But what are your thoughts on yaoi?
Some things have been happening on my flist recently that made me want to take a step back and think for a minute. I mentioned some of this stuff on Twitter before, but, well, it's Twitter. Not exactly the prime location for navel-gazing tl;dr.
So I've been in American Idol fandom for almost a year now, and more active in this fandom than I have been in any other for years and years. It's also the first time I've ever really been involved in an RPF fandom. I've certainly read no small amount of popslash/J2/J-pop RPF fic in the past, but this is the first time I've actually cared about the fandom objects beyond "this person is an interesting character archetype in fic, I'd like to read more." I actually like Kris and Adam as human beings, care about their careers, and actively seek out pictures/media/interviews/etc about them. So I guess this is the first time I've ever been motivated to think about what the "Real People" part of RPF fandom actually means.
I've been catching the edges of it on my flist for a while, from friending a lot of Merlin fic writers back during s1, but apparently the whole fandom is in an uproar over a number of pictures being circulated because one (?) of Bradley's friends had an unlocked Facebook account. Basically, at first I just made a quizzical face at the posts on my flist and went about my business. I finally saw the whole situation laid out at ontd_merlin today and reading the comments of that post really gave me pause. Most people are uncomfortable with the situation, some people acknowledge the general skeeviness but still want to have the pictures, and a few people are outright horrified and talk about leaving the fandom because of it.
Um, yeah. Posts like that happen like every week in AI fandom and the reaction is always across the board "squeeeee new pics! \o/" People stalk Facebooks and Myspace accounts, the Twitter accounts of not only Kris and Adam but of Kris and Adam's family, their friends, their family members' friends, their band members, their band members girlfriends, Kris's wife, Kris's wife's friends, Adam's ex-boyfriends, Adam's ex-boyfriends' roommates and mothers and... and it just never stops. Everything is monitored. EVERYTHING. And the second anything interesting happens (and, to be honest, everything uninteresting too) it's instantaneously transmitted through the whole of fandom via twitter/tumblr/lj.
Kris and Adam have both commented on how creepy and invasive they find this, and Adam's brother periodically goes off on fans that get into his personal space, so to speak, but that doesn't stop it. And no one in fandom even blinks an eye at it, this behavior is like the foundation of Idol fandom as a whole. I think one of the first big posts ontd_ai ever had was fandom raping Adam's now-deleted myspace account. Some of the biggest fandoms memes are from random shit written to or by Adam on his myspace, and if someone had ever said that was offensive the response would probably just be "lol sorry about your life." The philosophy, if there is one, is simply that if it ain't bolted down, it's fair game.
I don't know, it's just that I was reading that ontd_merlin post and boggling at the difference between my reaction to the Bradley pictures ("Oh, that's nice. He's cute.") and the overall fandom reaction ("OMG THIS IS AN MORAL DILEMMA!") It reminded me that I didn't use to be so inured. I remember, probably back in the first Kris Appreciation Post at ontd_ai, someone posted that cute pic of him waking up with amazing bedhead and I replied something to the effect of, "omg unf, but this pic is clearly from a friend's Facebook, I don't feel comfortable saving this." LOL, uh, that pic is definitely on my hard drive right now, along with 389473298473298423948 others obtained through similar means and I don't even think twice about it. LOL, not gonna lie, it makes me feel kinda like a moral degenerate that my opinion about this kind of privacy issue wasn't changed through, say, reasoned debate, but just by prolonged immersion in a particular type of fandom culture. D:
I'm not saying that Idol fandom is wrong for being blase about it and Merlin fandom is right for being outraged over it, the entire issue is grey and squishy and debatable. I'm just saying I'm extremely ambivalent about the fact that I personally went from one POV to the other without noticing it. Although at least I can still look at SPN RPF fandom and get totally creeped out by the way they (apparently) hacked Jared's little sister's Facebook, and have even posted information like home addresses and tax information. o.O (IDK, just repeating what I've heard. I stay out of the non-fic SPN fandom, lol any group that makes AI fandom look sane in comparison should be cordoned off by hazmat teams)
A few weeks ago someone on my flist in a different RPF fandom made a post about feeling uncomfortable with some of the super invasive sources fic writers draw from, including information that the fandom objects, the Real People, made an effort to keep private and are doubtlessly unhappy with being disseminated. This sort of started me thinking about this stuff, as I tried to picture what AI fic would be like without any of the information amassed through the truly incredible amount of cyberstalking that goes on. I mean, to begin with, Brad as a character wouldn't even exist, because Adam's been extremely careful not to discuss their relationship in detail. ....I think he hasn't ever even publicly said Brad's name, now that I think about it.
Anyway, so I read that post and even though, like with the Merlin stuff, I was totally boggling at it because I'm coming at the issue from such a diametrically opposed fandom perspective, I also couldn't really disagree with anything she was saying. One of the reasons I don't read Bradam fic is because, to be honest, it kind of squicks me. Like I said earlier, this my first time thinking about RPF objects not just as characters, but as Real People. And, idk, it's their real relationship people are writing about. They were in love, and then they weren't, and no one knows anything about it other than the fact that it clearly broke Adam's heart. I've never been in love like that, but what if tomorrow I got famous and people were writing fic about my relationship with my mother? I would want to kill them.
And if I ever read fic that used the highly personal information that came out when fandom found Kris's wife's college blog (which, even with people ACTIVELY trying to keep the information on the DL, took like a week to spread through the whole fandom) I would be horrified. People's real pain being used for entertainment value is really gross when you think about it.
But where's the line? If information exists on the internet fandom will find it, and then they'll discuss it and speculate about it, and probably make macros and memes about it, and then eventually it's just part of the overall collective fandom knowledge bank. If you're a part of the fandom you can't, idk, isolate yourself from any information obtained by creepy means. LOL the internet doesn't work like that. And on another level there's the argument that people who find themselves latched onto by RPF and transformed into Real People should know better than to google themselves and click, uh, ANYTHING written by fans, in which case fandom should be entitled to do whatever they please. But, ugh, I don't even want to get into my issues with the 4th wall in RPF fandoms, particularly Idol. That's like another 32948372948379 word essay in and of itself.
I think part of my unease with these issues is my recent personal observation that RPF fandoms are FUCKING CRAY and I'm starting to think that's an effect of RPF as a phenomenon and not an unfunny coincidence. Like I said, Idol fandom is basically founded on profound invasions of privacy of its Real People, and, well, when you start with that as your baseline for behavior, is it that surprising when fans go from there to greater and greater invasions of privacy not only of the Real People but also of other fans?
Fans are obsessive, that's like the definition of fandom. But some fans want to know every single intimate detail of the Real People's lives and feel entitled to seek them out, which leads to things like, say, hacking Jared's sister's Facebook, hacking Adam's e-mail, Adam having to change his phone number three times because fans kept getting hold of his number... Cray. And I think you can't escape the fact that the fandom atmosphere is encouraging towards this mindset that the Real People have zero right to privacy (and nor do their friends/family/etc etc).
And since the cray fans see no problem doing these things to the objects of their obsession, obviously they have even less problem doing the same to other fans who they dislike. The fact that I can think of 4 separate instances off the top of my head of REAL LIFE STALKING that occurred to girls/women in Idol fandom is fucking chilling. And that's not even taking into account the amount of cyberstalking and harassment that the fans enact on other fans.
LOL *facepalm* when I lay it all out like that I don't even know why I'm in this fandom. Except for the fact that I've met good people here too, and I do still kinda like that Kris Allen guy.
So what's my conclusion to all this tl;dr? I don't have one really, other than the conclusion that this is the last time I'm doing a Real Person Fandom lol. These are just a bunch of fandom-related issues that have been bothering me lately, and I thought writing it down it might help organize my thoughts.
So I've been in American Idol fandom for almost a year now, and more active in this fandom than I have been in any other for years and years. It's also the first time I've ever really been involved in an RPF fandom. I've certainly read no small amount of popslash/J2/J-pop RPF fic in the past, but this is the first time I've actually cared about the fandom objects beyond "this person is an interesting character archetype in fic, I'd like to read more." I actually like Kris and Adam as human beings, care about their careers, and actively seek out pictures/media/interviews/etc about them. So I guess this is the first time I've ever been motivated to think about what the "Real People" part of RPF fandom actually means.
I've been catching the edges of it on my flist for a while, from friending a lot of Merlin fic writers back during s1, but apparently the whole fandom is in an uproar over a number of pictures being circulated because one (?) of Bradley's friends had an unlocked Facebook account. Basically, at first I just made a quizzical face at the posts on my flist and went about my business. I finally saw the whole situation laid out at ontd_merlin today and reading the comments of that post really gave me pause. Most people are uncomfortable with the situation, some people acknowledge the general skeeviness but still want to have the pictures, and a few people are outright horrified and talk about leaving the fandom because of it.
Um, yeah. Posts like that happen like every week in AI fandom and the reaction is always across the board "squeeeee new pics! \o/" People stalk Facebooks and Myspace accounts, the Twitter accounts of not only Kris and Adam but of Kris and Adam's family, their friends, their family members' friends, their band members, their band members girlfriends, Kris's wife, Kris's wife's friends, Adam's ex-boyfriends, Adam's ex-boyfriends' roommates and mothers and... and it just never stops. Everything is monitored. EVERYTHING. And the second anything interesting happens (and, to be honest, everything uninteresting too) it's instantaneously transmitted through the whole of fandom via twitter/tumblr/lj.
Kris and Adam have both commented on how creepy and invasive they find this, and Adam's brother periodically goes off on fans that get into his personal space, so to speak, but that doesn't stop it. And no one in fandom even blinks an eye at it, this behavior is like the foundation of Idol fandom as a whole. I think one of the first big posts ontd_ai ever had was fandom raping Adam's now-deleted myspace account. Some of the biggest fandoms memes are from random shit written to or by Adam on his myspace, and if someone had ever said that was offensive the response would probably just be "lol sorry about your life." The philosophy, if there is one, is simply that if it ain't bolted down, it's fair game.
I don't know, it's just that I was reading that ontd_merlin post and boggling at the difference between my reaction to the Bradley pictures ("Oh, that's nice. He's cute.") and the overall fandom reaction ("OMG THIS IS AN MORAL DILEMMA!") It reminded me that I didn't use to be so inured. I remember, probably back in the first Kris Appreciation Post at ontd_ai, someone posted that cute pic of him waking up with amazing bedhead and I replied something to the effect of, "omg unf, but this pic is clearly from a friend's Facebook, I don't feel comfortable saving this." LOL, uh, that pic is definitely on my hard drive right now, along with 389473298473298423948 others obtained through similar means and I don't even think twice about it. LOL, not gonna lie, it makes me feel kinda like a moral degenerate that my opinion about this kind of privacy issue wasn't changed through, say, reasoned debate, but just by prolonged immersion in a particular type of fandom culture. D:
I'm not saying that Idol fandom is wrong for being blase about it and Merlin fandom is right for being outraged over it, the entire issue is grey and squishy and debatable. I'm just saying I'm extremely ambivalent about the fact that I personally went from one POV to the other without noticing it. Although at least I can still look at SPN RPF fandom and get totally creeped out by the way they (apparently) hacked Jared's little sister's Facebook, and have even posted information like home addresses and tax information. o.O (IDK, just repeating what I've heard. I stay out of the non-fic SPN fandom, lol any group that makes AI fandom look sane in comparison should be cordoned off by hazmat teams)
A few weeks ago someone on my flist in a different RPF fandom made a post about feeling uncomfortable with some of the super invasive sources fic writers draw from, including information that the fandom objects, the Real People, made an effort to keep private and are doubtlessly unhappy with being disseminated. This sort of started me thinking about this stuff, as I tried to picture what AI fic would be like without any of the information amassed through the truly incredible amount of cyberstalking that goes on. I mean, to begin with, Brad as a character wouldn't even exist, because Adam's been extremely careful not to discuss their relationship in detail. ....I think he hasn't ever even publicly said Brad's name, now that I think about it.
Anyway, so I read that post and even though, like with the Merlin stuff, I was totally boggling at it because I'm coming at the issue from such a diametrically opposed fandom perspective, I also couldn't really disagree with anything she was saying. One of the reasons I don't read Bradam fic is because, to be honest, it kind of squicks me. Like I said earlier, this my first time thinking about RPF objects not just as characters, but as Real People. And, idk, it's their real relationship people are writing about. They were in love, and then they weren't, and no one knows anything about it other than the fact that it clearly broke Adam's heart. I've never been in love like that, but what if tomorrow I got famous and people were writing fic about my relationship with my mother? I would want to kill them.
And if I ever read fic that used the highly personal information that came out when fandom found Kris's wife's college blog (which, even with people ACTIVELY trying to keep the information on the DL, took like a week to spread through the whole fandom) I would be horrified. People's real pain being used for entertainment value is really gross when you think about it.
But where's the line? If information exists on the internet fandom will find it, and then they'll discuss it and speculate about it, and probably make macros and memes about it, and then eventually it's just part of the overall collective fandom knowledge bank. If you're a part of the fandom you can't, idk, isolate yourself from any information obtained by creepy means. LOL the internet doesn't work like that. And on another level there's the argument that people who find themselves latched onto by RPF and transformed into Real People should know better than to google themselves and click, uh, ANYTHING written by fans, in which case fandom should be entitled to do whatever they please. But, ugh, I don't even want to get into my issues with the 4th wall in RPF fandoms, particularly Idol. That's like another 32948372948379 word essay in and of itself.
I think part of my unease with these issues is my recent personal observation that RPF fandoms are FUCKING CRAY and I'm starting to think that's an effect of RPF as a phenomenon and not an unfunny coincidence. Like I said, Idol fandom is basically founded on profound invasions of privacy of its Real People, and, well, when you start with that as your baseline for behavior, is it that surprising when fans go from there to greater and greater invasions of privacy not only of the Real People but also of other fans?
Fans are obsessive, that's like the definition of fandom. But some fans want to know every single intimate detail of the Real People's lives and feel entitled to seek them out, which leads to things like, say, hacking Jared's sister's Facebook, hacking Adam's e-mail, Adam having to change his phone number three times because fans kept getting hold of his number... Cray. And I think you can't escape the fact that the fandom atmosphere is encouraging towards this mindset that the Real People have zero right to privacy (and nor do their friends/family/etc etc).
And since the cray fans see no problem doing these things to the objects of their obsession, obviously they have even less problem doing the same to other fans who they dislike. The fact that I can think of 4 separate instances off the top of my head of REAL LIFE STALKING that occurred to girls/women in Idol fandom is fucking chilling. And that's not even taking into account the amount of cyberstalking and harassment that the fans enact on other fans.
LOL *facepalm* when I lay it all out like that I don't even know why I'm in this fandom. Except for the fact that I've met good people here too, and I do still kinda like that Kris Allen guy.
So what's my conclusion to all this tl;dr? I don't have one really, other than the conclusion that this is the last time I'm doing a Real Person Fandom lol. These are just a bunch of fandom-related issues that have been bothering me lately, and I thought writing it down it might help organize my thoughts.