please discuss

[redbrickrose]

So I was on gchat with neverneverfic and we were talking about the weemo_closet poll and the way different members of bandom bands are perceived/characterized in fandom. And I mentioned that, of all of them, Patrick Stump often seems to have the most militant of fangirls - not that we're not all intense about all of them because obviously. Just ask me how I feel about

Comments

Interesting

[nojah]

That's really interesting. I'm not sure I agree that the Pete point of view is the only reason tho. I also think it has a lot to do with what you guys where first discussing which is that Patrick is an everyman. We don't have a whole lot on him or what he does besides the fact that he's a musical genius. And he doesn't (as far as we know) act like a rock star in the bad connotation-we never see him misbehave or whine really.So he's likeable and easy to give good traits to because we don't have any evidence to the contrary. Also it seems like we could HAVE patrick. like he's attainable for all the right reasons. Again he doesn't seem to be whoring it up or whining every second or jumping off of speakers and breaking his foot or trying to kill himself in the parking lot of a best buy.

Next to Pete and his behavior, and whoring, and whining, (and I say this with ALL the love in the world for wentz) he kinda seems like a saint. Also HE PUTS UP With an ungodly amount of crap from Pete. Who is able to sustain a friendship like that unless you are an honestly good caring person? So we want to see Patrick win. We can't help but like Patrick even if we don't LIKE Patrick.

Also his voice and musical talent are frankly, amazing. Who do you know that can sing that well? Not many.

And yeah, Pete makes this all more evident because he DOES blog all the time and tell us Patrick is awesome. But it seems there has to be more than that. I think there really is. We get to SEE what Pete does too apart from the blogging and the way they behave is so vastly different........I think it works alot in Patrick's favor. Patrick is the good to Pete's bad cop.

Not that credit should not be given to Patrick on his own. But yeah. That's what I think. I think.

Re: Interesting

[redbrickrose]

Hi, sweetie! <3

No, I don't think Pete pov is the only reason either. I'm actually more interested in the way Pete plays to the fannish audience in general than in the way that affects our view of Pete&Patrick in particular. I agree with you, and with Meg, that Patrick can be perceived as the "Everyman" and I see how that's appealing. And you KNOW how I feel about what kind of person you have to be to be Pete Wentz's best friend. (Also said with an incredible amount of love for Wentz, but MY GOD. That has to be stressful and exhausting EVERY DAY).

However, you do have Patrick's anger issues, at least early on. You have the fact that he tried to strangle Pete up against a bus. You have his clear pissiness in interviews. On the other side, you have his LOVE for Pete that just comes through whenever he does talk about it - which is fairly infrequently unless I'm reading the wrong interviews. So if Patrick was more vocal and Pete was less so, would it affect our "readings" of them? I tend to think it really would. Not just the pov we identify with (honestly, if I was going to write FoB fic, I think I'd personally be more comfortable writing in Patrick pov), but the way we read them at all.

This is mental masturbation to a point, because if Pete was less vocal, would he even be Pete? I'm just fascinated by his relationship with celebrity. I mean, as I've said before, half his life is screaming into the void for attention, and then on the other side you have the clearly conscious viral marketing going on that is a part of the cryptic blog posts and the cries for attention. And then you have interviews like that one in Rolling Stone where he's kind of complaining about being in the fishbowl. WHOSE FAULT IS THAT, WENTZ? I tend to think he's fairly sincere in his cryptic blog posts but that he is also VERY VERY aware of everything he does, and that he has the most consciously contructed, performative persona of all of them, but that it's . . . not all persona? And the line is really blurry. Am I making sense? I'm at work and kind of rushed. Obviously, Pete is at the center of the FBR family to a point. It's his label. He's the one with the clothing line; he's the one signing these other bands, etc. But he is also the most vocal and has the most presence, not just by virute of being the most involved, but also because he just talks the most - and part of that is *because* he is the most involved, but part of it is just that he's Pete Wentz.

Of course, we probably pay the most attention because he is Pete Wentz. Jwalk and Tomrad have blogs (does Jwalk still? I don't even know, which may prove that point) and I don't know how much their "voices" impact fannish readings of bands they've been a part of.

I don't know that I'm drawing any conclusions at this point. Just thinking out loud.