Ethical Queeries of Participatory Identity Formation: Coping with Destabilizing Notions of Identity in BuzzFeed Unsolved, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej Real‐Person Fiction, and Their Shared Play Frame

• Published in: Journal of popular culture Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 632 - 651
• Main Author: Erin Sprott, Zoë
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2022
• Subjects: 21st century; Coping; Ethics; Fans (Aficionados); Fiction; Identity; Identity formation; LGBTQ studies; News media; Reality programming; Television programs
• ISSN: 0022-3840; 1540-5931
• DOI: 10.1111/jpcu.13145

BuzzFeed, a popular news, media, and entertainment company, was at the forefront of this movement in the mid-2010s, producing several popular series, including The Try Guys, Worth It, and BuzzFeed Unsolved, the latter of which is the focus of this article. Importantly, all of these series were hosted by individuals purporting to be themselves: They used their real names, spoke casually with each other in a way that suggested unscripted conversations, and were, ostensibly, acting like themselves (rather than putting on clear personas). These shows amassed large fandoms who interacted with so-called canon materials in diverse ways, with one of the most popular and ethically complex interactions being real-person fiction, which uses the names, bodies, and (usually) histories of real people to create fictional stories. I argue that Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, the hosts of BuzzFeed Unsolved, encourage such creations by constructing a queer space of identity play in the show, which is thus taken up by the fandom, then transformed into a dialogue between canon and fandom. This entire process serves to destabilize the self, blur the line between personality and persona, and trouble the ethical question of how identities are taken up outside of their initial bodies of creation (both Bergara and Madej’s physical bodies as well as the bodies of work they have created).