what the fck is tinhatting lol. i see it so much on here but have no idea what it means :)
okay i think it's easiest to explain if we define both rpf and tinhatting, as they are sort of both under the 'shipping' umbrella but in different ways.
rpf (short for real person fiction): this is writing fic, creating headcanons, meta analysis, whatever other fandom activity that involves two real people using publicly available information about them to create a fictional narrative. with rpf, there is the understanding that while we are using factual information as the source, the narratives we create from it are fiction. at the end of the day, we don't know these public figures! we don't know what they think, we don't know what they do in private when the cameras aren't on them, we don't know their personal lives. but that does not get in the way of the FUN we have because we are aware we are making stuff up, and there's room for different interpretations and conflicting headcanons when it's all fiction anyway.
tinhatting (the name derived from tinfoil hat that indicates someone who believes in conspiracy theories): when someone engages in tinhatting, they believe their "evidence" of a ship to be true. that a public figure's actions, behaviors, social media activity, etc. can all be interpreted with a degree of confidence to prove that these people are really secretly dating. tinhatters believe they have some kind of personal insight into the public figure's inner/personal life, twist innocuous things to fit their agenda, and discount anything that challenges their narrative (girlfriends for example get written off as a PR relationship/beard). they cannot tell fiction from reality and typically get unhealthily attached to the subjects they are tinhatting about, so when those subjects inevitably do something that challenges the ship (like get a girlfriend, get engaged, have a child), it gets ugly when they either have to move the goal post to prove why their ship is still real despite that obvious indicator it is not, or lash out because they feel betrayed because they were "true believers" or whatever and now their ship isn't cooperating with the agenda.
most people on tumblr are engaging in rpf and there's this general understanding that we having fun with it & know this is all speculative fiction. we are on the rpf website where we don't need disclaimers that that's what we're doing. when tinhatters move in, it makes all the rpf people get nervous because now you don't know everyone's intentions and if someone is about to cross that boundary line. if i make a primer post for fun/rpf purposes and now tinhats are using it for their agenda? that makes me not want to share that kind of stuff anymore. it sucks!
i'm bringing this back because i have seen some sentiment that many new fans do not understand the difference between rpf and tinhatting, either in theory or in practice.
if you are seriously speculating about the relationship status or sexuality of a public figure who you do not personally know, you are tinhatting. maybe you think 'well it's not a big deal, i just think they could be gay with each other, but i wouldn't be upset if they got a girlfriend. what's the harm in that?' the harm is that it enables and emboldens those who would be upset if the object(s) of their tinhatting were linked to girls, the ones who will engage in stalking and harassment and other erratic behavior. the harm is that the line between rpf and tinhatting is being whittled away and making fandom a more hostile environment for people who are practicing good fandom boundaries to avoid the consequences of fandom becoming mainstream, like podcasters bringing it up to the public figures themselves. the harm is that it's a slippery slope, and you might find yourself falling into an echo chamber that's very hard to get out of.
i promise you, fandom is a lot more fun if you stay firmly on the rpf side. you will not be nearly as harmed when the public figure you adore inevitably does something shitty because you've maintained that really important boundary line.
