This whole TWoP brouhaha

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Title:	This whole TWoP brouhaha (essay is not titled; the title used here on Fanlore is from the first paragraph)
Creator:	Mayhem Parva (raincitygirl)
Date(s):	December 11, 2002
Medium:	Livejournal
Fandom:
Topic:
External Links:	This whole TWoP brouhaha, Archived version
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This whole TWoP brouhaha is a 2002 essay by Mayhem Parva (raincitygirl).

Some Topics Discussed

• RPS and ethics of
• "this whole TWoP brouhaha"
• Smallville and 7th Heaven
• fandom and visibility
• Laura Hale offers up two links (to sites now gone), but no one responds

The Essay

Am ambivalent re: this whole TWoP brouhaha (and isn't brouhaha just the most AWESOME word?) I can see both sides, and excellent points have been made by people on both sides of the issue. No, I'm not a Libra, I just act like one. Not going to link to everything, just to Vic (about two paragraphs down, cool, cool entry), because I'm tired and sick, and I'm sure you've already read the major arguments if you're interested. And hey, if you're not interested, me linking them here won't make you read 'em.

Am not all that involved one way or the other, although I have yet to find out where exactly the ad aired. If it was just on TWoP's Smallville pages, big whoop. Everybody who goes there knows about the Big Gay Subtext, thanks to Omar and the massive HoYay thread. If it aired on fora for other shows, that's more problematic. I don't think it would be particularly wise to provide a link to a gay porn site on a forum for Seventh Heaven, for instance. But nobody's told me one way or the other exactly where it's been airing, and it'll stop soon enough. Hey, if it leads to outraged letters to the WB and/or a campaign by the network against fanfic, and in particular slash, I'm sure we'll find out very soon. If it doesn't, oh well, time for the next drama.

However, Vic can as usual be counted upon to cut right through the guff and expose things I didn't even think about. Namely, the rampant hypocrisy of Real People Ficcers getting upset over a possible invasion of their privacy . Because, hello, living in glass houses here.

It's probably no secret that I think RPF is unethical. I'm sure some of it is extremely well written, mainly because some terrific authors (WQ, Te, Jane St. Clair, Merry Lynne, etc. etc.) participate in it. Haven't read their RPF and I won't be, but I have no doubt that there is a lot of very good fic there, just based on the aforementioned authors contributions to other fandoms. However, presumable technical merit doesn't make it any less wrong.

I don't' usually preach about RPF because I don't especially want to fight with people. There are people I know who are into it, and me lecturing them won't change their minds, while the people I know who aren't into it are hardly likely to harden their positions just because I agree with them. Live and let live. However, Victoria makes excellent, excellent points about the whole privacy issue in relation to fanfiction and publicity thereof. Basically you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Now, granted, lots of the people I've read who are against the ad are not RPF-ers, and quite a few who don't see a problem with it are, so I'm not saying there's any kind of correlation between indignation over this particular issue and writing/reading RPF. I only know of one person who's on record as being against it and who I also know to be an RPF-er. Nonetheless, the co-existence of these two contrary beliefs is awfully funny, in a puckish sort of way.

So, basically, everybody chill. If it turns out to be a disaster, well, the damage has already been done, and there's not much anybody can do to fix it now that the ad's almost finished its scheduled run. If it does lead to an official backlash, I won't be surprised, but if it doesn't lead to such a backlash, I won't be surprised either. Could go either way, and realistically, the most damage would be done if a right wing Christian group got a hold of this (ex: somebody posting on TWoP's Seventh Heaven board) and used it to start a boycott of SV. In which case the hoyay would become an embarrassment to the network, and financially harmful. But there's no evidence that such will happen, just speculation. So let's just see what happens.

Some Comments at the Post

[ ingridmatthews ]:

According to a poster in lexcorp_hope's thread, the banner is being circulated throughout the site on a rotating basis, against Livia and Hope's wishes. I have no idea if this is true or not, but all in all, while not being the end of the world, I do believe this thing wasn't as thought out as much as it should have been beforehand. But hey, if that's the case we all make mistakes.

It's not such a huge deal in the grand scheme of things and I think it's coming down today anyway. Live and learn and all that. What's done is done.

[musesfool]:

Now, granted, lots of the people I've read who are against the ad are not RPF-ers, and quite a few who don't see a problem with it are, so I'm not saying there's any kind of correlation between indignation over this particular issue and writing/reading RPF. I only know of one person who's on record as being against it and who I also know to be an RPF-er. Nonetheless, the co-existence of these two contrary beliefs is awfully funny, in a puckish sort of way.

Right. That's a clarification I need to make.

So, basically, everybody chill.

also good advice.

[Laura Hale]:

I don't like to duplicate myself but.... is a pretty fair discussion of RPF presenting both sides^{[Dead link]} and has a sister discussion found here about non justification of RPF^{[Dead link]}.

As far as RPF for me goes, I've realized I'd rather have people slash me or het me up with any one under the sun rather than have a fan fiction author bastardize my characters that I wrote. Why? Because I can laugh when people do that to me but when a person does that to something that really isn't....

I have ethical problems with RPF myself but our culture is positively inundated with Real Person Fiction in various mediums and for the most part, people don't give a shit.

Warner Brothers didn't get all het up and chase after HP slash so realistically speaking, I can't see them going after 7th Heaven or whatever.