I think this is something really important that everyone who reads and writes RPS needs to acknowledge:
It's not real.
As much as I joke about how much I believe in this, I know it's not a real thing. By writing RPS, I'm not trying to start and rumors or slander anybody. I would think that anyone reading my writing would realize that I'm not serious when I say "Pete and Pat are so in love." Pete is married, Pat has had girlfriends. Just about everyone I write about has a family. I know that.
What RPS is about is fun. We all want to see cute boys kissing, and when it's two boys who are talented, that we know something about, and that are easily recognized by most of the country, it's easy to want to write slash of them.
I've never met an RPS writer who means any disrespect for the person that they're writing about, or who wants anyone to see said person negatively because of their writing. We write it because we like these people. We have fun writing about them and trying to imagine what they could be like in reality. I don't think it's really any different than writing about characters played by real people on TV - they're characters. These aren't people we know, even if we may feel that we do.
Were Gerard, Frank, Ray, Pat, Pete, Tom, Mark, or Travis to read any of my fanfics, I would hope that they would laugh and feel flattered rather than being angry or unsettled. What I'm saying about them in these fics is that they're cute, they seem really nice, and they're incredibly talented - I'm NOT saying that I'm portraying them accurately, that they're cheating on their wives, or that they don't love their wives and kids.
These are great guys. That's why we write about them. To anyone who finds RPS weird: we do it for fun and out of love for these celebrities. We mean no offense, and we want people to see that these stories are PURELY created in our imaginations.
RPS is greatly misunderstood by many people; as much as I joke about how "OMG SO REAL" this is, I know it isn't, and I want everyone to understand that I don't know these celebrities, so the stuff I'm writing isn't going to be accurate. It's just for fun.
(I'm not writing this because I've gotten complaints - I'm writing it to avoid them. I've seen a lot of people react to RPS very badly, and I want to head this off at the pass. ANY REAL PERSON FANFICS THAT YOU SEE FROM ME CAN HAVE THIS POST APPLIED TO THEM.)
