The Ethics of RPS in Real-Time
Okay, I don't do meta very often, but this is something that ... hmm. Hit me, I guess, tonight, as I was watching the previews for tomorrow night's episode of Bravo TV's "Make Me a Supermodel".
For those of you who may be unaware, "Make Me a Supermodel" is a reality TV show where a group of hopefuls compete week-to-week to become ... well, supermodels. Normally, this would be extremely uninteresting to me. BUT. This show has something special. Namely, it has Ben and Ronnie. And this is where my mixed feelings begin.
Ronnie is a 24 year-old student from Chicago. Ben is a 22 year-old prison guard from Nashville. Ronnie is gay. Ben is married (he and his wife have been together since they were 16). Ronnie has a massive crush - which appears to be getting more and more serious - on Ben. Ben is aware of this crush, and so far as been quite okay with it; to the point that he even flirts back. The two share a room, help each other out (walking tips, etc.), and are all-around good friends.
Needless to say, they are the newest RPS craze on the block.
As I said in an earlier post, and will repeat here, compartmentalization is a very important factor in the ability to enjoy, or even deal with, RPS. In a nutshell, it’s the ability to keep two distinct ideas of the same person in your head at the same time.
fairestcat wrote a great bit of meta on this (see here ), which I think does a good job of explaining this - at the very least, it’s much better than I can do. Previously, I haven’t really had a problem with compartmentalization. This is probably because my primary RPS experience has been with The Daily Show fandom’s Jon/Stephen slash contingent. The ease here comes from the fact that there really are two distinct characterizations - Stephen Colbert the person and Stephen Colbert the character are definitely different people, and it’s the character we work with much of the time. With Make Me a Supermodel, though, it’s a whole other kettle of fish. A kettle I want to deal with in this post.
The major ethical issue that comes up with the Ben/Ronnie (or “Bronnie”) pairing is the existence of Ben’s real-life wife, April. From all accounts, she’s a very sweet, kind person, and she and Ben are very much in love. Obviously, this presents a conundrum for Bronnie shippers. Now, as I’ve said, compartmentalization plays a big role in this. It’s fairly easy for the fic writer, for example, to simply ignore April’s existence. It’s a conscious creation of an AU to facilitate the fantasy. It’s possible to work around the real lives of the real people we’re writing about, because we’re not writing about them, we’re writing about the representation of them; the character we see each week on TV, not the actual person behind that public front.
So normally, this wouldn’t present any sort of ethical dilemma for me. But MMSM is a fandom that is very, very present, and very, very participatory. By present, I mean that the show is taking place in real-time. Right now, as I am writing this, the models on the show are in New York City, competing (well, as it’s after midnight, it’s likely they’re sleeping, but you know what I mean). It’s going on now. There is no time lag, we’re not watching events that took place six months ago and are only now being aired. These events take place, at most, six days before we see them. When I say “participatory”, I’m talking about the relation of the fans to the show, and to the “characters” themselves.
It’s quite fascinating to me, from a purely amateur anthropological standpoint, to look at this fandom. The models keep up weekly blogs on the Bravo TV site (it’s unknown whether they have internet access outside of that), but outside the confines of the show, these are real people. Fans have been finding - and friending - them on Facebook and MySpace. Further, they’ve gone so far as to find and friend April, Ben’s wife. And this is where my uneasiness begins. It is pretty much assumed that she is keeping up with the show; she, like the rest of us, will be watching with bated breath to find out if Ben is in the bottom three each week or not. The question this brings up for me, though, is whether she knows about the RPS activity, and what she thinks about it. I honestly don’t know if I can imagine what it would be like to be in her place. How would I feel, if I were looking up the fan communities about the show to see what people are talking about, and stumbled upon a 2,000 word story about my husband having a homosexual affair? The fact that I don’t have a husband and happen to think that m/m sex is pretty hot probably means that I’m not qualified to answer the question. I really can’t imagine what that would be like. But here’s the thing - I can’t imagine that she doesn’t know about it.
The thing about all this fan participation is that it means the fandom isn’t quiet. While the people who would consider themselves part of a Bronnie “fandom” are only a small percentage of the viewers of the show, there are an awful lot of people who are fans of the relationship as it’s being portrayed on the show, and they’re very up-front about their opinions. A quick look through the comments on Ben or Ronnie’s blog will turn up several dozen mentions of the other’s name.
bravosupermodel is the primary fan community here on LJ, and has thus far been very welcoming toward the Bronnie stuff - fics, icons, discussion. Aside from a few Perry/Casey pieces, all of the fic posted to the community has been of the Ben/Ronnie variety, and anyone looking through the site couldn’t fail to notice that it’s being discussed all over the place. So my issue is, where is the line? We’re writing the boys’ “character” selves, but a person who’s personally invested - a wife, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a parent, sibling or other family member, even a friend of a contestant - doesn’t know that. I guess my thought is that what April sees, if she’s seeing all of this, is a vast contingent of people who want her husband to cheat on her with another man.
Now, I don’t know any of these people in real life. I have no idea what April’s opinions are, I have no idea whether Ben is 100% straight or whether he reciprocates any of Ronnie’s feelings. All I know is what I see, and what they tell us. But I can’t help but wonder if, in this case, the fandom has some moral obligation to … keep it down? I mean, I love the pairing - I think they’re adorable, and I will continue to read the fic and squee over the icons and have moments of utter fangirlish glee when they act all cute together on the show. But the interactivity of it, the level of closeness to the “characters” we’re writing about… I’ll admit, I’m not sure that I’m totally comfortable with it. I would really feel better, I think, if I had much less connection to these people.
Bravo is very into this interaction thing, which is great, and I think it’s really done a lot to increase interest in their programming. It’s a good business decision. But it also breaks down that compartmentalization that’s so important to RPS fandoms. The closer we get to the “characters”, the harder it is to keep “character” Ben and the real Ben separate and distinct. It eventually gets to the point where “harmless fantasy” becomes “creepy tinhat perving”, and that’s worrisome to me. I feel like a line needs to be drawn somewhere to keep that from happening, but I’m at a loss as to where or how to draw it.
So there it is. I feel like I've drawn no conclusions at all, only asked questions, but I feel better for having asked them. RPS has always raised ethical issues, I suppose, but MMSM fandom feels so... unique, to me, just because of the way it's set up and the level of real-time interaction between the models and the fen. Well. At the very least, it gives me interesting things to think about, even if I never resolve the issues. ^^
(NOTE: I'm leaving this post public, so feel free to link it to anyone you think may be interested.)
For those of you who may be unaware, "Make Me a Supermodel" is a reality TV show where a group of hopefuls compete week-to-week to become ... well, supermodels. Normally, this would be extremely uninteresting to me. BUT. This show has something special. Namely, it has Ben and Ronnie. And this is where my mixed feelings begin.
Ronnie is a 24 year-old student from Chicago. Ben is a 22 year-old prison guard from Nashville. Ronnie is gay. Ben is married (he and his wife have been together since they were 16). Ronnie has a massive crush - which appears to be getting more and more serious - on Ben. Ben is aware of this crush, and so far as been quite okay with it; to the point that he even flirts back. The two share a room, help each other out (walking tips, etc.), and are all-around good friends.
Needless to say, they are the newest RPS craze on the block.
As I said in an earlier post, and will repeat here, compartmentalization is a very important factor in the ability to enjoy, or even deal with, RPS. In a nutshell, it’s the ability to keep two distinct ideas of the same person in your head at the same time.
fairestcat wrote a great bit of meta on this (see here ), which I think does a good job of explaining this - at the very least, it’s much better than I can do. Previously, I haven’t really had a problem with compartmentalization. This is probably because my primary RPS experience has been with The Daily Show fandom’s Jon/Stephen slash contingent. The ease here comes from the fact that there really are two distinct characterizations - Stephen Colbert the person and Stephen Colbert the character are definitely different people, and it’s the character we work with much of the time. With Make Me a Supermodel, though, it’s a whole other kettle of fish. A kettle I want to deal with in this post.
The major ethical issue that comes up with the Ben/Ronnie (or “Bronnie”) pairing is the existence of Ben’s real-life wife, April. From all accounts, she’s a very sweet, kind person, and she and Ben are very much in love. Obviously, this presents a conundrum for Bronnie shippers. Now, as I’ve said, compartmentalization plays a big role in this. It’s fairly easy for the fic writer, for example, to simply ignore April’s existence. It’s a conscious creation of an AU to facilitate the fantasy. It’s possible to work around the real lives of the real people we’re writing about, because we’re not writing about them, we’re writing about the representation of them; the character we see each week on TV, not the actual person behind that public front.
So normally, this wouldn’t present any sort of ethical dilemma for me. But MMSM is a fandom that is very, very present, and very, very participatory. By present, I mean that the show is taking place in real-time. Right now, as I am writing this, the models on the show are in New York City, competing (well, as it’s after midnight, it’s likely they’re sleeping, but you know what I mean). It’s going on now. There is no time lag, we’re not watching events that took place six months ago and are only now being aired. These events take place, at most, six days before we see them. When I say “participatory”, I’m talking about the relation of the fans to the show, and to the “characters” themselves.
It’s quite fascinating to me, from a purely amateur anthropological standpoint, to look at this fandom. The models keep up weekly blogs on the Bravo TV site (it’s unknown whether they have internet access outside of that), but outside the confines of the show, these are real people. Fans have been finding - and friending - them on Facebook and MySpace. Further, they’ve gone so far as to find and friend April, Ben’s wife. And this is where my uneasiness begins. It is pretty much assumed that she is keeping up with the show; she, like the rest of us, will be watching with bated breath to find out if Ben is in the bottom three each week or not. The question this brings up for me, though, is whether she knows about the RPS activity, and what she thinks about it. I honestly don’t know if I can imagine what it would be like to be in her place. How would I feel, if I were looking up the fan communities about the show to see what people are talking about, and stumbled upon a 2,000 word story about my husband having a homosexual affair? The fact that I don’t have a husband and happen to think that m/m sex is pretty hot probably means that I’m not qualified to answer the question. I really can’t imagine what that would be like. But here’s the thing - I can’t imagine that she doesn’t know about it.
The thing about all this fan participation is that it means the fandom isn’t quiet. While the people who would consider themselves part of a Bronnie “fandom” are only a small percentage of the viewers of the show, there are an awful lot of people who are fans of the relationship as it’s being portrayed on the show, and they’re very up-front about their opinions. A quick look through the comments on Ben or Ronnie’s blog will turn up several dozen mentions of the other’s name.
bravosupermodel is the primary fan community here on LJ, and has thus far been very welcoming toward the Bronnie stuff - fics, icons, discussion. Aside from a few Perry/Casey pieces, all of the fic posted to the community has been of the Ben/Ronnie variety, and anyone looking through the site couldn’t fail to notice that it’s being discussed all over the place. So my issue is, where is the line? We’re writing the boys’ “character” selves, but a person who’s personally invested - a wife, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a parent, sibling or other family member, even a friend of a contestant - doesn’t know that. I guess my thought is that what April sees, if she’s seeing all of this, is a vast contingent of people who want her husband to cheat on her with another man.
Now, I don’t know any of these people in real life. I have no idea what April’s opinions are, I have no idea whether Ben is 100% straight or whether he reciprocates any of Ronnie’s feelings. All I know is what I see, and what they tell us. But I can’t help but wonder if, in this case, the fandom has some moral obligation to … keep it down? I mean, I love the pairing - I think they’re adorable, and I will continue to read the fic and squee over the icons and have moments of utter fangirlish glee when they act all cute together on the show. But the interactivity of it, the level of closeness to the “characters” we’re writing about… I’ll admit, I’m not sure that I’m totally comfortable with it. I would really feel better, I think, if I had much less connection to these people.
Bravo is very into this interaction thing, which is great, and I think it’s really done a lot to increase interest in their programming. It’s a good business decision. But it also breaks down that compartmentalization that’s so important to RPS fandoms. The closer we get to the “characters”, the harder it is to keep “character” Ben and the real Ben separate and distinct. It eventually gets to the point where “harmless fantasy” becomes “creepy tinhat perving”, and that’s worrisome to me. I feel like a line needs to be drawn somewhere to keep that from happening, but I’m at a loss as to where or how to draw it.
So there it is. I feel like I've drawn no conclusions at all, only asked questions, but I feel better for having asked them. RPS has always raised ethical issues, I suppose, but MMSM fandom feels so... unique, to me, just because of the way it's set up and the level of real-time interaction between the models and the fen. Well. At the very least, it gives me interesting things to think about, even if I never resolve the issues. ^^
(NOTE: I'm leaving this post public, so feel free to link it to anyone you think may be interested.)