Real person fiction orreal people fiction (RPF) is a genre of writingfan fiction, but featuringcelebrities or other real people.[1]
Before the term "real person fiction" came into common usage, fans came up with a variety of terms, which are still used for specific genres or cultural practices in the RPF community; for example, bandfic, popslash,[2] or actorfic.[3] Thegenre includes stories about actors, athletes, comedians, historical figures, musicians,YouTubers, newsworthy people, and reality show contestants, among others, as well as fiction about the fans themselves.
In general, the authors seem to adopt the public personas of the celebrities in question as their own characters, building a fictional universe based on the supposed real-life histories of their idols. Information from interviews, documentaries, music videos, and other publicity sources are assimilated into the stories. It is also very popular to write fiction about celebrity couples. Communities of writers build collectivearchetypes based on the celebrities' public personas. Communities also develop their own ethics on what sort of stories are acceptable – some are uncomfortable withslash fiction, or with mention of the celebrity's real-life families, or with stories involvingsuicide, murder, orrape. Like most fan fiction, the RPF genre includes stories of every kind, from innocuous tosadistic topornographic. The genre can be consideredpostmodern.[4]
Many fan fiction writers consider writing real person fiction unethical, and the genre is considered somewhat separate from media-based fan fiction, both within fandom communities and academic disciplines likefan studies.[4] This has not stopped mainstream legacy media outlets from giving legitimacy to such fiction in some cases: Chinese outletSina World News, in 2016, for example, promoted a hypothetical friendly written correspondence between badminton athletesLin Dan of China andLee Chong Wei of Malaysia immediately after the2016 Olympics semifinals in which Lin defeated Lee in the peak oftheir competitive rivalry. The "letter" when translated to Malay and English however was misrepresented as actual correspondence as it spread on Malaysian social medias, which the Malaysian Olympic contingent including Lee himself immediately quashed.[5][6]
A significant minority of RPF stories take the form of "Mary Sue fan fiction",[7] which feature a "Mary Sue" character, usually, but not always female, who is described in extremely idealistic terms and is described as a wish-fulfillment image of the author. A Mary Sue may become romantically involved with a band member or actor, join a film cast, prove to have superior acting or singing ability, and/or possess incredible beauty.
Politician fic is sometimes used as a form ofsatire, or to highlight the underlying biases or attitudes of the politician being portrayed, although more recently there has been an increase in more "ordinary" fan fiction about British politicians in particular, with a notable emphasis on slash.[8]
Real person fiction has a long history.William Shakespeare's history plays are sometimes considered early examples of RPF,[9] and theBrontë children wrote RPF from 1826 to approximately 1844. Based on the children'sroleplaying game about theNapoleonic Wars, the series featured theDuke of Wellington and his two (actual) sons Charles and Arthur, and their nemesis Alexander Percy, partly based on Napoleon. Over the years, Arthur evolved into an amazingly charismatic and powerful figure, the Duke of Zamorna. Percy became a tragic villain, partly inspired byJohn Milton's version of Satan fromParadise Lost. These stories were not published until well over a hundred years later, but the children used them to polish their writing skills and eventually all became professional authors.[10]
During the 1940s, theWhitman Publishing Company released authorized real person fiction,[11] possibly as a boost to the careers of the Hollywood stars of that era. Described as "The Newest, Up-To-The-Minute Mystery and Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls, featuring your favorite characters", a variety of famous actors and actresses were spotlighted, includingGinger Rogers,Betty Grable,John Payne,Ann Sheridan,Jane Withers,Bonita Granville,Gene Autry,Deanna Durbin andAnn Rutherford. The hardcover publications had colorful dustjackets with a photo of the celebrity on the front, and several illustrations of the actor or actress inside the volume. Liberties were taken with the identities of the celebrities; for example, in the story "Ginger Rogers and the Riddle of the Scarlet Cloak", the "Ginger Rogers" character is not an actress at all, but is instead a telephone operator who becomes involved in a mystery.
The original edition of the "Three Investigators" children's crime series was billed as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators", with Hitchcock as mentor to the eponymous heroes.[12]
Jean Lorrah's "Visit to a Weird Planet",[13] published inSpockanalia 3 (1968), was a lighthearted two-parter about what would happen if a transporter malfunction caused theStar Trek characters to be swapped with the 20th-century actors who played them. Regina Marvinny, editor ofTricorder Readings, encouraged fans in the early 1970s to write "what-if" stories about meetingLeonard Nimoy. However, some of the earliest knownpublished cases of RPF come from 1977, whenfanzines of the bandLed Zeppelin began to print some of the fan fiction being written. Due to the fact that these stories involved real Zeppelin band members, most notablyJimmy Page andRobert Plant, names were changed topseudonyms such as "Tris" and "Alex".
Starting in 1984,Elliot Roosevelt wrote a series ofdetective novels, casting his real-life motherEleanor Roosevelt in the role of a crime solving sleuth, with titles likeMurder and theFirst Lady,Murder in theOval Office, andMurder in theLincoln Bedroom.
Real person fiction about musicians dates back to at least the 1970s, when slash fiction about bands – particularly Led Zeppelin – became popular. It circulated in fanzines in the 1980s and 1990s and moving online in the 1990s.[14][15][3]
The RPF community was, for a period of time, centered on the websiteFanFiction.Net. When the RPF section was removed from FanFiction.Net in 2002,[15] the community dispersed to smaller web archives andLiveJournal communities. RPF is generally totally absent fromUsenet, especially in older and more established newsgroups. Until it shut down in 2014,Quizilla was a popular website for publishing RPF.[3]
The website The Nifty Archive was a notable repository ofboy band and celebrityerotica. Other music-related RPF websites include rockfic.com for RPF involving rock stars (its inaugural story was a slash pairing betweenMetallica'sJames Hetfield andKirk Hammett), andMetal Fic, specifically for heavy metal artists.
Another popular website for RPF chosen by youth fan fic writers is Winglin.net or Asianfanfics.com, which is more commonly centered on Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese or Chinese musicians and actors, likeTVXQ,Super Junior,Big Bang,SHINee,EXO,Mike He,S.H.E, and others.
In 2009, theOrganization for Transformative Works launched the websiteArchive of Our Own, which included categories for RPF.
Real celebrities have been commercially re-imagined asfictional detectives includingAngela Merkel[16] andQueen Elizabeth II.[17]
The first known case of legal action being taken as a result of RPF is from 2003, when FanDomination.net received acease and desist order from a representative of baseball playerAndy Pettitte.[18]
In 2008, a man was arrested in the UK for writing and publishing on the Internet a story featuring various members of the bandGirls Aloud under theObscene Publications Act.[19] The story described the kidnap, rape and murder of the women. He was subsequently tried (theR v Walker trial), found not guilty,[20] and claimed that he had never intended to frighten or intimidate the band members.
Real person slash (RPS), also known in some circles asreal-life slash (RLS), involves relationships. These are usually complete fabrications, not based on any real-life indications of the subject's sexual orientation, but on the fantasies of the author and the desire to experiment with perceived or invented eroticsubtext between the idols in question. Slash is roughly equal in popularity to less controversial types of real person fiction.
The content of the stories can range from the mildly romantic, involving deep friendships and innocentcrushes, to carefully written love stories, all the way to expliciterotica.
Due to the potentiallylibelous nature of some stories, and the knowledge or fear that some celebrities dislike slash fiction involving themselves, some fan fiction communities denounce RPS fiction and do not allow it on their websites.
This type of RPF also brings up issues ofconsent[21] andobjectification of real people.[22]
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