I think it's largely a matter of taste, complicated by the fact that some people are unwilling to entertain others' points of view.
For me, reading RPF--and all fic, really--is about what I can believe for the course of a story. Writing it requires a little more conviction. And I do feel, as I expect the people complaining about het fic about Maddow, Lambert, etc. do, that writing an openly gay figure as straight is akin to shoving them back in the closet, while writing someone who is assumed to be straight as gay feels more like subverting the heterocentric media. But I take those feelings with a grain of salt.
Really, I feel like anything goes, pretty much. Writers can write what they want. And readers can read--or not read--what they want. Personally, I do feel kind of uncomfortable reading fic in which gay characters--or characters I interpret as being gay, whether because I think the person in question really is gay, or because I've read too much slash about them--have het sex. And I'm more likely to be comfortable with it in a no strings attached PWP kind of setting than in a situation where I'm asked to believe that the gay character is falling in love with someone of the opposite sex.
On the other hand, I'm pretty easy to convince. I'm willing to believe a lot of rumors, and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to read or write a pairing. And I think that's fine. There are two issues here: one is a question of what you do or can believe about someone, and the other is a question of ethics. The belief part isn't really something you can control, and the ethics thing isn't something anyone can decide for you.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-03-07 04:13 pm (UTC)For me, reading RPF--and all fic, really--is about what I can believe for the course of a story. Writing it requires a little more conviction. And I do feel, as I expect the people complaining about het fic about Maddow, Lambert, etc. do, that writing an openly gay figure as straight is akin to shoving them back in the closet, while writing someone who is assumed to be straight as gay feels more like subverting the heterocentric media. But I take those feelings with a grain of salt.
Really, I feel like anything goes, pretty much. Writers can write what they want. And readers can read--or not read--what they want. Personally, I do feel kind of uncomfortable reading fic in which gay characters--or characters I interpret as being gay, whether because I think the person in question really is gay, or because I've read too much slash about them--have het sex. And I'm more likely to be comfortable with it in a no strings attached PWP kind of setting than in a situation where I'm asked to believe that the gay character is falling in love with someone of the opposite sex.
On the other hand, I'm pretty easy to convince. I'm willing to believe a lot of rumors, and I'm willing to suspend my disbelief to read or write a pairing. And I think that's fine. There are two issues here: one is a question of what you do or can believe about someone, and the other is a question of ethics. The belief part isn't really something you can control, and the ethics thing isn't something anyone can decide for you.