they reflect your eyes

for a while ive been trying to figure out how i feel over rpf content. while in general i think its… very situational on if i think its okay or not? i wanted to hear back from some other people on why they like it and how they view it.

feel free to reply/reblog this, send in asks, or dm me here or on my main if youd like to talk to me about it!

ofc that being said, people’s thoughts alone don’t cause harm until they’re acted upon, as is the case with anything problematic in fiction getting acted upon irl without consent. MAPs and zoos being the first two examples i can think of bc these are the ones most antis think of irt “fiction affects reality” discourse. tldr there’s moments where irl harm can happen bc of people wanting to endorse these things, but there’s also a strong pushback within the broader scope of communities to focus on harm reduction and if the circumstances call for it, actively trying to prevent any bridging of the reality/fiction gap is the wiser option.

this doesn’t mean we should harass and attack these people though, even rpf fans and problematic shippers. it’s important to respect when reality isn’t as welcoming of particular things, and to stay mindful of the implications and consequences of any problematic thoughts, but at the same time the thoughts are still there, bc they’re very real thoughts and its important to have those healthy fictional outlets. the goal here being… safe place to explore problematic thoughts, without causing any harm or creating any kind of environment that could be seen as encouraging of harm.

so rpf is one of those things i can understand having an interest in, but i personally don’t think it’s something that should be publicly endorsed or encouraged and as such, should absolutely stay within the realms of fiction. once people start to harass the individuals and their families because those ships aren’t “canon irl” or whatever, it becomes a real problem. as an example: i know that the whole “stan” culture thing has been watered down by tumblr and western culture as a whole, but at its core the real original meaning was “stalker fans”, aka people who would follow celebrities around, literally stalking them, tresspassing and harassing them much like tabloid paparazzi would. i strongly dislike that people do this and i dont want to see this kind of behavior getting normalized within fandom as a whole.

RPF should 100% never ever be brought up to the people involved, regardless. it should be kept to its proper spaces in fiction. I wouldn't quite say I'm against it, but bringing it to the attention of the people involved can be really harmful.

my problems especially come from when real children are involved into it. i feel like that crosses a line way too much.

i think everyone remembers the dan and phil situation? but that wasnt a case of "people ship them and it makes them uncomfortable" it was a case of "people took shipping them too far, starting to try and find 'evidence' that theyre actually a couple and digging into things" which as dan said made him really uncomfortable and reminded him of what he went through in school.

seems like its a rather thin line of whats okay and not, but generally, i wouldnt frown upon it if its kept to spaces out of view of the people involved.

Sure...

Vann's actually been saving the outlines of icons they've made if they really liked it and was planning to post them eventually.

crying and sobbing pikaboy how could you