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have some rpf meta for your monday
So there was a secret up at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets that got me thinking about rumors and open secrets and "people who know things" and I thought I'd throw it open here since so many of you write RPF (as, of course, do I) and I know have Firm Opinions on the matter. (By the way, let's just take as given that RPF is cool, all right? I don't defend RPF on my own journal.) Anyway as I see it there are these issues that, when they come together, create a lot of confusion at least in my own head.
The first is the idea that it's uncool/unethical/somewhat homophobic/fill in your own negative word here to write het RPF about an out gay public figure, like Adam Lambert or Rachel Maddow or NPH. Others have made this argument, and I take their point.
(Note: I don't think this applies to that Mary Sue fic you're writing in your head, because that gets into people's sexual fantasies being right or wrong, and I don't go there. I can't imagine why it would be homophobic for me, as a cis woman, to sit around thinking that David Burtka is hot.)
The second is the issue of using our gaydar on people we don't know and are unlikely to meet, who are being at least a little performative in the spaces where we see them as themselves because they are still public spaces. I don't know Matt Bomer and am pretty unlikely to meet him, but pictures of he and his partner are not difficult to find. I don't know Zachary Quinto and am unlikely to meet him, either, but I also don't really know enough about him to have a firm personal opinion on his sexuality. That said, isn't it a little weird, that I'm expected to have a firm personal opinion on his sexuality? I mean, is saying that I don't really know anything about him so I don't know if he's gay actually my being homophobic, as seems to be implied by the Quinto fandom? I'm not saying "Surely the man who plays Spock can't be gay!" I'm just saying I don't personally know.
So where these two things come together is really my question. Does the first idea—no writing het rpf about gay celebs—only apply to celebs who are publicly out, and therefore are somewhat symbolic, etc, etc, etc? Or does it also apply to the "open secret" types like Anderson Cooper or NPH before he came out, where they weren't really trying to hide it but also never spoke about it and weren't on the red carpet with anyone? And then beyond that, does it also apply to those in the "strong rumor" category like Quinto? And where does the fangirlish shippy hysteria tip over into just general ridiculousness (like the aforementioned secret, where someone was stating the Quinto-dating-Jonathan-Groff rumor as fact)?
I guess, how much of this stuff am I required to believe, and where does my natural skepticism for dating rumors become homophobic?
fandomsecrets that got me thinking about rumors and open secrets and "people who know things" and I thought I'd throw it open here since so many of you write RPF (as, of course, do I) and I know have Firm Opinions on the matter. (By the way, let's just take as given that RPF is cool, all right? I don't defend RPF on my own journal.) Anyway as I see it there are these issues that, when they come together, create a lot of confusion at least in my own head. The first is the idea that it's uncool/unethical/somewhat homophobic/fill in your own negative word here to write het RPF about an out gay public figure, like Adam Lambert or Rachel Maddow or NPH. Others have made this argument, and I take their point.
(Note: I don't think this applies to that Mary Sue fic you're writing in your head, because that gets into people's sexual fantasies being right or wrong, and I don't go there. I can't imagine why it would be homophobic for me, as a cis woman, to sit around thinking that David Burtka is hot.)
The second is the issue of using our gaydar on people we don't know and are unlikely to meet, who are being at least a little performative in the spaces where we see them as themselves because they are still public spaces. I don't know Matt Bomer and am pretty unlikely to meet him, but pictures of he and his partner are not difficult to find. I don't know Zachary Quinto and am unlikely to meet him, either, but I also don't really know enough about him to have a firm personal opinion on his sexuality. That said, isn't it a little weird, that I'm expected to have a firm personal opinion on his sexuality? I mean, is saying that I don't really know anything about him so I don't know if he's gay actually my being homophobic, as seems to be implied by the Quinto fandom? I'm not saying "Surely the man who plays Spock can't be gay!" I'm just saying I don't personally know.
So where these two things come together is really my question. Does the first idea—no writing het rpf about gay celebs—only apply to celebs who are publicly out, and therefore are somewhat symbolic, etc, etc, etc? Or does it also apply to the "open secret" types like Anderson Cooper or NPH before he came out, where they weren't really trying to hide it but also never spoke about it and weren't on the red carpet with anyone? And then beyond that, does it also apply to those in the "strong rumor" category like Quinto? And where does the fangirlish shippy hysteria tip over into just general ridiculousness (like the aforementioned secret, where someone was stating the Quinto-dating-Jonathan-Groff rumor as fact)?
I guess, how much of this stuff am I required to believe, and where does my natural skepticism for dating rumors become homophobic?
no subject
I should say that all the Zach/Zoe fic that I read portrayed Zach as queer and a little confused that he was suddenly into some girl but rolling with it. So even though Quinto hasn't claimed that identity publicly it was by and large maintained in the stories.
With the Gabe Saporta thing, I think a warning would have been good--as it often can be for AUs where people have different assumptions. (For example, if Astolat had been clearer when she wrote that Kradam Regency AU that it was a costume epic/BBC-esque color blind casting story and not trying to be particularly historically accurate, then the people who got so angry with her might have not read the story in the first place. But that whole wank, I don't know, I don't know how much I can be there with them for that one.) So if you as a writer decided to explore something with the full knowledge that you're changing something about the person, that has to be fair game, and those who don't want to see that can avoid it.
Interesting what you say about closet cases and their fans. I think that yes, we can't, as the public, be expected to be respectful of something that hasn't been made public yet. And there is something unseemly about the vehement denials of certain fans of celebs who might be gay--the ClayMates come to mind here--but the air of homophobia doesn't come from the "we don't know that", because that part is true. It comes from the "he can't possibly be gay" because that's a homophobic thing to say; anyone can be gay. Saying "I don't know what their sexuality is because they haven't said anything" isn't being homophobic; you're not saying, "Since they haven't come out they must be straight." But you know, the internet, there can only be two sides, no gray middles please. Also part of this is the ontd culture of being a 'person who knows things' and the skepticism of same.
If an identity is unclaimed, it can't be undermined.
An excellent way to look at it!