this is an interesting read and i won't lie, i sort of jumped when it appeared on my tumblr dash since i was having the exact same discussion with a friend the other day. it's interesting how much backbone and discussion there is to fanfiction~ especially since, maybe i was corrupted young (definitely corrupted young), but from fandom to fandom, books --- > anime/manga ---> j-pop ---> k-pop, i sort of just took everything in stride. fanfics were just always part of fandom to me.
anyway, onto an actual comment. i don't necessarily disagree with what you wrote, but simply to play devil's advocate;
"Let's be honest: we don't know those random strangers' sexual preferences, ok?"
at the same time though, in a super conservative country such as south korea, even if someone is a homosexual, they are never going to go out and come and say it. in a way, it could lead to self-loathing and just pure overcompensation (something which i can pinpoint a lot of idols to, but that's a meta for another day). by writing fanfiction about them, are we not simply violating them? then there's the fact that, despite the stigma that comes form heteronormativity, statistically speaking, most of the idols written about are most probably not gay. so there is little to no canon basis or context for it (i mean, zhoumi/heechul fic could be another story, but...). it's the age old question 'why can't we just write about the 'canon' bromance instead'.
ooh, i actually think this excerpt from one of your articles linked makes another worthy point -- about collaborative space and whatnot:
The problem I see with such an approach is that it willfully ignores the ethical issues inherent in RPF by simply ignoring its reality aspect (however codified or fictionalized they may be). It is similar to the defense some popslash fans started with by perceiving boybands as artificially constructed and therefore less "real" than normal people, so that it would be OK to fictionalize them but not others. Whether the repeatedly voiced reproach of boy bands’ fakeness is true or relevant, the bands’ success in large parts relies on their ability to satisfy clearly defined-and manufactured-desires by enacting certain roles that may or may not be who they “really” are. This is where RPF picks up. Acknowledging the artificiality of their construction, the fanfic writers buy into this construction to a certain extent at the same time as they try to move beyond it. In other words, while we have to believe in the media representations, because they, in effect, constitute canon, we simultaneously want to extrapolate the persona we are given to create a complex and real human being beyond the media spectacle. This duality is what RPF thrives on: the writer and reader must simultaneously believe and disavow the “reality” presented by the media. In other words, we purposefully 'buy' the image we are given as real yet, at the same time, are constantly looking for the gaps in the performance in order to glimpse the 'real' person underneath.
lmao yeah fanfiction writers tend to be incredibly verbose (and often eloquent) people with a lot of THOUGHTS and FEELINGS so it's no surprise that there's so much meta and discussion to it, really. I started rly young, too! I guess that's why I was pretty much jumping head-first into everything without much thought. RPF just seemed a natural step for me.
mhmm yeah I thought about the closeted homosexual issue in Korea, too. but really, I think fandom's slash shipping tendencies have nothing to do with the subject's sexual preferences. it doesn't matter if the idol is straight or gay or closeted, this is one thing that fandom doesn't need much (if at all) canon basis for. i believe some of the many reasons why we choose to write slash instead of gen or het fics have been listed above lol. society's obsession with romance is also a primary reason why it's slash and not gen bromance. life is boring without love and sex! or something. as for the matter of whether it is violation to write slash fic about closeted people, well, we could make the same case for violation of privacy re: writing any RPF at all? i think all written text has a possibility of offending or hurting some people, some higher than others. we just have to take personal responsibility for what we write and decide whether we want to write it. it also comes down to the question, how would fandom know if a person was closeted?? this, again, is an assumption.
ahh that quote you posted is a really good point as well, yeah. for some people, especially writers of the 3rd RPF type, it really is the glimpses of "reality" behind the persona that make it interesting, so we take these snippets of "reality" and turn them into our headcanon. but once again, as i mentioned, this is incredibly choppy and unreliable still.
anyway, onto an actual comment. i don't necessarily disagree with what you wrote, but simply to play devil's advocate;
"Let's be honest: we don't know those random strangers' sexual preferences, ok?"
at the same time though, in a super conservative country such as south korea, even if someone is a homosexual, they are never going to go out and come and say it. in a way, it could lead to self-loathing and just pure overcompensation (something which i can pinpoint a lot of idols to, but that's a meta for another day). by writing fanfiction about them, are we not simply violating them? then there's the fact that, despite the stigma that comes form heteronormativity, statistically speaking, most of the idols written about are most probably not gay. so there is little to no canon basis or context for it (i mean, zhoumi/heechul fic could be another story, but...). it's the age old question 'why can't we just write about the 'canon' bromance instead'.
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The problem I see with such an approach is that it willfully ignores the ethical issues inherent in RPF by simply ignoring its reality aspect (however codified or fictionalized they may be). It is similar to the defense some popslash fans started with by perceiving boybands as artificially constructed and therefore less "real" than normal people, so that it would be OK to fictionalize them but not others. Whether the repeatedly voiced reproach of boy bands’ fakeness is true or relevant, the bands’ success in large parts relies on their ability to satisfy clearly defined-and manufactured-desires by enacting certain roles that may or may not be who they “really” are. This is where RPF picks up. Acknowledging the artificiality of their construction, the fanfic writers buy into this construction to a certain extent at the same time as they try to move beyond it. In other words, while we have to believe in the media representations, because they, in effect, constitute canon, we simultaneously want to extrapolate the persona we are given to create a complex and real human being beyond the media spectacle. This duality is what RPF thrives on: the writer and reader must simultaneously believe and disavow the “reality” presented by the media. In other words, we purposefully 'buy' the image we are given as real yet, at the same time, are constantly looking for the gaps in the performance in order to glimpse the 'real' person underneath.
Reply
mhmm yeah I thought about the closeted homosexual issue in Korea, too. but really, I think fandom's slash shipping tendencies have nothing to do with the subject's sexual preferences. it doesn't matter if the idol is straight or gay or closeted, this is one thing that fandom doesn't need much (if at all) canon basis for. i believe some of the many reasons why we choose to write slash instead of gen or het fics have been listed above lol. society's obsession with romance is also a primary reason why it's slash and not gen bromance. life is boring without love and sex! or something. as for the matter of whether it is violation to write slash fic about closeted people, well, we could make the same case for violation of privacy re: writing any RPF at all? i think all written text has a possibility of offending or hurting some people, some higher than others. we just have to take personal responsibility for what we write and decide whether we want to write it. it also comes down to the question, how would fandom know if a person was closeted?? this, again, is an assumption.
ahh that quote you posted is a really good point as well, yeah. for some people, especially writers of the 3rd RPF type, it really is the glimpses of "reality" behind the persona that make it interesting, so we take these snippets of "reality" and turn them into our headcanon. but once again, as i mentioned, this is incredibly choppy and unreliable still.
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