I've thought about this a lot. Taylor and the guys from One Direction have talked about the pain that shipping has caused them. It wouldn't be a surprise if it had impacted their real world relationships. I love the community for slash fic/imaginary characters, but when that moves into real people, particularly those who aren't buying into it (unlike, for example, Lizzo and Chris Evans), it's harassment. I really like this piece!
Its unfortunate this piece conflates RPF and shipping general. There are many, i'd say the majority, of people who read and write RPF who don't actually believe that the people whose names are used in the fic are living those relaitonships, or sexualities or genders in real life. In RPF you are more "casting" real people into your fiction, so the reader can envision that character. Now it varies between fandoms, but a lot of RPF isn't even at all releated to the actual real lives of the celebrities - think the cast of The Avengers in a Coffee Shop AU. This is fiction and people understand its not real!.
While there is some overlap, the investment in parasocial relationships is a quite separate phenomenon, especially when that developed into the conspiracy type beliefs around aspects of the celebrities lives - to the extent they are non in fandom as tin hats.
I've thought about this a lot. Taylor and the guys from One Direction have talked about the pain that shipping has caused them. It wouldn't be a surprise if it had impacted their real world relationships. I love the community for slash fic/imaginary characters, but when that moves into real people, particularly those who aren't buying into it (unlike, for example, Lizzo and Chris Evans), it's harassment. I really like this piece!
Its unfortunate this piece conflates RPF and shipping general. There are many, i'd say the majority, of people who read and write RPF who don't actually believe that the people whose names are used in the fic are living those relaitonships, or sexualities or genders in real life. In RPF you are more "casting" real people into your fiction, so the reader can envision that character. Now it varies between fandoms, but a lot of RPF isn't even at all releated to the actual real lives of the celebrities - think the cast of The Avengers in a Coffee Shop AU. This is fiction and people understand its not real!.
While there is some overlap, the investment in parasocial relationships is a quite separate phenomenon, especially when that developed into the conspiracy type beliefs around aspects of the celebrities lives - to the extent they are non in fandom as tin hats.