YouTube embeds and Snowflake and RPF

[flamingsword]

So I was testing a thing that emphatically did not work. Nevermind. If anyone knows how to embed a YouTube video, dm me? Otherwise I’ll have to try again tomorrow.



Snowflake Challenge #3

In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.

I used to think that RPF was kinda morally dubious, then I read a fic recommended by someone I knew to have excellent taste and strong moral character. It kinda changed my mind about the limits of what is fair game for telling fandom stories hung across the public persona of media figures. And now I think that as long as nobody (for instance) writes fanfic about David Duchovny and tries to read it to him, it’s just another fiction, “based off a true story” or not. (Also, was that a thing that really happened? I don’t know how to web search it and not get a million Gillovny fics!)

Actors and musicians, media people and politicians, even to some extent private citizens - as long as we’re only using the details they have published publicly, and not showing it to them or to the people who know them, I don’t see the harm. Do I still have the urge to flinch when I catch sight of RPF on AO3? Do I still try not to cringe when I see it recced? Yeah, but I can admit that that’s my own personal hang-up, and not an ethical failure of the author or the readers. I pass no judgment anymore, as long as everyone is taking care to not cross the streams and show RPF to friends/acquaintances/the person themselves.

If you have an ethical stance that is not “it makes me feel icky” and you disagree with my take, then I am willing to discuss this and will entertain any reasonable and respectful dialogue. Trolls and sealions and goal post movers will get bounced though.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I underwent pretty much the same evolution. I hear you.

[flamingsword]

Yeah. I’m just glad to know that I can still change my mind about stuff. Thank goodness for neuroplasticity!

[sabethea]

The most recent RPF I wrote was about a couple of not very well known comedians who did a few episodes of a podcast and said they wanted someone to write RPF about them, so I did! It was short and not wildly explicit, mind you, though unless I’d been unnecessarily cruel about them I don’t think they’d even have minded that (and I couldn’t possibly have been because they’re both lovely and talented). I have to say that isn’t something I ever imagined doing either. And I did show it to them because I wrote it for them, but then they were very pleased with it, so - slightly different, but an amusing anecdote.

In other circumstances…

I think one has to be exceptionally clear about it not being based on anything real about the people, so it’s maybe more important it’s not read by under 18s who are impressionable (I’m meaning both of those together, not saying all U18s are impressionable), especially if it involves things like dub- or non-con. (Or has characters being homophobic, even: I mean, I have a slight very unfair prejudice against a football manager after a good fanfic I read where he was a homophobe [I didnt know there were going to be real people in it - it was mostly about fictional characters but it brought some real ones in].)

But I think to an extent, the personality you see of celebrities in public is almost as much a “character” as the ones they play, just based more on their values (the socially acceptable ones) and the bits of their life they’ve decided they can’t keep private. So from that point of view, you’re almost writing about another character. And unlike the tabloids, you’re not trying to pass it off as the truth!

And I think were I a celebrity who didn’t know much about fanfic and fell over some, I would probably be slightly *disturbed* to discover tentacle porn about me but it wouldn’t be highest on my list of things that worried me. It’s not a threat, it’s not hurting anyone,

[flamingsword]

the personality you see of celebrities in public is almost as much a “character” as the ones they play,

Yeah! This exactly!

Also I notice that your profile pic is new and shiny. I would love to hear the story behind it sometime.

[sabethea]

Ooh, it’s actually a throw back to this realllllly old icon that I used to have in my LJ days. I had this icon before I had the Mouse, so that gives an idea how old it is.

But I love my copper cauldron to bits. My mum bought it for my 24th birthday, because a cauldron had been on my present wish list for years. It was rather bigger than anticipated (I have a smaller one now, too, which I bought in Wales and brought home on a coach, despite it being solid metal and me having a wheelchair and only a 10 year old Mouse to push me.) but I have lit 🔥 within it and burned my anxieties, and - well, we’ve been through a lot together, that cauldron and I.

And my new icon is a photo of it in my old house, when I went through a month of taking a photo a day, which was more challenging to make interesting when you’re mostly bedbound. I like it because it reminds me of my early journaling days, my old house, my witchiness, my mum who bought it for me - and it just fit rather nicely in the square!

[lokifan]

The most recent RPF I wrote was about a couple of not very well known comedians who did a few episodes of a podcast and said they wanted someone to write RPF about them, so I did! It was short and not wildly explicit, mind you, though unless I’d been unnecessarily cruel about them I don’t think they’d even have minded that (and I couldn’t possibly have been because they’re both lovely and talented). I have to say that isn’t something I ever imagined doing either. And I did show it to them because I wrote it for them, but then they were very pleased with it, so - slightly different, but an amusing anecdote.

Hee, I like that!

And I agree re: public personas of famous people, though I think it can get weird if it's like, Youtubers? People who're connected to a specifically online community. But there are ways to do that right too, I think.