As a young queer pree-teen, online fandom gave me a space where I could explore my interests and curiosities without facing hostility for being myself. In fact, I still dedicate a lot of my social media usage to whatever fandom I’m in at the moment. While it has been a mostly positive experience, it has also exposed me to a lot of discourse.
A topic that remains controversial in fandom spaces from it’s inception up until today is real person fiction, also known as RPF. This term refers to the creation of fictional media based on the personalities and lives of all sorts of famous figures, from actors and singers to politicians and even Jesus Christ himself.
Now, we will dive deep into the origins of RPF, it’s position within modern day fan culture, and why it is beloved by some and reviled by others. Furthermore, I will connect this to my current main fandom, the Beatles fandom, and why the fictional stories created about John Lennon and Paul McCartney expose a different side of the Beatles story.
Before you ask, yes I am completely and totally insane. Deranged, even.
With all that out of the way, let’s begin.
A history of RPF
According to Fanlore, we can find our first examples of RPF in the 60s, specifically in one of the first modern fandoms: Star Trek. At the time, zines being written by fellow fans sometimes included stories about the characters interacting with the actors and fans of the show. However, these stories didn’t include sexual or romantic themes and were humourous in nature.
It was during the 70s that we see the rise of real person slash – a term which refers to fanfics that involves two characters in a relationship, often times two men. This was done privately and shared by small groups of fans, since it was believed these couldn't be majorly publicized. Nowadays, it’s not shocking to watch a movie or read a book based on a self-insert fanfic, but when fandom was still blossoming, there were possible legal issues to take into account.
However, it wasn’t until the arrival of the internet and with it, larger fan communities, that we see a rise in RPS written about actors (such as the LOTR cast members) and musicians (bandom and popslash). In the 1990s, specific mailing lists were created to host these stories, like The RareSlash-X.
The evolution of the internet and social media also meant an evolution for fandom. Blogging sites, such as LiveJournal and later Tumblr, became the main spaces where fans could create their own communities and share their stories with one another. We would also see the creation of the Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit behind both Fanlore and Archive of Our Own, often considered the most important fanfic sharing site online. On AO3, there are two main umbrella categories for RPF, those being “Celebrities & Real People” and “Music & Bands.”
Still, the discourse surrounding RPF is as extensive as the history of the term itself. In the following section, we will be discussing the arguments made against and in favor of real person fiction, as well as the reasons why so many have latched onto it.
Good, Bad or something in between?
Concerns about real person fiction, especially shipping, are many. The main argument against it is that it’s invasive, and can lead to people being uncomfortable or even outed.
One of the most infamous cases of RPS going too far is Larry, the ship name of One Direction members Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. The pairing got so popular while the band was at their peak, that although both members have denied Larry ever existed, there are still some fans who genuinely believe they were, and are, a gay couple.
(Side note: one of my favorite video essayists, Shanspeare, did a deep dive into Larry, which I strongly recommend if you’re interested in learning more.)
There is also the case of youtuber Dan Howell, who in his 2019 video “Basically I’m Gay,” talks at length about his struggles with his sexuality and internalized homophobia. In a segment of the video, he explains how the fan speculation around his relationship with fellow youtuber Phil Lester exacerbated these issues, and made coming out more difficult for the both of them.
Before I continue, I want to make it clear that the behavior exhibited by both groups of fans was completely out of line. No one, no matter how famous they are, owes you an explanation about their sexuality. With that being said, I think the overexposure of Larry and Phan during the early and mid 2010s has shaped the opinion of current fandoms and the internet at large, therefore resulting in a more negative view of RPF. Because of this, I want to clear up some misconceptions regarding real person shipping.
Firstly, it is important to clarify that shipping is not the same as genuinely believing two people are in a secret relationship. The latter is often called tinhatting or truthing and, while it’s often conflated with shipping, it is considered a separate, usually small community. Unlike truthers, shippers acknowledge that they’re creating fiction based on real people, and don’t expect (or demand) their faves to come out. Of course, not all truthers do that either. Some of them might just exchange theories on Tumblr.
Regardless, it is seen as disrespectful to expose the subjects of the ship to the existence of it, unless they have already explicitly stated they have no problem with being shipped. This has been commonplace in RPF spaces since at least the LiveJournal era of fandom, but unfortunately, there will always be people who ignore this rule.
But why write fanfiction or make fanart about real people in the first place if you know they may be uncomfortable with it? Well, it’s because the art isn’t actually about them, but rather about the idea of them. Thus, RPF takes “the mediated performance of celebrity and creates a narrative about what happens ‘backstage’” (Fathallah, 2017). In that sense, it is not that different from celebrity gossip. However, unlike the tabloids, I don't think most shippers now search for evidence of a relationship by digging into their favorite celebrities private lives, rather they work with what is already public information and create their own interpretations based on that. Hell, in some cases fanfic writers will make up completely alternative lives for them.
Of course, if taken too far, shipping can become invasive, as we have previously seen. But, when reserved to fandom spaces and with enough self awareness, I believe there isn't really a harm in it. And at the end of the day, the internet is a vast space, and if you don't like something, there are a million filters you can use to avoid encountering it.
What does The Internet think?
Before we continue on to part two, I wanted to share the results of a poll I made regarding real person shipping and truthing, as well as some of the responses that stood out to me the most. I tried my best to read all of them, but I got almost 200 responses and it’s only me writing this blog, so please don’t be upset if any of yours didn’t make it in.
Keep in mind the results are biased, due to the fact that the Tumblr blog rpfshippingpolls kindly reblogged my post about the poll, and as you can imagine, their followers are very much into RPF (consider giving them a follow if you are too).
With all that being said, let’s get into it.
In the first question, we see the bias that I was talking about earlier, with a combined total of 98% of respondents having ever read and/or written RPF.
Out of curiosity, I asked if these fanfics included shipping, and if so, what pairings did they read and/or write for. The responses here include a wide variety of fandoms and ships: musicians of all eras, professional athletes in many sports, actors, youtubers etc., which goes to show there is RPF everywhere for those with the eyes to see.
Of course, I forgot to take into account more specific circumstances, which explains all the tiny bars in the chart below. Some people explain they lost interest in the RPF side of the fandom they were in, but not in the media itself, while others express they stopped engaging because there was too much drama. Typical.
"I'm not here to judge other people lol - as long as you aren't bringing up your trutherism to the celebrities or anyone in their circle, I don't see a lot of harm in it. But I do oppose it when someone is making a celebrity or their family uncomfortable, which does happen." (Anonymous)
"As long as truthers keep their discussions to private/closed parts of the internet (discord, tumblr, etc), I don't have a problem with it. Truthers and RPF writers both stem from the same irl moments and interactions, so it would be hypocritical of me to find an issue with truthers who are respectful."(the-in-between-honey)
However, there are some that do take issue with it.
"I think it's the business of the people who are involved only. Even if they are in a confirmed relationship, speculating outside the fiction/fun realm is in bad taste." (acetonitril)
"i think it's an invasion of privacy in a way simply writing a fictional story about someone isn't, and can encourage harassment. Ultimately tho it's not that serious, it's more just a personal feeling of discomfort" (Anonymous)
There was also this comment, which I found interesting, highlighting how personal some fans can take it when the people they ship seem more approachable.
“In the case of Youtuber RPS, it has unfortunately resulted in very invasive interactions and the worst part of parasocial relationships on social media - where the 'truthers' tend to treat very real people more like fictional characters than actual human beings and causing its own forms of harm/harassment to the YTbers as well as their friends/family. In fact, witnessing that side of fandom in spaces like Dan and Phil or the Supernatural fandom years earlier had initially made me hate RPF/RPS to the point where I couldn't even bare to look at any form of RPS fanworks [...]” (Sammy)
In the next part, the questions talk about the presence of RPF on social media. Interestingly, while the majority of participants (82.6%) interact frequently with other fans of RPF, most of them (54.9%) don't have an account dedicated exclusively to the subject.
"I think it’s kind of a fic gray area to be honest. It all depends on the user and the intent. I think the key is that you don’t show it to the people it’s about or actively approach the subject(s) of the fics with fic content or your ships. Personally, I like consuming it and I like to write it from time to time :)" (leonsliga)
"So long as you aren't trying yo show the people involved have fun, live out your fantasies. I actually used to be opposed to RPF but now it's like. It's just make believe." (Wi55iams)
“Real person fiction enables me to fancast my favourite idols into the stories that I write. It reduces the cognitive load of creating characters from scratch and imagining them in the stories.”
“It's cool. I understand why people hate it. And as for those crusading against it the block button exists. Personally I use RPF as a vehicle for my stories because I cannot for the life of me create my own OCs. I take these people, and the interpretations of their perceived personality/character and map my own stories to it. [...]”
“[...] i think rpf is one of the most interesting ways to explore in fiction, personas n selfhood & fraught queer almost-romances & the fear of Being Seen, like im not against "what if they were fucking" but i have a lot of thoughts about the themes. so much rpf is about the closet. and the parasocial element of truthing where you're going, if these people were my friends and acted this way in front of me i would ask if they were dating. [..]”
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