RPS brings in the whole "Are we writing about the TV personae or the real people? Are the personae married?" issue, and I'm glad that in your fandom there's some peace made with it.
I think pretty much everyone in my corner of the fandom sees it as writing about the TV personae, but the respective wives and girlfriend in this case have been mentioned on air, and indeed I think they've all appeared on screen at least once, in some cases along with the presenters' mothers. So I personally feel that any fic where they explicitly don't exist is AU at best, and any slashfic where they're simply ignored casts doubt on the character of the presenters in ways that the author usually doesn't intend. Obviously not everyone shares my preferences, though.
The former feels like disposal of women
Exactly.
and the latter steps on my first-time kink
Heh. That's one of my biggest kinks, too, but "first time for this pairing" will usually hit it for me, so I don't think that's why I don't like the "now we've kissed..." approach. It's that the way it's executed usually comes across as just another clumsy way of getting those inconvenient womenfolk out of the way. If Jeremy and Francie Clarkson are in fact poly in this story universe, I want you to show me that and let me see her being happy about it, not just tell me in a throwaway line where her husband speaks for her and then gets on with the really important business of shagging his co-presenter. That pattern manages to creep me out even as someone who doesn't normally like femslash or het.
If I had to guess, I'd say that OT3 shows up *more* in fandom than in real life because people who have more of a One True Love bent can get to Two True Loves more readily than Lots Of Loves That Are Awesome But Not Coequal
Yes, that, and also narrativium makes it easier to avoid all the little quirks and incompatible kinks and logistical problems that make it infinitesimally unlikely in real life that my Two True Loves will not only reciprocate my love, but also get the blinding flash of insight in which they both realise that they are also each others' Second True Loves.
no subject
I think pretty much everyone in my corner of the fandom sees it as writing about the TV personae, but the respective wives and girlfriend in this case have been mentioned on air, and indeed I think they've all appeared on screen at least once, in some cases along with the presenters' mothers. So I personally feel that any fic where they explicitly don't exist is AU at best, and any slashfic where they're simply ignored casts doubt on the character of the presenters in ways that the author usually doesn't intend. Obviously not everyone shares my preferences, though.
The former feels like disposal of women
Exactly.
and the latter steps on my first-time kink
Heh. That's one of my biggest kinks, too, but "first time for this pairing" will usually hit it for me, so I don't think that's why I don't like the "now we've kissed..." approach. It's that the way it's executed usually comes across as just another clumsy way of getting those inconvenient womenfolk out of the way. If Jeremy and Francie Clarkson are in fact poly in this story universe, I want you to show me that and let me see her being happy about it, not just tell me in a throwaway line where her husband speaks for her and then gets on with the really important business of shagging his co-presenter. That pattern manages to creep me out even as someone who doesn't normally like femslash or het.
If I had to guess, I'd say that OT3 shows up *more* in fandom than in real life because people who have more of a One True Love bent can get to Two True Loves more readily than Lots Of Loves That Are Awesome But Not Coequal
Yes, that, and also narrativium makes it easier to avoid all the little quirks and incompatible kinks and logistical problems that make it infinitesimally unlikely in real life that my Two True Loves will not only reciprocate my love, but also get the blinding flash of insight in which they both realise that they are also each others' Second True Loves.