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Another fic I absolutely adore was deleted off of A03 today because it broke containment despite the author begging for it to be kept to safe spaces. Here's how you can participate in RPF without harassing real people, and without violating the consent of creators or their subjects.
RPF is not in and of itself wrong. There are some people who believe it might be, or that it's something to be ashamed of. Here is a very brief explanation of why it's actually normal behavior:
Works of fiction are essentially written daydreams. These are normal and natural parts of the human experience where our minds wander. For some people they are very brief, but for others they are deeply immersive- with world building and recurring characters. It is estimated that our minds are engaged in daydreams about 30% of our waking hours. In most people this is a good thing. It can have important benefits for a person- fostering creative thinking, dishabituation, and attentional cycling. It's very normal to use daydreams as a way to work through social situations, plan for the future, or explore difficult circumstances in life. Pretty much everyone does this. Your daydreams are not crimes and do not cause harm. Daydreaming is harmful for a person when it interferes in their everyday life, or when it is confused for reality. When confused for reality, it can cause harm to the daydreamer, and to others.
While some daydreams or fantasies are incredibly detailed and not focused on people you know or know of in real life, most people are having the sorts of daydreams that involve people they know or know of. If you've every imagined out how a conversation might go, or imagined holding hands with someone-you've engaged in mental RPF. It's normal. It's natural. it's fine.
So we have established that your thoughts are fine. But what about sharing your daydreams with someone else? Is that normal? Is it ok? Yes!
If you've ever told your friend what you would do if you won the lottery, or were president for a day- congratulations! You've just shared an RPF. Or maybe you're telling your friend what a character in a TV show should have done under the circumstances, and how that would have changed things in the story. This is also fine! Maybe you tell your friend that you have a crush and you imagined spending the day with them and tell them all the things you had done in your daydream. Maybe you and your friend have just finished watching a heist movie and together imagine how you might rob you local bank, or would have robbed a stagecoach in yesteryear. Bank Robbery is a crime. Robbing a stage coach back in the day was a crime. But imagining yourself and your friend doing so is not a crime! Imagining all of these things and sharing them with someone else who consents to spending time with you and listening to you is NOT wrong.
Daydreaming is a normal human thing and humans are very social and frequently bond over them.
Now let's talk sex.
Sex and liking sex and thinking about sex are all just parts of the human condition. (I see you ace people, please scroll for a minute if you need)
Daydreaming about sex is incredibly common. Most adults do it. It's normal and healthy and can be a great outlet for exploring your likes and dislikes, process thoughts about something, or just to help satisfy your needs. It is far more rare to never daydream about sex. So -in general- everyone is in fact doing it. Is it fine to talk about though? Can you tell someone about your sexual fantasy?
Yes. If the person you are telling has CONSENTED to hearing the fantasy then telling the person is not inherently wrong. This is situational and complex, but honestly all of these examples are.
If your friend is sitting in your living room expanding on what they'd buy if they won the lottery, that would be fine. If someone is outside the grocery store telling someone on the phone what they'd buy if they won the lottery and you hear it this is also fine. However, if a stranger walked into your house and started telling you what they'd buy if they won the lottery you'd rightfully be terrified and upset.
In the first example for the lottery you are in conversation with a trusted person and are choosing to listen and spend time with them. In the second example you're in a public location and you hear other people and their conversations. There's no reasonable expectation of privacy with sound or action. In the third scenario- you are in a private place with the reasonable expectation that a person you do not know will not be there and will not be speaking to you. The content of what they are saying doesn't matter. What matters is that you did not consent to their presence and you did not consent to hearing them.
Not consenting to hearing something is really important here. Consent matters in all of the examples of sharing daydreams. Let's explore this specifically with Formula 1 and RPF.
Say you have a fantasy that a particular driver wins the WDC. You imagine they surge ahead in the points, takes win and and win, and by Mexico has sewn up enough points to clinch the championship. The following are examples of how this might be shared with others.
1. You text a detailed description of all of the races you imagined they won to your friend who loves the same driver and also likes to imagine them winning.
2. You Post a description of this fantasy on Instagram or twitter.
3. You make a poster outlining the fantasy and bring it to the next race
4. You show up at a restaurant you've followed the driver to tell them your fantasy or you follow a fan for another driver to another location and tell them your fantasy.
5. You show up at the drivers home uninvited to tell them about your fantasy
Let's go through all of them now.
1. Your friend also enjoys and engages with this topic and daydreams about it. They have consented to the conversation. No one is harmed.
2. You've published an age appropriate item on a public platform that uses algorithms to determine content users see. No one is harmed.
3. You've gone to a public space with a crown of people there for a specific purpose with an age appropriate sign that is topical. The target of your sign is desirous of your support for their career. No one is harmed.
4. You've violated the consent of the driver or the other fan. They didn't consent to be followed and they didn't consent to speak with you. You're harassing them. Even if the driver in question is the one you want to win, and also wants to win very badly themselves YOU ARE STILL HARASSING THEM. Following someone against their will to a place and forcing them to listen to you could reasonably cause someone distress that they may be in danger. Communication that is unwelcome, that ignores others personal boundaries, or if they have consented at all to the interaction is harassment. You are legally allowed to be on the road and maybe in the restaurant too. It doesn't give you the right to force their participation or monitor their whereabouts.
5. You've violated someone's privacy and space. You've crossed all the boundaries. It doesn't matter if you support the driver or not- they have not consented to you being in their home, or speaking to them here.
So let's get back to sex and RPF. When you speak about sex with another person, or in the hearing of other people, they need to consent. The reason we don't usually speak explicitly about sex or sex acts in public where we can be overheard, or our words read is that a bystander could be unwillingly forced into your sex life without their permission. Sharing explicit sexual details or thoughts in a public way violates social etiquette because it does not allow people reasonable boundaries for intimacy. In the modern world, this means more than just not talking explicitly about a sex act at a restaurant. Public platforms frequently have settings to turn off explicit materials or adult materials and penalize those who attempt to get around those systems. But even if someone consents to seeing explicit materials on a platform, it would still be considered sexual harassment to send unsolicited sexual messages directly to them. It could also be harassing to discuss them explicitly with an identifying name or by tagging them.
The gist of this is sexual content in written or verbal or drawn form requires consent. The same sexual thing can be acceptable or a violation depending on the situation.
1. A driver goes to an art gallery to see an exhibit and sees a painting of two individuals in a very intimate and explicit embrace. The painting is on theme for the exhibit and the level of sexual detail is anticipated. The driver likes the painting
2. A driver goes to an art gallery for an exhibit on bronze cast pineapples. In the midst of the exhibit is the same painting described above of two individuals in a very intimate and explicit embrace. They are not pineapples, and were not wanted or anticipated.
3. A driver walks through a private home and goes down a hallway by accident. They see the painting of two individuals in a very intimate and explicit embrace. It was not anticipated, but they were not in a public area, nor in an area of the other person's house they were expected to be in.
4. Another person who is not the driver but instead a fan sees the painting of two individuals in a very intimate and explicit embrace and decides it reminds them of two of the drivers. One of the drivers is known to have gone to the exhibit. This fan tells a friend who attended the exhibit with them who is receptive to their thoughts about what they think of the painting and the drivers where they cannot be overheard.
5. A fan goes to the driver who attended the exhibit and tells the driver unsolicited of their thoughts of how the intimate and explicit image reminded them of the driver.
1, 3 and 4 do no harm. In 1 and 4 the viewing of the painting and discussions of the painting were consensual. In 3, the viewing of the painting was accidental on both the part of the homeowner and the driver. The driver was in a location where the homeowner had the expectation of privacy, but did not violate the homeowners privacy on purpose. The homeowner had the painting in a place they had a reasonable expectation it would not be viewed by guests and did not inflict it upon someone deliberately. If the homeowner had placed it in a more public area of the home, and not warned their guests, this would be a violation of their guests.
In 2, though it is the same public location, the stated intent of the exhibit was not for sexual or explicit materials. They only consented to viewing pineapples. This was a violation.
In 5 the driver has seen the image and previously liked it, but they did not consent to the interaction with the fan. It's a violation of their boundaries, and of them sexually.
So let's swing around to fanfiction (sexual or not sexual) specifically about drivers and apply the above lessons.
Fantasizing about a driver with yourself, or with someone else or in any situation is fine so long as you aren't spending your day fantasizing instead of living, or treating your fantasy as reality.
Telling someone else about your fantasy is also fine so long they have consented and is appropriate for the occasion. If the fantasy is sexual/explicit in nature and you want to share it, you must always take care to share the fantasy in a way that does not force non-consenting individuals into joining your sex life.
Taking a fiction (a fantastical work of art) out of a defined space into other public forums, or presenting that work directly to the subject of that work, violates the privacy and sexual rights of others.
Writing a fiction or making artwork depicting explicit, sexual, or threatening materials and sending it to the subject is a violation and is harassment. Sending someone a link to a work like that about them is not better than just sending them a letter or an email saying the same thing. Depending on where you are this is a crime. Don't do it.
Sending an artwork depicting explicit, sexual, or threatening materials that were a closed, defined space, and specifically requested not to be shared into the public sphere, or to a driver is also a violation. It is the same as above, except you additionally violate the original author of the work who did not consent to that use. You are making them a party to your harassment and violation against their will. It's not their fault, but now you have another victim. If you are posting a work you love on a site that is algorithmically driven such as Instagram or TikTok or twitter.... you are moving that work from a defined space to a fully public one. YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE when that material violates the boundaries of others.
I hope this was useful for everyone. I'm sure someone out there can say all of this so much better than I can. I'll be happy to link it. Feel free to steal anything I've written here and share it around. Please feel free to re-write it better and share it around. But mostly, please consider others. Your daydreams- whatever form they take are normal and natural. Sexual or not sexual, they are still okay. What makes them not fine is when you violate the boundaries and consent of others.
RPF is ethical until you violate the consent and boundaries of others. Please treat others the way you would like to be treated. Please respect fanfiction or art spaces and do not share works to other locations where they may, even inadvertently end up violating others.
End Note: My heart breaks for the author who I know stripped all their works from this site today. They were violated. Their fantasies were told to a specific community in a safe space. Someone violated this space and the author and took their works to public forums where people who were the subject of the works interacted with their existence. The subjects and the author and unknowing users of these other platforms were all forced into an unwanted and unsolicited interaction because of the thoughtless and selfish actions of those who chose to disregard the privacy and boundaries of others. I hope those people who did that sincerely reflect on their actions and move forward in life in a more kind manner.