This is perhaps colouring my opinion of all this. (Ya think?):-)
Well, are we talking about using Frodo's image in art, now, or Elijah's (as Elijah)? If we are talking about Frodo's image, then we are talking about using the image of a fictional character (even though he was played by an actor, his image now has taken on a life of its own, separate from EW, just as images of the Cowardly Lion have a life of their own apart from Bert Lahr, who played him). I think that is comparable to your story of how your image, in costume as a character, was used by an artist, who then made a picture from your portrayal (which included making the costume scantier). Once you were "in character," it wasn't you being portrayed, but the character. You were just enacting, or modelling the character which the artist worked from.
When you were photographed surreptitiously but intentionally, with the camera looking down your dress, that was different. The photographer was taking advantage of you for a bit of voyeurism for his own benefit. But if he were taking group shots, and you just happened to lean over when he clicked the big group shot, that would not be his fault.
Last week a soccer player was on the field in Germany and his penis flipped out of his shorts. It was an accident, and the TV cameras never intended to record it as part of the game coverage. But, as you might imagine, that clip was all over the internet. (I got it in an email from a relative.) That "shorts malfunction" appeared everywhere, not just as the clip that appeared on TV, but in slo-mo and in screencaps, all to better examine it. Well, the player didn't seem upset, and a good laugh was had by all. But, if the player had been angry or mortified, it would have been very different. It would have seemed like taking gross advantage of him to show it all over the place -- even though it had happened right on TV, in a public venue.
When that photographer took your picture it was very different. You could say he "stole" the image from you, using it to give a false impression of you; like snipping off a lock of your hair and going around telling people you gave it to him. Perhaps you are seeing what happens to EW when people use his image for manips as that sort of thing: stealing his image and using it in ways that give a false impression of him, and mortifying or angering him.
But what if Elijah experiences the manip thing like that soccer player when he fell out of his shorts on camera? EW's penis isn't hanging out, true, but his face is, all the time, publicly available, which his fans think is as hawt as anything he's got in his jeans. What if, when people take that face -- which has all the power of a shorts malfunction to those who swoon for him -- and do what is the equivalent of the folks who took the clip of the unleashed soccer-guy's penis? Through hot fics and manips, they do something comparable to when folks took the clip of the soccer guy's exposed gentials and featured it in slo-mo, and screencaps, all to pore over it the better. Maybe when EW sees these stuff like these hot manips or stories (and, by now, he must know there's a ton of them), his attitude is more like that soccer player's. That is, he doesn't think it's that big a deal, and can wave it off. He's a public person; he's on view, and his popularity is great with women who respond heavily to his looks. Women who, if he can't manage to have a shorts malfunction (like the soccer player), will be happy to provide him with one.
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Date: 2006-06-26 04:39 am (UTC)This is perhaps colouring my opinion of all this. (Ya think?):-)
Well, are we talking about using Frodo's image in art, now, or Elijah's (as Elijah)? If we are talking about Frodo's image, then we are talking about using the image of a fictional character (even though he was played by an actor, his image now has taken on a life of its own, separate from EW, just as images of the Cowardly Lion have a life of their own apart from Bert Lahr, who played him). I think that is comparable to your story of how your image, in costume as a character, was used by an artist, who then made a picture from your portrayal (which included making the costume scantier). Once you were "in character," it wasn't you being portrayed, but the character. You were just enacting, or modelling the character which the artist worked from.
When you were photographed surreptitiously but intentionally, with the camera looking down your dress, that was different. The photographer was taking advantage of you for a bit of voyeurism for his own benefit. But if he were taking group shots, and you just happened to lean over when he clicked the big group shot, that would not be his fault.
Last week a soccer player was on the field in Germany and his penis flipped out of his shorts. It was an accident, and the TV cameras never intended to record it as part of the game coverage. But, as you might imagine, that clip was all over the internet. (I got it in an email from a relative.) That "shorts malfunction" appeared everywhere, not just as the clip that appeared on TV, but in slo-mo and in screencaps, all to better examine it. Well, the player didn't seem upset, and a good laugh was had by all. But, if the player had been angry or mortified, it would have been very different. It would have seemed like taking gross advantage of him to show it all over the place -- even though it had happened right on TV, in a public venue.
When that photographer took your picture it was very different. You could say he "stole" the image from you, using it to give a false impression of you; like snipping off a lock of your hair and going around telling people you gave it to him. Perhaps you are seeing what happens to EW when people use his image for manips as that sort of thing: stealing his image and using it in ways that give a false impression of him, and mortifying or angering him.
But what if Elijah experiences the manip thing like that soccer player when he fell out of his shorts on camera? EW's penis isn't hanging out, true, but his face is, all the time, publicly available, which his fans think is as hawt as anything he's got in his jeans. What if, when people take that face -- which has all the power of a shorts malfunction to those who swoon for him -- and do what is the equivalent of the folks who took the clip of the unleashed soccer-guy's penis? Through hot fics and manips, they do something comparable to when folks took the clip of the soccer guy's exposed gentials and featured it in slo-mo, and screencaps, all to pore over it the better. Maybe when EW sees these stuff like these hot manips or stories (and, by now, he must know there's a ton of them), his attitude is more like that soccer player's. That is, he doesn't think it's that big a deal, and can wave it off. He's a public person; he's on view, and his popularity is great with women who respond heavily to his looks. Women who, if he can't manage to have a shorts malfunction (like the soccer player), will be happy to provide him with one.
(cont'd.)