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jlhOr, some thoughts on RPS.
But first, a rec: Belongs to Us is worth joining![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
punditslash to read. (All the TDS/TCR and CNN/MSNBC type RPS is locked in the comms because the Comedy Central blog has a tendency to link to them.) Fantastic Keith Olbermann/Dan Patrick slash with all the backstory, regret and make-up sex of your average golden age Sirius/Remus fic. Lots of references to their on ongoing drama—if you don't know it, look them up on wiki, but the short version is that they created Sportscenter, made it a legend, and then Keith fucked off and pissed everyone off, wandered the earth for a while, then settled into being pissy at the president on MSNBC while Dan focussed on being possibly the best sportscaster currently working, and then they made up and reunited on Dan's radio show a year ago, and continue to do an hour on the radio every day. They're sort of like Andre 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast—which I'll explain if asked. The title of this entry is from their radio show where they did an extended and completely hilarious riff on Larry King.
The start of American Idol, and more directly my posts about them, always makes me vaguely nervous about the risks of tinhattery that one always runs when thinking about RPS. When I came into HP fandom, LoTRPS was ascendant and it was easy to think of them, and all the RPS-types, as insane loonies that proved that we fiction-fanficcers were pretty sane. There is a strain of conversation that goes on in fandom that's a sort of normative enforcement of sane behavior. We all do it; we point at someone being crazy to show that we are (1) not crazy like that and (2) know crazy when we see it. In addition, some of the people that I hung about with were very, um, ambivalent about fandom and online life to begin with, and therefore were incredibly judgmental about the behavior of others, an attitude that I don't share but that I have had to really stop assuming that nearly everyone else on my flist does share. Because of that early conditioning, I'm always a little nervous about the RPS.
So I thought, more for my own feeling of comfort than any of yours as many of you assure me that you don't think of me as a tinhat, that I would lay out what I actually think is going on, rather than my fun shippiness, so you see that you know, I'm not crazy. Also I was thinking about this after reading the TWoP recaps for last week. From what I've seen, we have four possibilities for what is a actually going on with Ryan and Simon.
What do I actually think? Probably a kinder version of option 3. There is clearly a mutual admiration, respect, and attraction thing going on. I would put it as more Simon saying that Ryan is gay, isn't fooling anyone, and should come out already (true) and Ryan replying that Simon, at heart, doesn't just want to be friends with Ryan, so while Ryan isn't out, Simon isn't even honest with himself. It's really messed up, and says a lot about masculinity and sexuality and a pile of other things, and if it weren't so depressing it would make for a good story. Unfortunately it often gets turned to a sort of pointless angst.
All that said, I think I write Ryan/Simon the way that I do not only to make a comment about what is going on with the show—a sort of fictional meta, if you will—but also to make Simon a tiny bit nicer than he actually is, and give Ryan the reward he does deserve, and in general make them both just a little bit braver than they are. Ryan and Simon make a great pair because Ryan is one of the few people who really isn't afraid of Simon one little bit, but also likes and respects him, while Simon responds very well to Ryan and sometimes is just a little bit nicer because of him. And you know how I love couples who can get under each other's skin.
But first, a rec: Belongs to Us is worth joining
punditslash to read. (All the TDS/TCR and CNN/MSNBC type RPS is locked in the comms because the Comedy Central blog has a tendency to link to them.) Fantastic Keith Olbermann/Dan Patrick slash with all the backstory, regret and make-up sex of your average golden age Sirius/Remus fic. Lots of references to their on ongoing drama—if you don't know it, look them up on wiki, but the short version is that they created Sportscenter, made it a legend, and then Keith fucked off and pissed everyone off, wandered the earth for a while, then settled into being pissy at the president on MSNBC while Dan focussed on being possibly the best sportscaster currently working, and then they made up and reunited on Dan's radio show a year ago, and continue to do an hour on the radio every day. They're sort of like Andre 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast—which I'll explain if asked. The title of this entry is from their radio show where they did an extended and completely hilarious riff on Larry King. The start of American Idol, and more directly my posts about them, always makes me vaguely nervous about the risks of tinhattery that one always runs when thinking about RPS. When I came into HP fandom, LoTRPS was ascendant and it was easy to think of them, and all the RPS-types, as insane loonies that proved that we fiction-fanficcers were pretty sane. There is a strain of conversation that goes on in fandom that's a sort of normative enforcement of sane behavior. We all do it; we point at someone being crazy to show that we are (1) not crazy like that and (2) know crazy when we see it. In addition, some of the people that I hung about with were very, um, ambivalent about fandom and online life to begin with, and therefore were incredibly judgmental about the behavior of others, an attitude that I don't share but that I have had to really stop assuming that nearly everyone else on my flist does share. Because of that early conditioning, I'm always a little nervous about the RPS.
So I thought, more for my own feeling of comfort than any of yours as many of you assure me that you don't think of me as a tinhat, that I would lay out what I actually think is going on, rather than my fun shippiness, so you see that you know, I'm not crazy. Also I was thinking about this after reading the TWoP recaps for last week. From what I've seen, we have four possibilities for what is a actually going on with Ryan and Simon.
- It's all made up for the benefit of the show. I think there are aspects that are—Ryan's completely irritating goading of the contestants to talk back to Simon, for example. And once something started, of course producers are going to encourage it, though I find it interesting that Simon goading Paula gets more press when more screen time is spent on Simon and Ryan bitching at each other. But one thing that convinced me that it was not manufactured for the show was watching American Idol Rewind and seeing the auditions for season 1, where Simon is already teasing Ryan about his metrosexuality. Remember that in that first season Ryan was only a co-host, just a fairly popular afternoon drive DJ on a pop station in LA, while Simon was the co-creator who was coming in from the very successful Pop Idol, so he really didn't need to mess around with Ryan. In addition, they don't have a lot of actual contact during auditions (unlike during the live shows) because Ryan (with, at that time, Brian) is outside the judging room. So for Simon to go out of his way to interact with Ryan, in a very similar way to which he does now, speaks for a genuine spark of personalities.
- It's good natured teasing between two straight male friends. Except, often it isn't. Sometimes they genuinely piss each other off, cut a little too close to the bone, and while Simon is more ridiculously pouty, Ryan seems to care about all of it a little more. For all his artifice (and there is a lot of it) Ryan does have chinks in his armor. Not to mention that whatever is going on with Simon, I honestly do think Ryan is a big closet case. I contrast this with Anderson Cooper who isn't publicly out but simply refuses to talk about it. Everyone in this city knows he's gay. He isn't particularly worried about chatting up boys in bars, but because he's pretty chill about it and isn't in a gay panic every ten minutes, mostly no one cares. We can't say this about Ryan; on boy's night he's jumpy as all hell. I think we've all seen straight guys who can tease each other about gayness, and it doesn't look like Ryan and Simon.
- Ryan has a thing about Simon, who uses it to play with Ryan like a cat with a mouse. Ugh, it's a bad thing, and actually the subtext of the sort of Rymon RPS that I don't like. Simon clearly has a cruel streak, and much of the time on the show Ryan seems more obviously into Simon than the reverse, but I think that's mostly the effect of Ryan being more obviously gay than Simon is. Also, Ryan can really get his licks in, pretty effectively, and usually to either the amusement or the respect of Simon. So I don't think all the play is one-sided. That said, I think there is more of a kernel of truth here than there is in other options. If we posit Ryan as a closet case whose homopanic gets worse every year, and who spends his highest-rated television time in close proximity to a man he's attracted to which only increases his self-loathing, not to mention that that man treats the whole thing as a joke for his own amusement, then Ryan's weirdo moods make a lot more sense, because there are days that he can convince himself that he can handle it, or that he sees it as a joke just like Simon does, but I'm sure there are days that the whole thing gets to him, because he does actually care, and then the self-loathing is that much worse. Even though he completely does it to himself, you can see why I just want to give him a hug.
- OMG Ryan and Simon are totally fucking. Yeah, you know, I don't think they are. I think that they definitely have some bizarro, enduring, and far more than physical mutual attraction/fascination thing going on because after six years the physical burns itself off, even if it's never consummated, not to mention that they do seem to genuinely enjoy each other's company and have from the start. I mean, they've gone on vacation together, and when they talk not on the show one has the sense that they talk often—on those occasions when Ryan calls Simon from the radio, he's very careful to say that they are on air, and there's always an "I'll talk to you later" closer. Also I think if they were fucking, all this ridiculousness that we see on stage would have long since passed off to their off-screen lives because they'd actually be burning off the sexual tension by, like, having sex.
What do I actually think? Probably a kinder version of option 3. There is clearly a mutual admiration, respect, and attraction thing going on. I would put it as more Simon saying that Ryan is gay, isn't fooling anyone, and should come out already (true) and Ryan replying that Simon, at heart, doesn't just want to be friends with Ryan, so while Ryan isn't out, Simon isn't even honest with himself. It's really messed up, and says a lot about masculinity and sexuality and a pile of other things, and if it weren't so depressing it would make for a good story. Unfortunately it often gets turned to a sort of pointless angst.
All that said, I think I write Ryan/Simon the way that I do not only to make a comment about what is going on with the show—a sort of fictional meta, if you will—but also to make Simon a tiny bit nicer than he actually is, and give Ryan the reward he does deserve, and in general make them both just a little bit braver than they are. Ryan and Simon make a great pair because Ryan is one of the few people who really isn't afraid of Simon one little bit, but also likes and respects him, while Simon responds very well to Ryan and sometimes is just a little bit nicer because of him. And you know how I love couples who can get under each other's skin.
