Real Person Slash/Het Fan Fiction = MAJOR SQUICK!!

[teleen_fiction]

I realize that I basically never post here, but as this is my fiction journal I felt that this was the most appropriate place to post my feelings about about RP (real person) fan fiction. These actors haven't played enough characters for us to play with - we have to start writing about their real personal lives? Or invent fake personal lives for them? I find it highly inappropriate, not to mention creepy, whenever I even *see* the words "RP slash." Or any RP fic at all, really. Why is it inappropriate and creepy? Let's see, for starters, the actors we like are only doing their jobs and have a right to have a personal life outside of the roles that they play. RP fan fiction blurs a line that should not be blurred between fantasy and reality. I have as active a fantasy life as the next person (more than many), but I understand that the actors whom I see as eye candy have a right to privacy outside of the characters that they play.

For those who think that actors have no right to complain when their privacy is violated, I say - it's easy for you to say. Yes, all of them chose to pursue a career in which fame goes with success, but does that mean that they gave up their rights as human beings to not have their personal lives turned into entertainment?

Bottom line is - you can have over-18 characters doing whatever you want them to do. Heck, you can even describe them using the physical characteristics of the actors who played them - as soon as they took the part, they did agree to be identified as that character to some extent. But using the real names and personal details of actors in fictional scenarios is, quite frankly, creepy and stalkerish.

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

You're not alone in feeling that there's a line being crossed with RPS. I feel the same way. However, I do have several friends in fandom who write RPS. I try not to judge. I let them know that I have a personal principle on the subject, have nothing against them as people, and will kindly decline to read anything of that nature.

It's also been my observation (from reading story descriptions only; I have never read RPS or RPF with the notable exception of a Mozart/Beethoven piece I stumbled over accidentally years ago) that there are two categories of RPF. In one category, it's the actual actors themselves, on set, off set, in their trailers, at their homes, etc. In the other category, they're other people. They're Jensen the pilot and Jared the plane mechanic. It seems to me that the latter category is less egregiously violating because the writer is really just using the physical characteristics of the actors but putting them in entirely fictional universes, wherein they enact behavior that is entirely fictional because in real life Jensen is not a pilot and Jared is not a plane mechanic. It's been my impression that many people who write in the latter category do so to avoid the incest squick that they find offensive in Wincest. In other words, they want these two attractive men to have sex, but they don't want them to be brothers, so they use a nominal RPS story that is actually fictional alternative universe.

These are just my impressions, for what they're worth.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Interesting thoughts - thanks for sharing them, :).

[village-mystic.livejournal.com]

That would be historical fiction. So maybe defining contemporary and alive real person fan fic being the squick?

[village-mystic.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned to you in private correspondence, I'm even a little self-conscious about what I'm doing with the characters - when I'm posting something instead of having it in my head. So I am right on board with you on real person adult fic.

I think that if a person is writing a contemporary story and wants to use a real person or a public figure in a public situation, that is to speculate how they might act during a public appearance when there are actual examples of how they react and act in public appearances you're okay.

I've even read a few where the actors and the characters temporarily switch places - in non-adult situations. That's for the fish-out-water reaction or a laugh, not anything too serious or too deep. Again in these situations there's a projection of how the public actions of the actor might effect something. Does this make sense?

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I've seen those as well. IDK, the whole idea of it is just squicky to me. I try not to judge and leave others to their own preferences, but this is one area where I just can't stand reading it, no matter what the situation is...

[anontfwriter.livejournal.com]

Yes! This is totally why RP fic squicks me!

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

:)

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

:)

I've tried to become less judgmental about it, since I know that a lot of people enjoy it and I try not to judge people for their kinks, though this one's still right on the borderline for me, I have to say, :(. And to be fair, I wrote this when only about two people were going to see it, lol, so I wasn't very brave when it was written, heh.

Still, I thank you for your kind words - I really appreciate them, :).

[canaa.livejournal.com]

(Hi! You don't know me from Adam, but I got here through browsing around TW fanfic.)

Once, a loooong long time ago, I was involved in a fandom that had copious amounts of RPF, and I was always made uneasy by it.

Then one of the more prolific writers of said RPF actually met one of the actors, and gave him the link to her website with her RPF.

Oh my god the explosions. The actor himself I doubt ever actually visited the site - smart man! - and I never heard of any RL consequences over it, but the fandom imploded on itself over her stupidity in giving him the link to something like that. And it made me think . . . if people, many of whom were also writing RPF, were so very uncomfortable with the idea of the actors knowing they wrote RPF about them . . .

. . . well, then maybe they shouldn't be doing it at all. They were worried over the consequences it might have on them, and in that case, maybe they should have thought better of doing it in the first place, you know?

Since then, I've wanted nothing to do with RPF. It skeeved me out before for the reasons you mentioned, and it's all the worse now because of that experience. And I can't understand why someone would realize that writing it is an invasion, potentially something with highly negative results on both the actor and themselves, and yet do it anyways.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

And I can't understand why someone would realize that writing it is an invasion, potentially something with highly negative results on both the actor and themselves, and yet do it anyways.

This.

But then, people do a lot of things that are completely incomprehensible to me, sigh. It may actually be the very fact that it's something that's taboo that makes it exciting to write. As for people being upset that someone linked to their fic, I actually see people being worried about that everywhere, in every genre of writing online. While I understand the need for privacy, I generally subscribe to the idea of not doing anything that you wouldn't want the world at large to find out about.

Then again, I also know that that's not necessarily a realistic expectation. A friend of mine's boss found out she wrote smut and sexually harassed her because of it. Still, to me, that's the boss's fault, NOT her fault for writing it, :(.

I still have to go back to the idea that it's seen as something forbidden and that makes it more exciting for the people who write it and for some, the idea of getting caught makes it that much more exciting. Of course, having said that, I don't expect everyone to be as liberal-minded about such things as I am, but I do think that one must always assume that anything that one posts will become common knowledge. Just my two cents', :).

Thanks for your thoughts, :).