Fetishizing Actors in Fandom

[keiramarcos]

Content moved to Writing and Junk

Comments

[justalurkr]

While I have enjoyed the sex in your fiction, it is by no means the reason I reread your oeuvre about twice a year. The care your characters express for their loved ones across all personal and familial relationships is just inspiring!

[keiramarcos]

I always like to say I'm a romance writer -- I hope that always shows through.

[turtle7761]

To be honest I read slash despite the sex. I'm just not someone who needs a lot of sex in a story, I do however need well-developed characters who do what they do for a reason and not just because the writer thinks they should.

I've read real-person slash once and while it was well written I had the urge to go and scrub myself off, I just felt dirty. I, like you realize that this is a real person and not the same person as any character they've ever played on screen. It's not something I could ever read again.

[sarehkert]

I'll take a well written story over sex scenes, I enjoy reading sex scenes but it's not everything. And yes they are real people with real lives, never understood RPS.
I also don't understand how people can ask actors the "have you ever read" question at a fan con, and then get insulted when the actor says it's not their thing.

[skeddy_kat]

I agree with you 100%. It is the characters we know and love - not the actors. The folks who get all weird about their personal lives always annoy me, too. I've seen rants and laments because of people certain actors were dating or marrying. Do these "fans" think they were next in line for a relationship?

[djaddict]

I enjoy the sex scenes in fic but that is not why I read and enjoy it. I like long stories that give me something of substance besides the relationships, romance and sex.

Like snarky, intelligent, powerful characters that stand for something and have something to say ( like your characters).

I absolutely cringe when I hear someone ask an actor about fanfic or fan art, it is just so inappropriate.

[timespirt]

I always said I love the worlds you create and I mean that. I can get lost in reading the way you write my favorite characters in your stories. I love all the details you bring to them. The sex is only one small part of the epic adventure. You write the characters better than the writers of the show did. You keep me coming back for more because i want to know what comes next for them and it's so much fun. I enjoy the journey and I thank you for giving the SGA characters new adventures so I can follow along.

I think real person fic is creepy and way too far over the line.

[belle_meri]

Ah, the great fetishization debate... have you seen the big long and somewhat insulting variant of this going around Facebook and the MM romance community recently? It's reached the stage where I don't want to write anymore because of the on-going debate over the amount of, extent of, descriptiveness of, and realism of the sex scenes in slash fiction - be it original or fan fiction. Much less getting into the debate over the difference between actors and their characters.

[rosefyre]

Honestly when I reread your fic (and even read it the first time) I skim the sex at least half the time, if not more. I'm there for the plot, not the sex, and you do excellent plot.

There's nothing wrong with liking sex in fic, but fetishizing the actors is...creepy. *shrugs* RPF has its place (historical is fine, minor real people showing up in fics - i.e. someone being interviewed by Barbara Walters or going to a Lady Gaga concert - is fine), but going too far with currently living people and relationships that aren't real is...yeah. Weird is the nicest word for it.

[meteorfire]

I agree so hard. In my opinion, most sex scenes are uncomfortable and weird, but that's because of who I am as a person, and not any fault in the author's part. I read fic for the plot and the relationships. I love Ties that Bind, but I was never in it for the sex scenes. I absolutely adore the way you write the characters and how they interact. The care and emotions are what hooks me, not any sexy domination scenario.

Usually the things someone recalls from a fic are the details that stand out the most. I can tell you about that one fic with the jealous girl who stole a fancy dildo from a main character, or a fic with the son unknowingly conceived with an Ancient woman who then went back in time. I can't tell you about a single sex scene from any fic I've ever read, and I don't really understand anyone who can. It's probably all in the wiring.

[brokenamethyst]

The care you take in weaving your story shines through and, for me, is the most alluring part. You make your characters worthy of each other and take the time and care to build a foundation of strength and trust. Even in Ties that Bind, one of the most explicit stories I've read there is a gentleness to the narration and John approaches Rodney with a soft touch, Romancing him in one of the most important ways. Your characters coax their partners in a way that they needed; John makes Rodney feels safe and builds up his trust in others romantically, Harry provides Draco with and a partner who both loves him for all that he is and supports him in his endeavors. The same can be found in the Hold My Coffee series. You build strong characters and mate them with equally vivid and powerful counterparts. They guard their loves, their hearts, with a ruthlessness that I can only describe as awe inspiring. I don't get how someone could go through over 100k worth of work and only focus on the sex scenes because seriously I could write several essays based off themes and turn of characterizations found in your work.

But throughout your work there is a major distinction between healthy and dangerous obsession. Between what is appropriate behavior and what is not. Harry being obsessed with the shape of Draco's behind in his trousers is fine because it's entirely mutual, David Kleinman attempting to force his attentions on Meredith because he's attracted to her regardless of if its returned is just one of the glaring examples in your work. The theme of what constitutes a healthy relationship can be found throughout all the stories that I've read by you. I see where some stories/fandoms/movies etc can have an enthralling affect on the fans and its disturbing. Some fandoms made it so I wouldn't even look at the source material because of the harassment of the actors. Hiddleston, Patterson, Felton, Radcliffe, Watson. And far too many others. Sometimes fans are the worst part of fandom.

[keiramarcos]

I put Larry King in WMHB -- I regret it so later on I made up a reporter for the rest. It was so weird. If I ever rewrite that -- I'll remove him.

[keiramarcos]

No -- the fact is that porn is what it is. Fictional characters, as long as they're adults, having sex is what it is as well.

It's RPF that's the problem for me.

[rosefyre]

Fair. That sort of thing bugs me a LOT less than sex with real people, though - since in a sense, they're public figures doing what they actually get paid to do.

[belle_meri]

I don't even look at RPF. It disturbs me on some level I can't explain so I tend to block it out and pretend it doesn't exist.

I hope you haven't seen the thing on Facebook. It basically boils down to any woman writing gay romance is just fetishizing gay men.

[vaahtera]

RPF is something I have never understood, personally it creeps me the hell out. I once started to read a Stargate fic which to be fair started well, until... The author had negleted to mention anywhere that it was in fact RPF fic instead of fic about the characters. I stopped reading immediately and actually felt dirty. After that I haven't gone near fics which don't explicitly mention that they're based on the characters. That experience still makes me shutter.

RPF to me is just extremele creepy, it makes me uncomfrotable on a level I can't explain and most of all for me personally it feels like it's disrespecting the work of the actors.

So agree

[missyb1986]

I personally when I'm re-reading a fic I've read before..... tend to skip the sex scenes. I don't know if anyone else does, but I really prefer to read fics for the plot 95% of the time. There are a few fics I read for teh sex, but that's mainly because they're either pwp or the fic is just sex!! I adore reading your works, and will happily skim past the sex scenes to get to the plot!!

[keiramarcos]

Honestly, what that really boils down to is: any writer who writes explicit sex is fetishizing men and women.

[keiramarcos]

Yeah, it only started bothering ME after I stumbled across an explicit RPF fic with Joe F. and David H. I didn't even know that shit existed before that then I realized that using "real living people" in my fic any form was going to be difficult for me.

[elaiel]

I love the porn. But I don't always read the same fic twice for the same reason, sometimes I'm there for the angst, sometimes I'm there for the porny goodness. And for me the porn doesn't work without the story to provide context.

I usually find RPF uncomfortable for all of the reasons you and other people have mentioned. I do occasionally read RPF from a couple of authors who also write in my preferred fandoms, as I really like their style and plots, but I'll admit the reason I can manage those is it's RPF about people I don't know anything about (not my fandoms) so to me it feels like fiction. I guess that's a bit of a double standard, but it's a wider remove conceptually.

[esteefee]

holy shit preach. I am 100% into John Sheppard, intergalactic space puppy, and his adventures with his geniusy boyfriend Dr Dr Rodney McKay, and the other vastly excellent people of their acquaintance too awesome to count. That's what I'm here for. I don't want to know the actors. I do hope they have long and happy lives, but that's none of my business.

And I can't tell you how many times I have labored, labored over a story, been so proud to put out something I felt was positively unique and interesting, only to have someone comment "omg so scorching hot!!" I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for every comment in this day of kudos, but ouch.

You have hit the nail bang.

[h_mireles]

I've never gotten the appeal of real person fanfiction. The actor that particular writer is obsessed with will play many parts over his/her career, all with different backgrounds. And yes, these are real people, with real lives, real families and real relationships that are out of bounds in my opinion. If a writer is so obsessed with someone that they blur the line between person and role, perhaps they should just get some air (and a clue) and realize that once they put that shit out there online, some form is out there forever for anyone to see.

Oy - and explicit sex in fanfiction?!? Don't get me wrong, I loves me some wonderfully written sex scenes, but I believe I like the heart of a story so much more. Sex in some fanfic is a bit like icing on the cake; I really like icing, but sometimes I just want the cake.

[keiramarcos]

Righ!?

You put 50k of fucking awesome plot and get "I'll be in my bunk" as a response. It's so freaking infuriating.

[esteefee]

:((((( seriously. and it's not like you write 50K of them shopping for candles. You have a talent for making wonderful shit happen (and monstrously cool world-building) so you'd think they could pluck like one concept out of all of that to comment on instead of "oooh hot smut!"

[em_kellesvig]

I drew that same hard line about twenty years ago in the Highlander fandom: wouldn't write RPF/S, wouldn't read it, wouldn't edit it. These people have real lives; don't go making shit up. Didn't make me many friends then or since. Oh, well.