Keira Marcos (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keiramarcos) wrote2017-08-26 11:06 pm
keiramarcos) wrote2017-08-26 11:06 pm
Entry tags:
Fetishizing Actors in Fandom
Content moved to Writing and Junk
Honestly, before this post I wasn't even really aware of RPF. I mean, I knew it was out there, that it existed, but it ever impacted me. I'm in a fandom for the story and the characters, I read a fanfiction for the plot. I enjoy the wonderful worlds or interpretations of authors like you who really care about what they're putting out there in the world. That's why I pretty much reread your entire body of work every year or so, you have a story that I want to take in.
For me fetishizing the actors takes away from every part of a fandom. I don't want to think of the actor, I don't care about them beyond they're ability to bring a character to life. They are a vessel, nothing more or less. Once you focus on them or bring their lives into things they're a little less that beloved character and very much a real person. No thanks. Keep the appreciation for an actor's talent and for characters separate. It's a shallower reason than some of the other commenters here, but it's how I feel. I never hated it because I never understood why it existed and had zero interest in it.
For me fetishizing the actors takes away from every part of a fandom. I don't want to think of the actor, I don't care about them beyond they're ability to bring a character to life. They are a vessel, nothing more or less. Once you focus on them or bring their lives into things they're a little less that beloved character and very much a real person. No thanks. Keep the appreciation for an actor's talent and for characters separate. It's a shallower reason than some of the other commenters here, but it's how I feel. I never hated it because I never understood why it existed and had zero interest in it.
Edited 2017-08-31 12:32 (UTC)
I believe that what you have said should be written in a "Poster for the perfect fan": enjoy the character and respect the actor, because they are two completely different and distinct realities, in fact many actors are very good at interpreting personalities completely different from oneself, personalities with which they sometimes do not share anything in terms of values or beliefs ... how is it possible to confuse / merge the two things?
About the rest: I prefer to read stories with a stunning plot and a good job of deepening the characters, sex can be an added ingredient in a successful blend - as in your stories, where sex is never an end to itself - otherwise it's just pwp, and some of these stories are really well written, no doubt, but the "plot" ends there ... I can't believe one can read a story of over 500 pages to remember only sex scenes!
About the rest: I prefer to read stories with a stunning plot and a good job of deepening the characters, sex can be an added ingredient in a successful blend - as in your stories, where sex is never an end to itself - otherwise it's just pwp, and some of these stories are really well written, no doubt, but the "plot" ends there ... I can't believe one can read a story of over 500 pages to remember only sex scenes!
I just don't understand some people, and really with shit like this who wants to know how these people's brains work. There's no denying I like having a visual of the person I'm reading about, it's really helpful for OCs or the lesser known characters of a fandom. It helps let me know where the author was coming from because let's face it who continually wants to stop the flow of what they're reading for an aside that comes down to, oh he was 6'2" and had dark hair that came down to his shoulders and blue eyes and a really built body. No it's much easier to say this actor was who I chose for the character's appearance, now on to the fic. Why would you want to blend the actor into the character. That's like saying well I saw that person eating a booger so naturally the character in the story eats boogers. It's a disgusting example I know but that's what it comes down to.
I also by no means read fics only for the sex, well you do write wonderful hot steamy smut but personally I really enjoy the plots points, subtle foreshadowing and people getting what's coming to them! I have never understood rpf, I think the closest I've ever come to reading one was this bizarre slash fic about John Stewart and Steven Colbert - but even then it was about the personas they portray. While I love reading mature fics what I find I really look for are LONG fics. The authors that tend to write 300k fics generally put a bit of spice in them, but not all. I also find the authors who have the wonderful ability to pen such works are also phenomenal writers. While it's regrettable that people are arseholes, that doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon, but I think it's always good for a reader to try check themselves on what exactly they're reading/ chatting and how it's being portrayed so they don't fall into dangerous, demmeing, degrading, or just plain trolling.
P.s. I actually really hate having visuals for characters. I much prefer written discriptions because even for fics based on visual mediums so my mind will personalize the characters for each enviroment, i.e. Sherlock as a serial killer looks far different than in a sentinel fic for me. But then I've always had a problem connecting actors to the characters they play......
I was 14 before I realized Hon Solo, Indiana Jones, and the President from Airforce One were all played the same actor....... 😖
I was 14 before I realized Hon Solo, Indiana Jones, and the President from Airforce One were all played the same actor....... 😖
There’s a nice Avengers fic on AO3 that deals with this exact issue. Bucky Barnes gets pissed off about people writing RPF about him and Steve. It’s a good read and it makes its point. By the end of it I was getting really indignant on poor Bucky’s behalf, which I guess goes to show how easy it is to blur that line. I don’t have the link but it’s probably easy enough to find it in a search. (It’s Steve/Bucky.)
This is an interesting conversation to have about fandom and what we look for when playing in it. Personally, I enjoy sex in a fic as much as I do the plot. As a writer sex is probably the hardest thing for me to write and so when I come across someone who does it well I enjoy it! Like really enjoy it, but I also study it, and the author who wrote it, which I think each and every writer does with every book and fic they read whether they notice it or not.
Now I haven't noticed this going around on facebook or anything but I have noticed a trend towards obsessive behaviour and questionable moral ethics in the community just in and around the sites I frequent and the people that comment in them. It's interesting to look at and wonder if this is a case of expanding social gratification (where the internet and immediacy has made it almost normal to seek out and interact with the world in a way that is/can be contrary to reality and the moral ethics that are branded into our brains in otherwise more normal social interactions (face to face)) or is it more a question of a break down in our social communities where people spend more time and effort hiding in computers and phone screens than in reality? Is it this break down in human interaction that makes it seem like the rights and feelings of these people who act out our favourite characters on screen don't matter? Or that these people don't really exist for us at all? Maybe it's a matter of just not caring?
I find myself really hoping it's not that last one. I can forgive social evolution no matter the ramifications but willful ignorance just pisses me off.
Now I haven't noticed this going around on facebook or anything but I have noticed a trend towards obsessive behaviour and questionable moral ethics in the community just in and around the sites I frequent and the people that comment in them. It's interesting to look at and wonder if this is a case of expanding social gratification (where the internet and immediacy has made it almost normal to seek out and interact with the world in a way that is/can be contrary to reality and the moral ethics that are branded into our brains in otherwise more normal social interactions (face to face)) or is it more a question of a break down in our social communities where people spend more time and effort hiding in computers and phone screens than in reality? Is it this break down in human interaction that makes it seem like the rights and feelings of these people who act out our favourite characters on screen don't matter? Or that these people don't really exist for us at all? Maybe it's a matter of just not caring?
I find myself really hoping it's not that last one. I can forgive social evolution no matter the ramifications but willful ignorance just pisses me off.
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