Is fanfiction taking it too far?
By: Eva 11.1
Fanfiction: a genre, a story, an imaginative piece of writing. But what is it specifically?
Fanfiction has been the embodiment of readers’ portrayals of their favorite characters in stories that are imagined from the original plot since the 18th century. Based on our prior knowledge, Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver Travels’ might have presumably been the ignition for the literary genre, with people writing imagined pieces about the text’s main character, Gulliver.
A more precise explanation of fanfiction is that it usually consists of characters from their favorite media such as anime, movies, and TV shows. But it can also be about people in real life, like celebrities. Imagine someone writing a fanfiction about yourself that involves sexualization-that would be uncomfortable or even perilous!
The main impulse for fanfiction is to give the readers the chance to deliver their own perspectives on original pieces. In the past, writing your own versions of original works could get you a letter from a lawyer. But today, the internet has made fanfiction accessible for readers to have more flexibility in writing their works in contrast to what happened to Marion Zimmer Bradley during 1992, where Bradley had an upcoming novel with a corresponding theme to a fanfiction she had read before. To avoid a lawsuit, Bradley had reached out to the author to negotiate.
However, many issues other than copyright reside within the topic of fanfiction such as sexualization and goes as far to the extent of sexualizing minors.
People outside of the community have various questions such as “Have you ever come across sexualization of real people in fanfiction? Do you think it’s okay to sexualize real people in fanfiction?” Several answers arise from fanfiction readers themselves.
One of them said, “I see this all the time. It’s exactly why Wattpad is so infamous. The movie After was originally a Wattpad story about Harry Styles, hence the similar name of the character, Hardin Scott. If you have watched the movie, you would know that it’s anything but PG. Other forums have sexual content too and it’s quite popular actually. I’m not sure how to feel about this. Personally, when I come across such content, I don’t think of this character as representative of the person themself, so I can separate the made-up character from the real person. Still, if you were a celebrity and you found people writing about you in a sexual manner, then you would probably feel uncomfortable. It would be dehumanizing and unjust to say that it’s simply the price to pay for fame, so the question is, where do we draw the line?”
Another reader said, “I have come across quite a few sexualization of real people in fanfiction and I'd say I don't like it much. The reason behind this is because these people are real, they have real feelings and real thoughts and with fanfiction people can paint these people as any kind of person they want and then readers might go on to read that story and feel negativity towards these people. So, unless it's a self-insert situation or you have direct permission from the person to write about them, I don't quite agree with using real people.”
Even though fanfiction may be seen as problematic it is a great platform for writers to use as a creative outlet and learn so much, like how to write well, building tension, adding little details like foreshadowing and much more!
What do you think? Is fanfiction problematic, or can it be justified?
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