall is for the protection of both the fans and for them), then I'm not sure why fictionalized RPF is so incredibly off limits as well. My brain just doesn't quite grok it with the way that I've been presenting myself the argument. So I wonder if anyone out there can help me think it through.
threepatch, and now here I am back to the working on the lj post. So yes, let me just I don't pretend to have thought this through exhaustively and I don't pretend to be capital C correct about a damn thing. But here are my thoughts, muddled and decidedly uncogent as they are.
It'd be nice if I had a very high moral high ground to stand on (as, in fact, many people do see RPF as an issue of morality), and I'd feel a lot more secure if I, in fact, I saw things in black and white and felt things in black and white, and I were able to say, with conviction, "Yeah, you know what, there's a line I will not cross and this is it. No RPFs, none, and that's it, that's a squick, it's morally wrong."
But I don't have that line. I mean, not there, anyway. It's not a squick. And if it's morally wrong, I don't feel it sharply and instinctively like I feel other things are morally wrong. Is that...wrong?
I don't seek out RPF; it's not what I'd call my thing. But sometimes a rec will just wind up in my lap somehow, or I'll search out a fic author I enjoyed and find RPF in the back catalog somewhere. I believe this is how I found Daasgrrl's "In His Image" (where John gets with Benedict Cumberbatch) and Pennydreadful's "Mirror, Mirror" (where Sherlock brings home Benedict for John to enjoy because John's a kinky fuck). And as you can see, neither of those are RPF in the sense of OFC/OMC and Celebrity get together. Both are cases where fictional fandom universes and the actor ones collide. And I say actor universe, because I don't much consider that to be my universe; it's its own thing. And I don't know if that matters, except that it does to me. I'm not interested in reading what I would inevitably infer to be the author's stand in having adventures with or dating these people. I am vaguely interested in seeing the fictional fandom universe characters deal with people who I have a fuzzy sense of because they're celebrities who I follow. The actors are kind of like OCs who I didn't need a lot of backstory to flesh out, because they already live in my head. They're ready constructs of people; I don't really know them, but it sort of feels like I do. They're easy to pick up as characters and move around in my head, and therefore in fic...I can see my way to reading about them, or not.
But seeing the actors with some random OC? I'm not really interested, no. I mean, no thank you. And I don't think I'd jump on real person ships either really, like Martin/Ben (freebatch). Again, not because it's a squick or it's morally repugnant to me, but because it's just not particularly of interest. It'd very much be like reading things in other fandoms. Yeah, I could...but why? It'd be like giving me the choice between One Direction bandfic and reading Roane's Pull the Stars from the Sky. Of course I'll pick the one that features my otp.
I do have a problem with fan works being shown to the actors when they didn't in any way solicit them, when they are obviously uninterested and actively disturbed and uncomfortable. But on that front, I don't see a huge difference between making them uncomfortable by showing them porny fanart with their face on it and RPF. I think neither one should be shown to the person, but why am I supposed to be repulsed by the very existence of one and not the other?
And I'll go ahead and say here that I think that that distinction (or lack thereof) is why Amanda Abbington has said the (rather controversial) things she's said about nsfw/gay fanart with Martin's likeness on it and why she doesn't want her children to ever find it. I think, for her, there's hardly any difference, and I guess I can appreciate that on behalf of small children who might find that confusing. But the adult decision I've essentially made is that if we're free to create art with their likeness, if we want to live in a world where the creation of said art is encouraged (even if it's not encouraged to bring to the attention of the actors/creators, because the fourth wall is for the protection of both the fans and for them), then I'm not sure why fictionalized RPF is so incredibly off limits as well. My brain just doesn't quite grok it with the way that I've been presenting myself the argument. So I wonder if anyone out there can help me think it through.