Is it ok to make fan art/slash fiction of real people?

[TAMAnnoying]

I personally don't really care, then again no one has ever done either of these things to me :v But what i hear from people who get fan art made and slash fictions made of them on the internet such as runaway guys and game grumps they seem slightly unnerved by it but pretty fine with it. But their people of the internet, i don't know what people that are not of the internet thing of this such as politicians and athletes. (though even Obama seems to given in to his own meme and says "thanks Obama" too soooo i don't know)

Is this something you would want to do? or something you'd like to do in the future? or does making fan art and slash fiction of real people weird you out at all? Or do you worry you'd get in trouble for it? :v

Im really just curious.

[mg78]

meme are "another world" . u cant choose to create a meme. none can. if u do, u fail.
meme are something that born for a fact, then evolve on its own way. none can control it.

if u mean real people, using them "for fun", in someway in a comic u create... that's another story. and imho most of the time can be funny! but it's up to u!

[puppetbomb]

About a decade ago I was talking about fanfiction with my cousins from Korea. They assumed it was about boy bands because apparently there's a rash of fangirls writing slash fiction about Super Junior (I think?).

But yeah. It's a thing.

[Zanreo]

Yeah, not gonna lie, I think it's kinda creepy and weird shipping real people. I know I wouldn't appreciate getting seriously shipped with my friends.

Just regular fanart, like a drawing of the person, should be fine, but shipping/slashfics/ect is really... eh.

[joannekwan]

i wouldn't do it because I'd be waaaay too embarrassed if the people ever found out.

[SpavVy]

Honestly I wouldn't want people making fan fiction stuff about me if I was to become popular enough, I wouldn't be too thrilled about fan art of me either because I don't post real pictures of myself online and even when people post pictures of me on Facebook it still makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I'm not ugly or anything but when it comes to my actual face I like having my privacy. I've never doe fan art of real people that I can recall but it's something that never really interested me.

[noctuidae]

I've always felt a bit odd about it. If I wouldn't depict an acquaintance that way then I wouldn't depict a celebrity that way.
Most of what I know about rl slash is from seeing band fiction on deviantart when I was in middle school e_o I mean, some of the people depicted are married, and have kids. How would any of those people react to the fantasies people have publicly posted on the internet?
Though I guess it would also depend on how rooted in reality it is. If you write, say, Ezra Koenig as a vampire hunter it's perfectly fine because he's obviously not a vampire hunter in real life, you're just doing a funny fictional caricature of him. But if you write fanfiction of a band member struggling with alcoholism and the like when they have had those problems in real life then yes, you are overstepping boundaries.

[rainbowolfe]

It kinda depends on the person? I mean, in regards to Youtubers a lot are fine when you ship them with other people because it's not them. It's their internet personality you're shipping. However, the Youtubers that aren't okay with being shipped let it be known, so you shouldn't ship the ones who don't like it.

And then I see a lot of sarcastic real-people ships. Like that one with Obama, though I don't know the name of the president/ambassador he's shipped with XD Plus also, the media kinda ships? They just don't relaize it. Like when tabloids are like "Are Lady gaga and Tyga a thing??" or anything similar(like accusing them of having sex with another celebrity). It seems most celebrities are uncomfortable by that kind of stuff, and I've noticed no one really ships them.

So I might ship a real person? It's kinda fun but also walks on a thin line of "weird/not weird". Depends on the person

[TAMAnnoying]

Alright so as far as i can tell we can agree fan art is in the ok zone but ships of people is still kind of weird unless stated by the people that its ok? I can kind of see that making sense, to be completely honest I was expecting different opinions but this was still really interesting to see how people feel about what parts of the internet (and i guess even the media by what @rainbowolfe says) do with internet celebs and real life sports and movie celebs.

[gateofselidor]

This sort of thing is really common in certain media fandoms, but I've never been comfortable with it. To me it feels invasive, and in extreme cases (I've heard about it from Supernatural and One Direction fans in particular, but I'm sure it's everywhere), people can end up harassing and saying terrible things about the people these celebrities are actually dating. While many fans are quite sensible about it, when you start to bring in real people rather than fictional characters, the line between fantasy and reality starts to blur for some people.

[AnnaLandin]

It's been a thing for a long, long time, and I've always felt kind of weird about it.

I mean, I am totally okay with fanart/fanfiction/whatever about just about any fictional character imaginable, whether they are played by an actor or whether they're animated, drawn in a comic, or just a character from a novel. They're fictional - do whatever you want with them.

But once the fan-creators start blurring the lines between character and actor, or when they straight up create stuff about real people (fanfic about real people commonly being referred to as RPF - Real Person Fiction) that aren't playing any kind of character, that starts getting into murky territory for me. Just drawing portraits - fine. A portrait is just a picture of what a person look like. But fictional speculation about real people? Eeeeh. I don't know. Everyone's free to do whatever they want, but RPF has always felt a little... disrespectful, I guess is the word?

These people might be public figures, but they still have some sort of right to the narrative of their own lives. I mean, you wouldn't be okay with it if tabloids printed outright lies about someone, claiming they had a sexual orientation they didn't have, right? You'd think the tabloid was out of line. So why should we hold ourselves to a lower standard?

Yes, it's just for fun, and yes, it's impossible to control the weird world that is internet-fandoms, but still. RPF makes me kind of uncomfortable.

[NagashiKhan]

Hahaha, I'm so glad I haven't come upon slash fiction for the Grumps, knowing they're real people and not characters, it almost seems like putting words in their mouths

[Kura]

I think fan art is fine, fiction though I don't really like.

Slash fiction based off of real people has existed even before fanfiction became as big as it is (I knew people that would write slash fiction of the Backstreet Boys, and before that there was a girl in my apartment building that was always writing romance stories (though usually with them and her, not them and each other) for New Kids on the Block)

It was not my thing, making slash fiction based off of real people is just... really creepy to me for whatever reason... of course I don't understand the need to plaster your wall of completely obsessing over celebrity crushes one might like either. Fanfiction of characters, that are not real but are just characters in a story or series (be it animated or with actors) is fine, because it's not actual people, it's not actual lives, and in concerns to the idea of 'shipping with whoever you want' type fics, when you're doing that with real people you're disregarding them as people so they fit into your desired little slashy fic mold. Which is... kinda of insulting.

In addition, I actually have personal experience with this as I DID have a fan send me a message telling me that they and some of their friends ship me with another webcomic artist that they like. I honestly did not know how to respond, as I do not know or have never even talked to this particular webcomic artist, and I am in a relationship of my own. It made me very uncomfortable that they would think of me in that way, that they found entertainment in writing me in a fic where I was unsatisfied and abused by my significant other and would cheat on them on said other webcomic artist (who is not even my preferred gender) I understand that it's fun to them, and they do not intend any harm, but I was personally uncomfortable and did not like it.

[qcbl]

Generally from my experience celebrities don't mind fanart especially if its good since it builds their popularity and they often enjoy it.
Fan fic is probably also fine but more so when you do it for a character that a real person plays rather than the real person themselves.
Also the less popular the celebrity the more chances they may not like it so if it is a small internet celebrity then you may want to ask first.
That's just my impression anyway