Friday, January 10, 2014

A Moron On A Fic Site

No, I'm not linking to it because I'm having phone issues again. Google works, follow the internal links in the article for context if you don't already know.

Dear Queerty,

Wow. THANK YOU for pulling the wool off of my eyes. I followed the links you suggested in your article about Ian McKellen and I have to say, just wow. I'm not a vanilla person but apparently Richard Armitage had more sex while bound in various configurations during the eighteen months he filmed The Hobbit in New Zealand than I have in my entire life and all while being watched by people transcribing the action for posterity at one of the sites that you mentioned. Oh, he's also a mob boss and he might be dating Buffy the Vampire Slayer so, brave uncoverers of truth that you are, you should probably alert the Treasury Department and the X-Files, respectively.

The site you linked to is a fan fiction site, in this case the one maintained by MIT. Please take them on, I beg you, because that wank is guaranteed to be epic. You, a journalism site who apparently forgot how to journalism, vs. those geeks? I'll be popping the popcorn for that one. My guess is you wouldn't have the balls for the simple fact that it's easier to kink shame a bunch of fangirls than to explain yourselves to the likes of people who could hack you into the next millennium.

I have really strong negative feelings about outing as a practice unless you're talking about a politician who votes against or a religious or moral leader who speaks out against the LGBT community. People come out when they're ready and the effect on the person being outed is the same whether it's done by a member of the community or a homophobe. Is Richard Armitage gay? I have no idea and based on what you published this week I would be willing to hazard a guess that you don't, either.

59 comments:

  1. Moi aussi. What a pity that, until now, no one has put this particular piece of trash where it belongs...It's long overdue.

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Verbosa, and welcome back.

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  2. Haaaaaaaa, yes. Excellent summary of all this wank. Thank you!

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    1. You're welcome, Anonymous. Thank you for commenting and welcome to the blog. :)

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  3. Amen, sistah!! As my husband says, sadly, some people will believe anything because it's on the internet--regardless of how truly factual and substantiated it may be. "Outing" hypocritical politicians and religious leaders is one thing; leave ordinary hard-working citizens, be they plumbers or lawyers or actors alone to lead and live their lives as they see fit. I don't really care what RA's sexual orientation is; I just know I have plenty of respect and admiration for him, which is more than I can say for this rag.

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    1. The thing about that site is that they're not a rag. They write serious pieces on serious topics and they get quoted by other news outlets a lot. This is not to say they don't have a right to do satiric pieces but it seemed to me that the whole point of this particular series has been shaming someone, either RA into coming out or fic writers and other artists the same way Caitlin Moran did to a Sherlock fic writer a couple of weeks ago.

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  4. Good grief. That trash made the National Enquirer look good.

    Kudos to you. :)

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    1. Thanks, judiang. In The National Enquirer's defense (I can't believe I just typed that sentence), when they do real journalism they don't dick around. They've broken a bunch of truly huge stories.

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  5. Yup, they have been served..like a roast pig with an apple stuffed in their mouth. You, lady, are amazing! I couldn't have said it better myself!

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    1. Thanks for the kind comment and welcome to the blog. :)

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  6. Well said! I couldn't care less about the straight/gay issue but spreading that kind of gossip on the internet - including posting family photos with children on them is just vile. Journalism doesn't come into it. Unfortunately there's nothing much to be done about it. The best thing would be to completely ignore it...
    (Suse)

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    1. I find it really interesting that mainstream gossip sites haven't picked it up, frankly. There are threads in various message boards that seem like an endless round of "he's gay!"/"no he isn't!"/"duck season!"/"rabbit season!"/"boom!" but they go on all the time, anyway.

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    2. I don't think outing relatively unknown actors is of interest for their readership, though it is different with A-listers. But it is of interest for the gay community who might be gay after all. When Luke Evans went back into the closet, it was only an issue for them.

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    3. The only person involved in any of this who can be considered an A-Lister is McKellen. Let's consider the quote for a second where he said "two of the dwarves." When we, the fandom, refer to "the dwarves" we're talking about the twelve we've met but that may not be his reference point. Was he including the smaller stand-ins? Any dwarves who may be coming with Dain? We don't know.

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    4. There is another article that say Ian McK said eight of the actors are gay, not giving names and not specifying if that includes himself or not. It is a possibility what you suggest though I do not think it is very likely, it is more likely that he refers to the main cast as we would do. And I also don't think that anyone who is officially married or has a girlfriend would be out among colleagues. On the other hand there is a chance that article is fake or he was misquoted (I have never heard of that German site before).

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    5. I've heard about the other quote but haven't seen it so if you have a link I'd appreciate it. My issue here is not who is gay or straight. My issue is that the case as Queerty laid it out is, kindly put, unproven and the inclusion of fan works as part of their argument seems to me to be a meanspirited swipe.

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    6. http://www.mattmueller.co.uk/index.php?page_id=Interviews%20/%20Features&category_id=Interviews&article_id=647

      I realise that many people are angry about what has happened and how Queerty or the person who leaked the pics have behaved. I guess I am pretty calm about it because I always knew something like this would happen someday, it happens to almost everyone, one way or the other. RA can count himself lucky to have stayed under the radar for so long.

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    7. The article was apparently published in the print version of Attitude magazine. And I guess it refers to actors that were out among co-workers.

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  7. Well, they file the article under "fantasy couple".

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    1. The McKellen one isn't tagged that way. Thanks for commenting and welcome to the blog, Jane. :)

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    2. You are right. But they refer to AO3 as a "source" with regards to another Hobbit actor, not RA. Unfortunately in this case two different things get mixed.

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    3. When I read it the link took me to the RA/Other Actor archive. Has it changed?

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    4. I didn't saw that the link leads directly to the pairing. What I am trying to say, they don't build their whole argumentation on fanfic, taking it for face value. They report that the fanfic exists (and that it is just that, a fantasy) but they have other arguments as well, however questionable they may be. For example things that should never have been said and pictures that should never have been made public. That all this should never have happened doesn't mean I can pretend it hasn't.

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    5. I'm not asking you or anyone else to pretend anything. However, that includes pretending that a piece or even many pieces of fiction are a valid as evidence to bolster an argument.

      The pictures are a whole separate issue. They published two that may have been hacked from someone's personal Facebook account and we don't have dates or context for either of them. Guessing is not evidence.

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  8. Yes , Jazzy :) Gay or not....seems to me his audience is growing in strenth and diversity, right? ;) I sincerelly hope he had lots of sex and dance in NZ :D

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  9. I have to say that I'm very proud that the issue that spread like wildfire on tumblr was ignored/disregarded on RA blogs. We've been here already and I think we can all agree it's none of our business.
    BTW sloppy journalism happens when people "creating" the news aren't journalists at all. Enough with the cheap sensationalism. By creating crap you are offending the reader and his/her intelligence.

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  10. I wrote a huge comment a minute ago and it wouldn't let me post it because apparently I don't own my WordPress account. >:[ Booger. It was pretty good, too, I think. :}

    Basically: well said. This kind of crap really ticks me off because WhoTF cares? Well. Obviously someone does, or Queerty would have folded up its little arms and joined the Choir Eternal before now. But the sort of crap buzz this lives on makes me want to brush my teeth very, very carefully. Ugh. I know this reeks of Armitage Protection Mode, but: get out of his closet, O Prurient Ones, and get your own lives.

    At least for those of us who are his admirers and fans, if we can let him get on with the sort of work he wants to do, all the better. That's where our interest in, and our rights to, his time and energy lie in any case. That's the part of himself he chooses to share with us. And that's really the issue here: choice.

    "Outing" someone (anyone.) who doesn't choose to discuss their emotional life in the public sphere is harmful, spiteful, malicious, and a mean, mean thing to do. It feeds the lowest, most heartless part of our nature, and I would love to see that cruel beast starved of meat for a while -- although I'm sure the media isn't going to cooperate anytime soon.

    We seem to think we "need" all the information about our celebrities, whether it's the autopsy reports on recently passed actors (ghoulish and heartbreaking for the families!) or the tacky and shocking details of X's latest divorce (poor children, did they need to know that Daddy was having sex with the nanny while they were in the next room?). The human cost is inconsequential in light of our "need" for constant titillation.

    I wish I could say this was new, but it's as old as humanity. Doubtless the cave paintings were early tabloid media: "Gront have sex with mastodon. Gront wife leave Gront for millionaire. Hahaha Gront!"

    And the bad journalism/photoshops? Honestly. I'm not saying "do better", because a lie is a lie. I'm saying "don't lie". Give it a rest. If you want to speculate about Lee and Richard, ok. Do it until your fingers fall off. But use real photos that have been taken at real events by real photographers. Not a pastiche of something jammed together like visual Spaghettios in someone's fervid, sweaty imagination. :\ (Oh, wait. You're also too cheap to pay real photographers for real photographs. You can use photoshops and fan art for free, right? And without attribution? Let's start another movement: if your fan art is "featured" in this piece, please send them a request to remove it. Or something. Although then they might link to you and eep, wouldn't that be horrifying?)

    Bah. Humbug. Grrrr. Gront go back to bed now. >:[

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    1. Sorry. That was a book!! I should have posted it on my own blog. o.O My apologies!!

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    2. Dude, you're fine and welcome to the blog. :) You said a mouthful.

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    3. It's a very good book, though, msgigglepants. :) I couldn't agree more!

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  11. What they all said, double. xoxoxoxo

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  12. It seems that people are not happy unless they are spending their time trying to make other people unhappy. Not sure that this is a respectable way to make a living but it must be very profitable because so many people do it. Thanks for calling these folks out on this issue.

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  13. Wonder how disappointed Luke Evans was to find out that he and Richard were no longer an item. Oh yes and then there was the guy pushing Richard's luggage cart at Heathrow who was supposed to be his lover, sure he is disappointed to. Next up, the guy standing next to Richard at Starbucks when someone snaps a pic. Get a life folks and let Richard get on with his.

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    1. Heck, he bought a fan coffee in NZ. I expect a wedding announcement soon. :)

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  14. I think the first thing I saw (in this latest version of the game of Gay/Not Gay) was an article on Jezebel about McKellen's comments. When I saw the Queerty thing, I laughed my not inconsiderable arse off. Citing Tumblr accounts as sources? C'moooon! I echo the sentiments previously mentioned here -- not our business, don't care for 'outing' people, and of course RA is awesome. And you're totally right about the Enquirer, Jazz -- am I not correct in thinking that paper broke the John Edwards stuff? They do do investigative journalism...but don't always use those powers for good. :)

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    1. Thank you for the comment and, yeah, the Enquirer broke the Edwards scandal among other major stories. Mental Floss has a list and so does Business Insider.

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  15. Well said, Jazzy!

    This is what I put on my FB status regarding this issue--and I rarely do status posts:

    January 10, 2014--Love is ...

    My 2 cents worth, not that anyone reads my rare status posts:

    My sympathies to celebrities and their lack of privacy about their personal lives. I can't even imagine how it would feel having a third person--or thousands on Twitter and such--talk about "my" sex life, worst and best grades in school, what I looked like in junior high school (hair like Frank Zappa, but no mustache, ha!), etc. Live and let live, I always say.

    And if a person chooses to be private about a topic, so be it. That should be respected--by everyone.

    Love is and should be a joyous thing. As as the "good" book says:

    1 Corinthians 13:4-8

    New International Version (NIV)

    4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

    8 Love never fails.

    Reference: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A4-8

    And may I add, wishing RA and everyone every happiness that they wish for themselves. Hugs!

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  16. Like the way you put it! thank you!

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    1. You're welcome and thank you for the kind comment! :)

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  17. I do think "outing" -REALLY!! is unutterably stupid. I do wish this issue with actors and all public people would just go away. It is nasty and mean-spirited. I have a big "crush" on one Richard Armitage. Whatever his sexuality, the crush exists in fantasy, not reality, and my personal investment is not so extreme that it would make a difference to appreciation of his talents, or to my life.

    If Sir Ian has been properly reported - on the record - in his remarks, I am sorry. Because innuendo and indirect references can only raise this sort of rather unpleasant rumour and speculation. That does not do any community much good.

    fitzg

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    1. Thanks for commenting, fitzg. That really is the question, isn't it? I've seen commentary elsewhere that suggests that the article McKellen's quote was pulled from has been tampered with, which might explain how something that got around that fast once it was linked on Queerty managed to stay under the radar for a year.

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    2. I did a bit of digging on brash.de, the German website that published the interview in question. I had never heard of it but a big reputable publishing company is behind it. It is not a gay magazine or a gossip site but a lifestyle mag directed mostly at men, covering many subjects like sports, cars and entertainment. And the original article most definetely say the same as the Queerty quote. It is a small part of a long interview.

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    3. Thank you for sourcing that, Jane. The comment that I referenced above, though, indicated that the article had been tampered with from an outside source, that the site had been hacked. There's really no way to prove that either way without a screenshot from when it originally ran. I'm a pretty skeptical person by nature and the way this all kind of dovetailed last week -- the pictures, the interview that no one noticed for a year and then the Queerty links to An Archive Of Our Own and Tumblr as "proof" -- raises more questions than it answers. Please note that I don't think Armitage needs to answer inquiries into his sexuality because that's his business until he makes it public. But any news organization that runs with something like this should make sure their source or sources are solid.

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  18. Sourcing and properly referencing sources is a feature lost in Cyberspace, and we have to live with it. I do appreciate those, like Jane, who take the trouble to do what "professional" journalists aren't at present. Sourcing is nit-picky work, and writers have always eschewed it. Deadlines. Patrons to impress. Etc. Try sourcing Richard III documentation! :)

    fitzg

    or Judith, if you prefer real given/christened names.

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    1. Sorry I missed this earlier, fitzg, but I totally agree with you. Whatever happened to making sure you had multiple sources before you published something?

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  19. You know what really is bullshit, or more like a mistake that no journalist should make? Salon.com has an article about Sir Ian outing LP and LE (no mention of RA) and as a source that LE tries to give the impression that he is straight and has a girlfriend, they link to mediamass. Mediamass is a site with fake articles about everyone, all saying the same (celeb XY engaged, married, about to become a father etc.). LOL!

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    1. I'm going to have to find the Salon article now. Thanks again, Jane!

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Thanks for commenting!