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Fan Porn

The Filthy Mirror of the Subconscious

Fanboys are undoubtedly the randiest of all human subgroups. However, due to their lack of social skills outside of AIM, they are unable to express themselves normally in this part of life. From this unfortunate situation develops one of the most grotesquely fascinating subjects in all of fandom: Fan Porn. This essay, and those that follow, will focus on the phenomena of fan porn as it relates to the ELotHTES community, and society at large.

It's important that we first define the phenomena before exploring it further. For the purposes of this essay, fan porn is defined as any artwork featuring characters, themes, or situations from a popular work of fiction. This most often takes the form of drawings, stories or comics, usually posted on the internet to skirt copyright issues. Their creators range in ability from the nearly professional to the borderline mentally handicapped. The only thing they share is a common love of the source material.

Why do these fans go to such effort to create sexual depictions of their favorite characters? The answer is surprisingly simple: fantasy. Fantastic works such as ELotHTES draw their appeal from the fact that they allow readers to experience, by proxy of the character, a world very unlike their own. The reader views this world using one or more characters as "masks"; projecting their self-image onto that of the hero. Through the eyes of the character, the reader is stronger, faster, smarter, and more capable than he or she could ever hope to be in real life. Pornography works in an eerily similar fashion, allowing the reader to experience acts impossible or improbable to achieve in real life through the "star's" eyes (among other things). It is a natural step for fans to combine the two. The characters we know and love achieve the improbable regularly in the works in which we normally encounter them; surely they get laid as well? Indeed, they must! Also, they no doubt share our personal inclinations and orientations as well! It is through this act of rationalization that fan porn is created.

There is also a deeper motivation at work here. Pornography, as in many aspects of human sexuality, is born from taboos. Human nature dictates that we always want what we cannot have. Sexual repression by society, rather than limiting this effect, merely compounds it. The more society demonizes something, the more certain individuals will seek it out. This has an interesting effect within the creative community. Society demands that artistic endeavors be fully original (with the exception of collaborative works). This is too often a burden on struggling artists, the prospect of using ready-made characters and material from another's work is enticing. Therefore, I propose that at least part of the titillation from fan porn comes from breaking the taboo against infringing on someone else's work. A sort of "copyright infringement fetish", if you will. If you combine this with the reader's strong self-projection into the minds of these characters, you will see that fan porn has a powerful attraction indeed.

So we see that there is nothing especially deviant about fan porn. It stems from the same sources as all forms sexuality, albeit in an unorthodox way. The materials hidden under our nation's mattresses are a reflection of our unconscious desires, our raw, seething id. A reflection we will continue to gaze upon for as long as we can stomach it.

Coming Soon(ish):

Furnie Porn: Why, Dear God, Why?

Dojinshi: Did I Spell That Right?

Slash Fiction: Not As Creepy As First Assumed

Slash Fiction Reapproached: Horror Beyond Imagining

Slash Fiction Third Mix: Reasonably Imaginable Horror

Slash Fiction the Revenge: Not Really That Horrible

Slash Fiction the Final Nightmare: Let's Compromise

Slash Fiction Resseruction: Horror Way Beyond Imagining

Sources:

Canon, James Carter. "ELotH:TES Porn: What the F?" ElotH:TES Magazine 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.

Campbell, Joseph. In the Hero’s Boudoir: Sex in the Worlds of Myth New York: Random House, 1997.

United States Dept. of Justice. Copyright Law: Procedures and Enforcement. Washington: GPO, 2000.

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