Rye students tell all on love, sex and their fandoms

From Ted Cruz x Marco Rubio fanfics to sexual awakenings inspired by a certain rap musical about the American Founding Fathers, many Ryerson students have explored the full range of what the fictional world has to offer. This year’s Love and Sex survey asked students how fanfiction and fictional romances influenced their understandings of themselves and relationships with others. Take a look at some of their insights about fandom, sexuality and community here:

Which famous person or niche microcelebrity do you have the strongest parasocial relationship with?

• Pete Davidson. Also Eggy The Ram. Same vibe


• Anna Marie Tendler


• Gong Yoo, I replayed the slapping scene from Squid Game so many times


• Harry Styles <333


• Andrew Garfield…


• Adam Driver (in an extremely platonic way, I think we’d be great buddies)


• Gillian Anderson


• I would say Beyoncé but like it’s not sexual?

What’s the weirdest, most unhinged fanfiction you’ve ever read?

• One time I was looking for Canadian authors on Wattpad and found multiple Justin Trudeau fanfics… Watch young French-Canadian daddy fuck an entire country I guess


• Obama and Harry Styles <3


• Most unhinged was a 300,000-word Dramione (Draco x Hermione) fanfiction that was published in 2013. Genuinely one of the most devastating pieces of literature I’ve ever read, to the point where I keep a copy of the PDF on my hard drive and have transferred it to every single device I’ve ever owned (phone, laptop, iPad). A true masterpiece


• Ted Cruz/Marco Rubio (I later met the dude who wrote it at a political rally, but that’s a whole other story)


• The Forbidden Days of McPhantom on Archive of Our Own (a Danny Phantom x Lightning McQueen fic)


• Probably Harry Styles’ sex slave



• One my friends wrote about me and Ashton Irwin, who I thought I was actually talking to (I was 13). It was not him...it was another 13-year-old girl. She now has two kids and is married to a man who looks like a rat.


• Probably fanfics of Voldemort, like girl he’s a nazi why you glorified him????


• Tentacle porn sea monster

What’s your favourite romance trope and why?

• Slow burn, fake relationship, they don’t know they’re in love. All because I love the idea of a love growing slow and strong, and catching someone off guard at the same time


• RIVALS TO LOVERS SLOW BURN IM PUNCHING THE DIRT 😩😩💦💦 Honourable mention to forced proximity cause that’s my jam


• Friends to lovers c: It just makes me happy that they got to know each other first.


• Secret/forbidden love, because, in the words of Nick Miller, “I know this isn’t gonna end well, but the whole middle part is gonna be awesome.”


• I love a pathetic skinny little white boy. Matt-Watson-core, if you will.


• Right person, wrong time

What kink did fanfiction make you realize you had?

• Spankin!!!!


• Apparently I’m a rope bunny brat oops


• ...... Schoolgirl stuff


• That I’m into femdom


• …Enemies to lovers (being a bratty switch)


• Broad shoulders! In high school my motto used to be “shoulders and shlong, you can’t go mf wrong”


• Lowkey...breeding even tho I’m terrified of being pregnant.


• I like to be in an insane amount of pain


• Praise kink 🤫


• Being intimate outside of the bedroom (i.e. car, public washroom, mall changing room)

What movie/TV show/book series/band helped you explore and learn about your sexuality?

• Kim Possible, Shego is hawt ❤️‍🔥


• Lmao Bend It Like Beckham, The 100 and Hayley Kiyoko...I was a baby gay!


• Little Women! I realized through Jo March that women do not have to be romance-focused or obsessed with sexuality.


• Hamilton (this is the worst fact about me)


• Terrible, terrible sports anime


• One Direction, specifically Larry Stylinson


• The Last of Us Part II and Life is Strange are both video games, but I find them relevant. They portray lesbians in a way that doesn't fetishize them. However, I think One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer fanfiction helped me realize that I had compulsory heterosexuality to some degree. Fanfiction was a way I could engage with sexual content which involved men without actually having to enact it...and with that distance, I could convince myself that I liked it. I still read it sometimes, but I understand that literary representations of men aren't the same as the real thing LOL

Has reading or watching romance raised your standards for future romantic relationships? If so, how?

• Consuming romance media is like test-driving romantic scenarios. It gives you a hypothetical that allows you to think about how you’d react to that situation as one of the people in the relationship. It’s helped me somewhat get a sense of my boundaries, what I want from a relationship and what I see as red flags by presenting examples, from good to bad.


• It certainly stressed me out growing up, since many, if not all, romance novels and movies depict an intense, romantic, sexual whirlwind relationship that all women must fall into. Where is the depiction of the asexuality and/or aromanticism? Where is the representation of people who do not fall under the sexual or romantic umbrella?


• I think it set standards for men who respect their partners and want what’s best for them. We always talk about loving your partners but fictional romance made me realize that love must encompass respect, consent and genuine well-wishes or it’s not real love!


• Yes lol friends with benefits and no strings attached tropes made me believe I would end up in a relationship with my fuck buddy.



• Yes (unfortunately). My expectations for how I think I should be pursued (courted, even) have risen exponentially. I deleted Snapchat and I don’t use dating apps; I want to be desired for me, rather than my body. This has rather limited my options in university lol.


• Absolutely. I think no matter the variety of things I read, it shows that your worth is SO IMPORTANT. I know when I do get into a relationship I know my worth and standards because of what I’ve read.

What has being a part of a fandom helped you learn about yourself and your relationships with others?

• I’m not a weirdo!! There’s so many people with way wilder fantasies and desires than me. Shame around sex and wanting pleasure makes people view their desires as strange, but because fandom embraces the wildest of fantasies, it makes me feel normal.


• I learned that I am very creative! And that I could create a whole new world with pictures and words.


• I met so many of my best friends in fandoms and am IRL friends with some and visit some in different countries sometimes too! Being friends with people for upwards of ten years, especially long distance, has taught me that with good friends you can pick up where you left off. Visiting my online friends also made me realize what I value in my IRL friendships and taught me not to let people be half-assed with me


• Yes I have learned that some people are really and truly fucked beyond belief and that sometimes you just gotta turn your computer off and stare at the ceiling.


• I'm gay and I love fantasy escapism. That seems crude, but it's true. Fanfiction is also incredibly comforting to me because it isn't always sexual, it can simply be a way of extending the time you spend in another world which you hold dearly to your heart. Who wouldn't love to do that?


• At least other people are down bad too :^)

Responses have been edited for clarity.