After is a Defamation Suit Waiting to Happen
*please note that this was written without having read or watched anything in the after series so my complaints about the plot won't be in-depth. don't worry, they'll still be harsh.
Those of you who didn't spend middle school on Wattpad probably haven't heard of After or fanfictions. Count your blessings. Fanfictions are stories that are written based on pre-existing storylines or characters from other works, whether it be novels, tv shows or movies. In the hands of a skilled writer, fanfiction can turn out enthralling and intricate and sometimes, even better than the media it is based on. Many fanfiction authors are young and immature meaning that at best, the story's themes can be non-existent or sloppy. At worst, the themes end up glorifying unhealthy relationships, perpetuating rape culture, or have 'pick me' girls as the protagonists. Let's talk about the people that feel entitled enough to write their fanfictions about real people. It's almost laughable the number of fanfics that were centred around the concept of y/n [your name] being sold to One Direction or 5 Seconds of Summer or Justin Bieber. Yes, that was a real genre. Yes, it was highly popular.
Between the years 2013 and 2016, Wattpad was THE place to find fanfictions and other independently written stories. The site allowed budding authors to gain a readership and a loyal community without needing to be reliant on publishers. For readers like myself, the site gave us more than enough books to read, with the assurance that we'd enjoy them because they were centred around our current interests. Don't get me wrong, it was oversaturated with cr*p but at the time, we revelled in it. During this time, then 24-year-old Anna Todd started publishing the One Direction fanfiction After chapter-by-chapter onto the site.
After tells the story of a young and naïve Tessa Brooks who falls for an alcoholic, abusive, and rapey Harry Styles. All five members of One Direction feature in this dumpster fire but Styles' namesake is front and centre. In 2014, Todd got a multi-million dollar publishing contract for her series which is both impressive and baffling to me. To escape the ethical grey area her stories were forged in, Todd had to change the names of her characters. I'm not entirely convinced that resolves the issue around real person fan fictions though.
The thing with writing fanfictions as opposed to something 100% original is that the story and the characters already exist. You as the author don't get to decide their personality because it's already been formed. After was inspired by or based on the One Direction boys – so logically, their personalities would be portrayed in their namesakes right? Wrong. You can legally use a celebrity's name in your fanfiction and have their character do literally ANYTHING with no repercussions because the nature of fanfiction means they don't have to be based on factual information. Technically, Todd's work and other examples of real person fanfiction are protected under freedom of speech. Sounds unethical, doesn't it? This genre of fanfiction divides many fans. Some enjoy it because it puts their wildest [and most inappropriate] celebrity fantasies on paper. Others, feel it's disrespectful for authors to put real people in situations they wouldn't and haven't consented to. I'm with the latter group. Feeling like you have ownership of someone's public identity to such an extent doesn't sit well with me. In the same way you wouldn't write and publish a fanfiction about someone you went to high school with, you shouldn't write fanfictions about a celebrity. Their status as a public figure doesn't suddenly make this less creepy.
Also, this should go without saying but successful or famous people don't owe you private information about themselves. They signed up for fame, not for blatant breaches of their privacy. The same principle applies for paparazzi photos, gossip magazines, stalkers and anyone who feels they have the right to know why someone's relationship ended. Stay in your lane and let people live. Jeez.
Legally, there's not much that can be done when the 'rights' to someone's public image are violated. Furthermore, if the fanfiction exists solely on an independent platform like Wattpad, copyright or trademark laws aren't being breached. At the moment, all an author has to do is change a couple of names for the publication to be 'in the clear'. As a fan of One Direction, it's not hard to understand why Anna Todd chose them to be the subject of her writing. In the same breath, I'm not sure I understand why a fan would decide to paint Harry Styles specifically in such a negative light. Fascinatingly though, Todd herself sees nothing wrong with her story's origins. In her own words, "I love Harry Styles just as much as anyone, and I would never do anything that would hurt his feelings." Newsflash, hurting his feelings isn't the risk here. The real risk is that Hardin's toxic characteristics will forever be associated with Harry Styles, even though no part of that story is based on truth.
Let's talk about Hardin Scott for a bit. He is described as a "brooding, mysterious, tattooed rebel with a difficult past." What he actually is an abusive, angry, tattooed player with the emotional range of a clothespin. His interest in the main character Tessa is piqued because of her studious and reserved manner – basically, she's not like other girls. She's the pure, snow-white, snowflake to his tortured, forlorn soul. Her only character traits are that she's a virgin and she reads. We're supposed to either identify with or like Tessa but that's really hard to do because she is incredibly boring and has the personality of white chalk. They of course bond over literature and start their fast-paced, very much unhealthy relationship. Hardin is emotionally abusive and spends his free time emotionally manipulating and gaslighting the woman he claims he's in love with. Not only did we as an audience accept this, but we also let them make this into a movie. Scratch that, multiple movies. Any adult I hope would be able to see the problems with their relationship. But this series wasn't geared towards adults, it's for the tweens and middle schoolers.
Stay with me here, Todd used the names of celebrities these young people loved and depicted a very very unhealthy relationship. Impressionable young kids read these and started idealising it. Trust me, I know many of them personally. The book series includes recurring themes such as sl*t-shaming, substance and alcohol abuse, violence, gaslighting, sex and so on. HBO's Euphoria contains a lot of these same themes and subjects but it discusses them in a way that opens up the conversation and deals with it. After takes it over the top and basically glorifies all these things. The fact is, the target audience of this series doesn't have the capacity to be critical of this content, so they just eat it up. This couple spends their entire relationship fighting, breaking up, treating each other horribly and resolving their issues with sex. Tessa is boring but not exempt from my criticism. She is physically abusive at many points and is controlling towards Hardin. Regardless, #Hessa have still being dubbed #relationshipgoals.
The normalisation of a relationship as toxic as this one paints a skewed picture of what relationships should be like in the eyes of readers that don't know any better. They see all this toxicity, then read about how the Tessa and Hardin are soulmates and start to subconsciously accept that love can [and maybe should] look like what they're reading. If that wasn't bad enough, it's pretty clear to see that Todd herself not only feels justified having used the One Direction boys' likeness like this, she truly believes in her own content. Her own social media is full of statements affirming Tessa and Hardin's relationship, whilst neglecting the obvious evidence of abuse between them. She has even said, "Everyone wants a Hardin in their life." Trust me, we don't. Anna Todd says her writing was inspired by escapism and imagination. She told Refinery 29, "I took everything from books and movies that I love and put it all in one." To me, it sounds like the reason she can so easily justify this romance is because all the other media she loves has validated toxicity. She's said she understands that the relationship is unhealthy, but I think she neglects to realise the responsibility she has to her readers – young and old. Could it be that her maturity level matches that of her target audience? Think about it, she doesn't see why portraying a toxic relationship is harmful because she doesn't really understand how toxic the relationship she wrote is. To her, Tessa and Hardin's relationship isn't abusive, it just has ups and downs like everyone else's.
Harry Styles is not only one of my favourite artists, but he's also my favourite white boy. Ever since he's been contractually allowed to break free from the 'bad-boy' narrative Simon Cowell forced on him, he's used his platform for good. More than that, this man's platform is about fighting for equality, and mental health, and therapy. My understanding of who he is and what he stands for just adds fuel to my After hate fire. If a tabloid or newspaper were to release the same content, using his name, a defamation suit would probably ensue. But thanks to fanfictions existing in an ethical and legal grey area, you can write anything and pretty much get away with it. Not only will the series continue to capitalise on its link to Styles, Hardin Scott's abusive tendencies will also be associated with him. Forever. Frankly, I think that's publicity that neither the series nor Anna Todd deserves.
cover image: after, 2019, wattpad studios
RESEARCH:
After Wikia | Hardin Scott (Book Character)
Medium | The Dubious Ethics of Real Person Fiction
Refinery 29 | Hardin Scott, Harry Styles Fanfiction, After
