RPF Wives and Girlfriends

I am a meta machine lately, apparently.

TONIGHT'S TOPIC: WIVES AND GIRLFRIENDS IN RPF. Whoo!

I've never really liked the idea of nonfamous wives/girlfriends showing up in fic. And for a long time I just took it at face value - I won't write 'em, I don't like reading 'em but they're not dealbreakers for me, end of story.

But a post championing the use of nonfamous wives/girlfriends (and I specify because I have zero issues with the women who are famous in their own right) in metafandom a while back had me examining whyI don't like it, because I wanted to jump into the discussion with more than "it's bad because it is."

( And I came to the conclusion my issue with it has two parts. )

I said in the last post when we write RPF we write knowing we're basing it off a character, off the act the celebrity puts on whenever he or she is in public. But the wives and girlfriends, especially the ones who make an active effort to avoid attention, can't be expected to have those characters - suddenly you are taking an actual person's life, one they haven't necessarily opened up to you.

That said, this is one of those things where I'm well aware it's my opinion and in bandom it isn't necessarily (I need a new word) a popular one. I'm also not the sort to run around telling people what they can and can't write (although if you're a friend and I think you're being exploitative, I might say something), this is just why I don't seek it out and why you'll never see me writing any kinky Jon/Dorothea/David kinky porn epics (even if it'd be really hot...), or anything with Tico's current wife (even though it'd be really hot...he should go back to famous models).

And WOW how many more parentheticals do you think I could've squeezed into that last paragraph?