In a message dated 3/18/01 3:43:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, littles@angelfire.com writes:
<< But we don't know how many do in the B7 case-- also we don't know quite how much they know about what goes on in them.<<
It's not going to stop, no matter what you think of it.
They
generally ignore it as part of the down side of celebrity.<<
So we're agreed, it's a down side.<
Let's rephrase that. They generally ignore it as a part of the down side of celebrity, like hoards of autograph seekers and screaming and squealing crowds. Yes, it's a down side. If you are playing a character on a TV show or movie, it's the production crew's intent to have the audience fall in love with your character. There are collateral effects that come with having people fall in love with you and being unable to express those feelings directly in reality.
In other words, it's not going to stop, no matter what Shane thinks of it.
Excuse me, I may not have a degree in biology but as a gay man I find this
statement frightening.<<
You took yourself out of the biological loop, by conscious decision. Why would you find love threatening? Don't gay men fall in love? They aren't from Mars. They have the same emotional biological mechanism hard-wired into their brain. That's not going to change. No matter what you think of it.
anfic, fan art or any
other sort of fantasy that satisfies that unattainable bond is
inevitable,<<
So what you're saying is you're catering to a market, providing a service?
Cars need petrol, houses need insulation, people need pornography, is that it?<
You've got the wrong end of the process. Cars being fueled by petrol produce exhaust and speed. It's what they're built for. Living organisms produce children and creative outlets as a by-product of reproductive activity. That won't change. No matter what you think of it.
OK, now this is a genuine and serious question. If slash fiction is meant
to satisfy the unrequited procreative urges of female fans with regard to male actors, why does it revolve around male/male couplings?<<
This question has been answered over and over again. Since there is usually no satisfactorily-written *female* character in the lead role of most popular fannish TV shows, and since the second male role has already established a relationship with the objectof the fan's idolitry, it's much more credible and satisfying for the average female fan to project herself into the second role and write themselves "into" an already-existing relationship with the lead. In order to fantasize the sexual part of that fantasy relationship, they can (and do) make that final leap and turn both of the characters bisexual or gay. There have been THOUSANDS of independently-produced slash fanzines published and stories written over the past three decades. It's not a conspiracy. It's a wish-fulfillment with sexual role manipulation.
And it won't change, no matter what you think of it.
No one seems to be immune, whether we label it something harmless like a
'crush' or worry that it's reached a dangerous obsession.<<
If it has reached dangerous levels, though, surely there's a problem.<
Please explain this 'danger', Officer Shane. Does slash fiction make gay or straight individuals run right out and molest actors and actresses? Name me the career of the actor it's ruined. It seems to me that YOU find this gay sexuality a threat; not at all characteristic of the general run of gay people, by my experience.
This is why we have limits, censor boards, warnings and sex-addiction
support groups-- because unrequited lust can turn dangerous, and there needs to be ways of recognising this and heading it off before someone or several someones get hurt.<<
Your opinion is not a popular one among fans. I'm sorry this upsets your fundamentalist sensibilities, but that's the way it is, and you aren't going to change it by bible-thumping or making dire predictions alluding to the law. You're just going to look like the local church lady.
Isn't anyone here aware of 'boy-band' fanfic on the web? Thousands of
teens,
unable to realistically have a relationship with the boy groups they
idolize,
are writing and posting adult fanfic and slash about groups like N' Synch
and
the others.<<
Bit of a difference between a teenager with a teenage crush and a long-term
fan who has been obsessing about an individual for decades.<
There is none whatsover. And your facts are wrong, wrong, wrong, once again, based on your lack of experience. The average fannish 'crush' on a character or actor very seldom lasts longer than 4 years. Over the past 30+ years in fandom, with hundreds of fannish acquaintances, I've only ever seen about 5 fans whose affection (not obsession) for a performer lasted beyond 8, and they were rational professional adults, not dangerously obsessed individuals who wallowed in filth.
Your refusal to make the distinction makes me wonder just what you, as a 'gay' person, think of the sexuality of your own lifestyle.
Nice to know that the exploitation is mutual. But as I said to huh, there's
a difference between a boyband member with mansions, millions and security guards, and a jobbing actor with a wife and a dog and a semi-detatched house.<<
How does the degree of material goods affect the right or wrongness, in your eyes, of a fan's obsessions? Wealth and morality are unrelated in this issue.
I'm very sorry you are so upset by this naughtyness, Shane. Of course, censorship of this same naughtyness really, really upset you in the discussion of that topic involving Diane Geis a few weeks ago, so this about face is really confusing (and amusing) to anyone with the patience to involve themselves by reading it.
But slash? Adult fanfic and illos? No matter what you think of it, no matter what ANYONE thinks of it, it's not going to change. And I'm not in charge of the phenomenon, so some sort of debate point will not reduce that phenomenon, in any way shape or form. You lost this one before it started.
Leah