Dude, hand me my tinfoil hat. The pod people are coming.
Please, please save me from the crazed Domlijah 'shippers. And here, I don't mean the Dom/Lij fiction-writing/reading folks, but the hardcore, creepy conspiracy theorists. Because let's call them what they really are, shall we? Conspiracy. Theorists.
I've been NoMail on LotR_RPS and CTB for quite some time now, and even when I had the list coming into my inbox I skipped all the discussions -- I was there for one reason, and one reason only, and if he was in a 'fic, I was going to read it. ^_^ Until I got bogged down and had to go NoMail, of course.
I jumped into LotR fandom just after FotR came out, totally oblivious to the early whispers that something had "gone down." I was simply pleased that I had finally found my fandom, and could actually put down some roots.
Over time, I became only distantly aware that there was an, um, interesting section of fandom that wanted to believe that Dom and Elijah were together in real life. Fine, whatever. You do that. No skin off my nose. Just keep it amongst yourselves, ok?
More recently, however, the ramifications of this belief have become too difficult to ignore. (See esorlehcar's well-reasoned post and the links leading off from it, as well as the Guardian article that has fueled the fire this time around.) And I've tried, believe me. I mean, there's been some really stupid things going on in this fandom, and crazed RLCouple!Domlijah fans are not the only weird sideshow act out there. I shook my head when I heard that some fan had shown a Merry/Pippin photomanip to Dom and Billeh, and when I heard that someone else had shoved RPS under Sir Ian's nose.
I was under the impression that we were all here to participate in the community -- in our community, which is, in many ways, an enclosed one, not particularly accessable to outsiders. Sure, you can plug "RPS" or "slash" or any number of words into Google and immediately come up with relevant links, but in order to do that you must already be aware on some level of those terms. There has always been an unwritten rule, across fandoms, that you do not confront celebrities with slash, or for that matter, with fan works in general. You simply do not do this. If a celebrity chooses to search for fan creative works on the 'net, then they're more than welcome to do it, but we have no business choosing for them, nor, if the work isn't ours, do we have any business choosing for other fans.
It makes you wonder and yearn for the "old days," that are only a few years gone now, when slash fans on the whole had some sense. What creeps me out the most is that these inappropriate gestures (the photomanip, showing RPS to Sir Ian, etc.) used to be the realm of trolls out to sabotage slash fandom. Why have we decided to troll ourselves?
But getting back to the more immediate issue -- TheyAreSoDoingIt!Domlijah. It seems somewhere along the way "I want to believe" became, for a small section of fans, "the Truth" and now it's hurting all of us. I'm very grateful to the first writers of Lotrips for their efforts to remove some of the stigma of RPS, but look at what's happening to all of their hard work! One step forward, two (or in this case, twenty-eight thousand) steps back.
I want to believe a lot of things about the LotR cast myself, *cough*Viggo&Sean*cough* but I recognize that the important part of that phrase, "I want to believe," is "want" not "believe." It's fuelled, on my part, by desire, and only by desire. There is no truth in it, because there is no way for me to know the truth. Even an actor's public persona is at least to some degree no more than a myth.
Hell, I'm just as likely as the next RPSer to squee over a look, a touch, a tone of voice between my primary pairing. Personally, however, I'd like to think that these moments of brotherly affection are indicitave not of some big secret love, but rather are the natural result of men who are comfortable with their masculinity and sexuality. I mean, come on. Look at how hard it is to find guys these days who hug each other without observing the "belt-buckle rule," let alone hug each other at all. Good lord, I've been witness to so many displays of machismo it makes my stomach turn. For goodness sake, let's just whip 'em out right now and measure 'em, shall we?
As a friend of mine said to her male students (and others), female reaction to the LotR films just goes to show that women like men with long hair who cry and hug each other. I am sure that the vast majority of female LotR fans are not slashers, so it can't be the PrettyBoys!DoingEachOther thing. We are not legion, even if we'd like to believe we are.
I, for one, would like to see more heterosexual and homosexual men who are comfortable enough in their own skin, with their own selves, that they don't need outside validation; they can simply be. I'd like to believe that the LotR actors have done exactly that. What I would like to know is why we can't let Dom and 'Lij be? Gay? Straight? Bi? Who knows? Who cares? And I'm sorry, no one out there has the right to decide things for other people, so the "we are outing them because they are sending us subliminal/coded messages telling us to" is so ridiculous as to be worthy of psychological investigation. Wow.
Please, at least make an effort to come up with plausible reasons for outing people who may or may not be gay. Unless Elijah has specifically called you and ten of your closest friends and has ASKED you to spread these rumours, has TOLD you that puce shoes with lime green laces on the last Wednesday of the month means Dom has forgotten to pick up milk from the store, and you have RECORDED this conversation and are ready to not only share it with the world but to also have it verified by an independent and unbiased third party, well... Until then, trust me when I say that the magazine -- the TV -- the picture in the newspaper is not talking to you. If it starts speaking again, please, back away slowly, double up on your dosage, and call a certified professional right away. Please. I'm worried for you. Talk about shades of Naked Lunch.
Side-note about the colour-coded clothing: Has it occured to anyone that perhaps Dom or 'Lij doesn't like a particular colour, and that's why he hasn't worn it before? I am not big on yellow clothing, but I have one dress that happens to be yellow, and I love it very, very much. If I wear it, am I somehow proclaiming to the world that secretly I am a member of the Reform Party of Canada? Good lord, no. :::spit, spit::: It means I happen to like that dress, in spite of the fact that I'm not big on yellow.
My cat tells me that Sir Ian is really heterosexual and has had to hide it under the guise of gay activism in order to make it as an actor in Great Britian and Europe as a whole because it lends him an "artistic" air that he would not otherwise have. She also says that Nick is Sir Ian's beard and vice versa; he too, is heterosexual, and is really dating Franka. Elijah's simply helping Nick out on that count by being seen in public with her. So. There. You now know the truth. I suddenly feel very liberated.
Oh, and she also has a bridge up for sale. Any takers?
Funnily enough, it seems some of these dedicated fans don't understand that Hollywood does not extend outside of the States. The film communities of other countries are, well, the film communities of other countries, and acceptance of homosexuality varies wildly within each. The LotR movies are NOT Hollywood movies. They are part of the NZ film industry, and perceptions of actors, acting, and the culture around them may be entirely different than in the States. For instance, I can tell you, sitting as I do just across the border, that it's a whole different ballgame up here. Why would Dom and Lij hide their Big!Secret!Love to begin with, especially since they were outside of Hollywood? How could it have been covered up so fast? Or how about the fact that Dom comes from a European tradition instead of an American one? I am so very, very tired of ethnocentric assumptions made by people who have no conception of how different the world can be. To top it all off, 'Lij and Dom spent more than a year with an openly gay man, and are close friends with that openly gay man, so I really can't see how this big conspiracy would have begun in the first place. At the very least, the assumptions that are being made are dragging Sir Ian's reputation through the mud. I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that people would be that disrespectful in their zeal to convert others to the cause.
Embedded, believe it or not, in this insistence that Domlijah must hide their homosexuality is an element of homophobia, heterophobia, and Orientalism. Go ahead, pick your favourite one of the three --
1. Homosexuality is somehow outside of the realm of normal behaviour, and therefore there is no way Dom or 'Lij could be openly gay as it would not be acceptable to the American movie industry. After all, there are no gay men in Hollywood.
2. The heterosexuals are Putting Them Down; after all, heterosexuals have an agenda that includes wiping out homosexuality.
3. Dom and 'Lij are somehow outside of normal, mundane experience. They are exotic. Homosexuality is also outside of normal, mundane experience, and is exotic and special. Clearly, as Dom and Lij's relationship is a special one, it must also be a gay one.
I am also shocked that this small but vocal section of fandom doesn't understand the harm they are doing to the rest of us. As I said, believe what you want about their relationship, but "outing" Domlijah not only makes you sound crazy, it tars and feathers the rest of us, AND feeds the media machine that is so very, very fond of making all fans over into whackjobs.
I'm thrilled that Fictional!Elijah and Fictional!Dominic are shagging each other like rabbits and share some sort of Pure Love, but let's keep in mind that even though there's a "Real" in RPS, none of us are close personal friends of Domlijah, and therefore are about as close to knowing the true Elijah Wood as we are to meeting Old Gaffer Gamgee.
And I tell you, if Dom, 'Lij, and the rest of the LotR actors suddenly stop touching, laughing, and generally spending time close to each other in public, I'll be blaming the WeMustOut!Domlijah fans. I suspect I won't be the only one.
Besides, we all know that Dom's not shagging 'Lij. How could he, when it'd break Billeh's heart? ^_~
Holy crap. All this ridiculous obsession with outing and coded messages and the like really makes me want to grab the aluminum foil and fashion some sort of stylish headgear out of it before all MY secret desires are aired in public and someone decides to out me as the [insert passion of choice] I clearly must be.
...BTW? I don't have a cat.
I've been NoMail on LotR_RPS and CTB for quite some time now, and even when I had the list coming into my inbox I skipped all the discussions -- I was there for one reason, and one reason only, and if he was in a 'fic, I was going to read it. ^_^ Until I got bogged down and had to go NoMail, of course.
I jumped into LotR fandom just after FotR came out, totally oblivious to the early whispers that something had "gone down." I was simply pleased that I had finally found my fandom, and could actually put down some roots.
Over time, I became only distantly aware that there was an, um, interesting section of fandom that wanted to believe that Dom and Elijah were together in real life. Fine, whatever. You do that. No skin off my nose. Just keep it amongst yourselves, ok?
More recently, however, the ramifications of this belief have become too difficult to ignore. (See esorlehcar's well-reasoned post and the links leading off from it, as well as the Guardian article that has fueled the fire this time around.) And I've tried, believe me. I mean, there's been some really stupid things going on in this fandom, and crazed RLCouple!Domlijah fans are not the only weird sideshow act out there. I shook my head when I heard that some fan had shown a Merry/Pippin photomanip to Dom and Billeh, and when I heard that someone else had shoved RPS under Sir Ian's nose.
I was under the impression that we were all here to participate in the community -- in our community, which is, in many ways, an enclosed one, not particularly accessable to outsiders. Sure, you can plug "RPS" or "slash" or any number of words into Google and immediately come up with relevant links, but in order to do that you must already be aware on some level of those terms. There has always been an unwritten rule, across fandoms, that you do not confront celebrities with slash, or for that matter, with fan works in general. You simply do not do this. If a celebrity chooses to search for fan creative works on the 'net, then they're more than welcome to do it, but we have no business choosing for them, nor, if the work isn't ours, do we have any business choosing for other fans.
It makes you wonder and yearn for the "old days," that are only a few years gone now, when slash fans on the whole had some sense. What creeps me out the most is that these inappropriate gestures (the photomanip, showing RPS to Sir Ian, etc.) used to be the realm of trolls out to sabotage slash fandom. Why have we decided to troll ourselves?
But getting back to the more immediate issue -- TheyAreSoDoingIt!Domlijah. It seems somewhere along the way "I want to believe" became, for a small section of fans, "the Truth" and now it's hurting all of us. I'm very grateful to the first writers of Lotrips for their efforts to remove some of the stigma of RPS, but look at what's happening to all of their hard work! One step forward, two (or in this case, twenty-eight thousand) steps back.
I want to believe a lot of things about the LotR cast myself, *cough*Viggo&Sean*cough* but I recognize that the important part of that phrase, "I want to believe," is "want" not "believe." It's fuelled, on my part, by desire, and only by desire. There is no truth in it, because there is no way for me to know the truth. Even an actor's public persona is at least to some degree no more than a myth.
Hell, I'm just as likely as the next RPSer to squee over a look, a touch, a tone of voice between my primary pairing. Personally, however, I'd like to think that these moments of brotherly affection are indicitave not of some big secret love, but rather are the natural result of men who are comfortable with their masculinity and sexuality. I mean, come on. Look at how hard it is to find guys these days who hug each other without observing the "belt-buckle rule," let alone hug each other at all. Good lord, I've been witness to so many displays of machismo it makes my stomach turn. For goodness sake, let's just whip 'em out right now and measure 'em, shall we?
As a friend of mine said to her male students (and others), female reaction to the LotR films just goes to show that women like men with long hair who cry and hug each other. I am sure that the vast majority of female LotR fans are not slashers, so it can't be the PrettyBoys!DoingEachOther thing. We are not legion, even if we'd like to believe we are.
I, for one, would like to see more heterosexual and homosexual men who are comfortable enough in their own skin, with their own selves, that they don't need outside validation; they can simply be. I'd like to believe that the LotR actors have done exactly that. What I would like to know is why we can't let Dom and 'Lij be? Gay? Straight? Bi? Who knows? Who cares? And I'm sorry, no one out there has the right to decide things for other people, so the "we are outing them because they are sending us subliminal/coded messages telling us to" is so ridiculous as to be worthy of psychological investigation. Wow.
Please, at least make an effort to come up with plausible reasons for outing people who may or may not be gay. Unless Elijah has specifically called you and ten of your closest friends and has ASKED you to spread these rumours, has TOLD you that puce shoes with lime green laces on the last Wednesday of the month means Dom has forgotten to pick up milk from the store, and you have RECORDED this conversation and are ready to not only share it with the world but to also have it verified by an independent and unbiased third party, well... Until then, trust me when I say that the magazine -- the TV -- the picture in the newspaper is not talking to you. If it starts speaking again, please, back away slowly, double up on your dosage, and call a certified professional right away. Please. I'm worried for you. Talk about shades of Naked Lunch.
Side-note about the colour-coded clothing: Has it occured to anyone that perhaps Dom or 'Lij doesn't like a particular colour, and that's why he hasn't worn it before? I am not big on yellow clothing, but I have one dress that happens to be yellow, and I love it very, very much. If I wear it, am I somehow proclaiming to the world that secretly I am a member of the Reform Party of Canada? Good lord, no. :::spit, spit::: It means I happen to like that dress, in spite of the fact that I'm not big on yellow.
My cat tells me that Sir Ian is really heterosexual and has had to hide it under the guise of gay activism in order to make it as an actor in Great Britian and Europe as a whole because it lends him an "artistic" air that he would not otherwise have. She also says that Nick is Sir Ian's beard and vice versa; he too, is heterosexual, and is really dating Franka. Elijah's simply helping Nick out on that count by being seen in public with her. So. There. You now know the truth. I suddenly feel very liberated.
Oh, and she also has a bridge up for sale. Any takers?
Funnily enough, it seems some of these dedicated fans don't understand that Hollywood does not extend outside of the States. The film communities of other countries are, well, the film communities of other countries, and acceptance of homosexuality varies wildly within each. The LotR movies are NOT Hollywood movies. They are part of the NZ film industry, and perceptions of actors, acting, and the culture around them may be entirely different than in the States. For instance, I can tell you, sitting as I do just across the border, that it's a whole different ballgame up here. Why would Dom and Lij hide their Big!Secret!Love to begin with, especially since they were outside of Hollywood? How could it have been covered up so fast? Or how about the fact that Dom comes from a European tradition instead of an American one? I am so very, very tired of ethnocentric assumptions made by people who have no conception of how different the world can be. To top it all off, 'Lij and Dom spent more than a year with an openly gay man, and are close friends with that openly gay man, so I really can't see how this big conspiracy would have begun in the first place. At the very least, the assumptions that are being made are dragging Sir Ian's reputation through the mud. I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that people would be that disrespectful in their zeal to convert others to the cause.
Embedded, believe it or not, in this insistence that Domlijah must hide their homosexuality is an element of homophobia, heterophobia, and Orientalism. Go ahead, pick your favourite one of the three --
1. Homosexuality is somehow outside of the realm of normal behaviour, and therefore there is no way Dom or 'Lij could be openly gay as it would not be acceptable to the American movie industry. After all, there are no gay men in Hollywood.
2. The heterosexuals are Putting Them Down; after all, heterosexuals have an agenda that includes wiping out homosexuality.
3. Dom and 'Lij are somehow outside of normal, mundane experience. They are exotic. Homosexuality is also outside of normal, mundane experience, and is exotic and special. Clearly, as Dom and Lij's relationship is a special one, it must also be a gay one.
I am also shocked that this small but vocal section of fandom doesn't understand the harm they are doing to the rest of us. As I said, believe what you want about their relationship, but "outing" Domlijah not only makes you sound crazy, it tars and feathers the rest of us, AND feeds the media machine that is so very, very fond of making all fans over into whackjobs.
I'm thrilled that Fictional!Elijah and Fictional!Dominic are shagging each other like rabbits and share some sort of Pure Love, but let's keep in mind that even though there's a "Real" in RPS, none of us are close personal friends of Domlijah, and therefore are about as close to knowing the true Elijah Wood as we are to meeting Old Gaffer Gamgee.
And I tell you, if Dom, 'Lij, and the rest of the LotR actors suddenly stop touching, laughing, and generally spending time close to each other in public, I'll be blaming the WeMustOut!Domlijah fans. I suspect I won't be the only one.
Besides, we all know that Dom's not shagging 'Lij. How could he, when it'd break Billeh's heart? ^_~
Holy crap. All this ridiculous obsession with outing and coded messages and the like really makes me want to grab the aluminum foil and fashion some sort of stylish headgear out of it before all MY secret desires are aired in public and someone decides to out me as the [insert passion of choice] I clearly must be.
...BTW? I don't have a cat.