so. yet another rpf containment breach on this fine wednesday because a f1 influencer who has said on her page that she only started following the sport two (2) weeks ago thought it'd be a good idea to get more clicks and likes and comments with a post on how parasocial the fandom is, and chose to call out rpf in it with snippets from fics and stolen landoscar art. (which I think she's deleted recently, so that's good!!) the fact that this person has only been a f1 fan for two weeks is an explanation for not knowing fandom etiquette, not an excuse: if you don't like rpf, you don't interact with it. basic fandom etiquete, it's that easy.
as I said, she's a catholic influencer who only recently got into it and the posts she's made about relating catholicism to f1 just crack me up so bad, some of it is sending me to the other side of our solar system. it's not just that most of what she's saying seems to be very clearly written using ai, but uhm. just let me be a hater for a sec, okay?
and then, another!!
there's so much to say about all of this and I don't have the time to get into everything but. what the fuck.
some of the drivers she's pointing out here as devout catholics weren't even devout catholics in the first place, and being catholic on paper doesn't mean that they lived or live catholic values or whatever. (pointing out senna who was with a 15 year old girl when he was 25 years old? bringing up perez who literally cheats on his wife?)
and that slide about fashion in f1 is particularly funny to me because what do you mean them being covered head to toe by the race suit is something you love to see compared to other athletes in "minimal clothing"? I fear she's implying that the race suits that are literally keeping them from burning alive should their cars go up in flames can be considered catholicism-approved 'modest clothes'? never thought I'd see the day where someone would argue that highly specialised safety equipment is something inherently catholic but here we are. (on this topic, she also made a post on being shocked to find a guy wearing a budweiser tshirt in her church recently so. modest clothes seem to be an important topic for her.) (on the topic of the drivers being so very modest in comparison to other athletes, what might she say about 'eat pussy it's vegan' lando or the o69p number plate oscar's picked or pierre being a 🐶 type of guy rather than a missionary type of guy or pierre suggesting the drivers have an orgy at the monaco gp afterparty or pierre - *gets sniped*)
apparently not aware of the contradiction, after implying that the drivers dress modestly, she says that "the women dress up and do it beautifully", and are "so classy". someone should tell her that most of the wags wear popular nouvelle riche luxury fashion because they're attending elite sporting events with major sponsorships for media attention, and I think she confuses dressing "classy" with the crazy insane elitism inherent to the sport.
the way she then points out that f1 culture hits different for catholic fans is also a bit funny to me: "family first" (meanwhile toto is treating george like something he found in the trash after almost ten years of george's loyalty but okay), "discipline over everything", "suffering for something you love", "community that feels like family" - f1 is fucking ruthless (as devout catholic pierre gasly would say, who the fia wanted dead because he was one of the drivers who made personal/political/religious statements by kneeling in front of his car to do the sign of the cross every weekend when they tried to ban such statements in 2023) and it's a high performance industry and the levels of projection in the catholic/f1 posts definitely cross over into parasocial territory which I think is hilarious considering the callout post about parasocial f1 fans she made less than one day ago.
the worst bit in the posts though is about the cultural foundations of the sport, about how it's a predominantly european sport, where "catholicism isn't just practised, it's woven into the entire architeture, the holidays, the entire culture. these drivers didn't grow up adjacent to faith, they grew up inside of it." she says that it originated in "places where catholicism isn't just a religion, it's the foundation of the entire culture. these drivers weren't just raised around faith, they were raised inside of it." (what in the chatgpt?)
in both posts, she lists italy, spain, monaco, and france. (let's ignore the fact that in the second post she also lists brazil, because brazil is not in europe) (and let's not mention that f1's heart is in britain and that the beginnings of f1 are intertwined with post ww2 england which is not a catholic country) (and the fact that germany's automotive industry hugely impacted motor racing after it directly benefited from national socialism and forced labour) (but okay. moving on.)
it would be nice if instead of cherry-picking and projecting her faith like this, she would have actually pointed out why it is that f1 originated in europe, had most of it's teams based in europe, and had about two thirds of all drivers come from europe. spoiler!! it's not got that much to do with catholicism!! (other than that the catholic church supported and benefited off all of the following.)
not to go completely off topic right now, but. maybe we should talk about industrial capitalism and where the capital was located and why the capital was located in western europe in the early 20th century when motor racing started. and maybe we should talk about the elite social networks of privileged european men who could actually afford cars in the early stages of motor racing. and about where automotive manufacturing was based and why that was the case and where the needed materials came from and who was exploited for them and for how long. maybe we should talk about the road infrastructure needed to even race in the early years and about who built those roads. maybe we should then talk about where the elite universities were based that gave the engineers the expertise they needed and why they happened to be in europe. maybe we should talk about the fact that the european technological dominance wasn't created in a vacuum but that it directly benefited from colonial wealth, colonial trade networks, and colonial exploitation for raw materials needed in motor racing.
(but that's another post, probably.) (or maybe a paper, one day.)
mostly, I think she mistakes social class stuff for religion and cherry picks 'evidence' for catholicism in f1 where it suits her argument and I think it's a bit funny. but also I'm soso serious about it.
as @smallsolace pointed out, maybe the next thing she'll say is that kimi leading the championship is inherently catholic. because kimi is italian and the holy spirit possesses him and that's why he's ahead in the wdc standings. ✝️ (someone needs to tell george that he has to convert real quick!!)
the concept of lando norris, a man whom we’ve never seen kiss a woman on the mouth (everyone thank @disarmd for her scholarship) being okay with eating pussy. i don’t buy it. this is performative whorishness
tip-toeing around the george fandom on tumblr because i love the horrors toto inflicts upon him. i love mercedes treating him like the second driver, but in an anthropological way. in the way i like seeing the heroine of bluebeard marry a man i know has murdered his first six wives and he is going to attempt to murder this one too. i love feeling sad on george's behalf. i love that toto is evil. i love that george married himself to his father-boss and is coming to the burgeoning realisation that his husband is insidious. am i the only one? i need to follow blogs who feel the same. who see george as a gothic heroine breathing damply in the haunted house that is mercedes.
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