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Category: Writing and Poetry

fanfiction about real people - dreamy or disgusting?

I didn't really know what to categorize this under but since it's writing I feel that is the most accurate one, although I am specifically talking here about musicians. anyway, I find it amusing how across time, people (mostly girls/women) have written fan fictions about their idols, but I also wonder: where do we draw the line at what is acceptable?

the idea for this entry came to me while I was reading Pamela Des Barres' autobiography I'm With The Band, in which she describes her Beatlemania/Paul McCartney obsession. Her and her friend would write one another stories about their favorite Beatle. Here is an excerpt that Pamela herself included in the book:

"Paul fell across you, pushing you into the soft bed. His tender lips kissed yours passionately. You felt so good, so right, to be this close to Paul. He whispered into your ear, pausing to kiss your cheek or your neck, "Luv, oh Pam, you know as well as I do what comes next..." You drew his lips to yours, ending his sentence. You knew what he would say and you didn't want to hear it. Nothing can go wrong...love is never bad. Paul's hands swept over you, his lips touched your neck again and again. "Paul...Paul," you whispered against his hair, his body was so close. As he held you, somehow he pulled back the sheets on the bed. They were a blue and red candy-stripe. He laid you gently down and bent to kiss you. "I'm sleeping in the den, luv..." he said shakily. Then he walked out and closed the door. (A few hours later...) Stumbling through the dark living room, Paul quietly opened the door. There you lay. Your blonde hair tossed carelessly, but beauteously over the pillow, your pink lips still wearing the smile they had as you fell asleep. Paul thought he had never seen anything quite so luscious...or so tempting" (36-37).

....now I will refrain on giving my thoughts on Paul McCartney's level of attractiveness in the 60s, but you can obviously see the teenage passion that went into this. (She also refers to him as "Paully Waully" at one point which is so funny and cringy to me, but I digress.) 

Anyway, it's juvenile obviously, but like, what if Paul himself read that at the time it was written? He'd probably be so freaked out, as would any reasonable person (though John Lennon was in that band so who fucking knows). So while it is normalized, should we really be writing such fantasies about real famous people? It's one thing to think it- or write it but keep it to yourself- but publishing it is a whole other thing. I am on Tumblr so there is a barrage of fanfic written about musicians (and I've read some myself, namely about Izzy Stradlin and Nikki Sixx whom I think are the pinnacle of 80s male beauty along with John Taylor), and they're no doubt entertaining, but it really gets to a point sometimes, especially if it's smut. 

You could argue that fangirls carry fandoms on their backs (which they do) and that everyone at some point fantasizes about that (also true) and that at least they're grown men and that some individuals are probably proud of having people thirst over them (Nikki Sixx). All of which are very good points! Though after reading Pamela's little fanfic insert in her book, I was simply curious on how other people view this topic. It honestly kind of caught me off guard lmao. And while I highly doubt anyone will ever see this or give this kudos, I'd like to know. 

- Gigi


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⭒˚。✧˖°❁ Alexia ❁°˖✧。˚⭒

⭒˚。✧˖°❁ Alexia ❁°˖✧。˚⭒'s profile picture

I've always found this topic deeply fascinating, like I would just really love to understand the psychology of what drives people to write these sorts of things, but I suppose most of the time it can boil down to people simply wanting to write down their fantasies with their favorite musicians or public figures, storytelling is kind of an innately human thing to do after all. Maybe it's a little bit more complex than that, but I can't really wrap my head around it if that's the case LOL.

I think that it's mostly harmless fantasizing if people take the necessary precautions to keep it away from the people it's about. Like, don't tag them on Twitter about it or that kinda stuff. While I'm personally not super bothered by seeing it (maybe because I've been in band fandom spaces for a while and you just kinda get used to seeing that kinda stuff from the corner of your eye ) With Tumblr sometimes I also wish people wouldn't put it in the main tags for bands for example. It can really clog up searches.

Some famous people say they don't mind it, others say they hate it, but in my opinion people should just not bring it up to them, like many interviewers do these days.

I guess TL;DR for my comment is, people will continue writing it, and it's unfeasible to ask every single famous person if they're okay with having fanfiction written about them, so my opinion is that if you're gonna write it and post it online, at least make sure that the person it's about wouldn't randomly stumble across it if they googled their name or something.


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very well said ^^

by gigi; ; Report