That's Me In The Spotlight

That's Me In The Spotlight (colloquially the Jesus fic) is a Harry/Louis fanfic by burncitybelle. The fic is known in the One Direction fandom for what some thought was a dubiously moral and consensual main relationship, which featured a virgin 16-year-old Harry and a very experienced 32-year-old Louis.
It was deleted from the Archive of Our Own by the author while it was still a WIP in October 2014. PDFs of the existing 28 chapters can be found online.
==Summary==
"Working in fashion for the past thirteen years has left thirty-two year old Louis Tomlinson privy to the darkness hidden behind glamour, and what he once loved has now left him bitter and jaded. On impulse, he leaves Paris for the very first job that comes along – head of the wardrobe department on a brand-new television show in America. 'Modern Missionary' follows Harry Styles, a religious 16-year-old Texan, on a tour of America. The pitch is simple enough – Harry leads by example, showing the viewers how they too can bring God's light and love to the world around them. Inadvertently, showing Harry to the world also shows the world to Harry; his eyes are opened, not without Louis' help. Harry begins to question everything: his religion, his identity, his values, and his sexuality. How can love be a sin if... cela semble si juste?”
Author’s note:
This isn't any big statement about religion. It's just a story. :) (Maybe a small statement about the small fraction of religions[sic] people who are bigoted etc!)
==Deletion==
That’s Me In The Spotlight was very popular,The last snapshot of the AO3 title page from the Wayback Machine on 29 August 2014 shows 107974 hits, 2829 kudos, 696 comments, and 834 bookmarks – and this was two months before it was deleted. but the author received so much backlash from fans who thought the relationship was problematic that it was removed from AO3 before completion. On October 30, 2014, author burncitybelle posted an answered ask on Tumblr:
Burncitybelle eventually also deleted their Tumblr account as well.
==Reactions==
The ensuing discussions between those who celebrated its deletion and those who mourned it brought up questions of the author’s responsibility to their audience, authorial intent vs the reader’s interpretation, the role of fiction in shaping a reader’s understanding of the real world, and the place of censorship in fanfiction. These discussions continued for quite a while after the fic was taken down.
Most criticisms of this fic centered around the age difference and wide disparity in experience between Harry and Louis. Some fans interpreted the relationship as manipulative, abusive, or even as statutory rape (the fic is set in the USA, where the age of consent is 18).
These readers were often concerned not only with the fic itself, but with the effect the fic might have on its readers, many of whom were young people, and how these readers might come to view their own relationships due to exposure to the fic:
Those who did not see the H/L relationship in the fic as inappropriate cited Louis’ initial resistance to the relationship, his habit of constantly explaining everything to Harry, and his waiting for Harry to initiate.
This could be met by other readers claiming that Harry could not be truly informed enough to make a consensual decision:
Another opinion usually voiced by pro-TMITS fans, even those who believed that the age difference was inappropriate, was along the lines of “don’t like it, don’t read it”:
TMITS was also defended on the basis that the author’s intent was not problematic.
==Further reading==
* 
* Don’t use your social justice activism as an excuse to be shitty to people, thanks. by diggingandfluff: Oct 2014 Tumblr post addressing the bullying that burncitybelle received.
* Censorship by laynefaire: Sept 2014 Tumblr post defending TMITS, burncitybelle, and refuting allegations of pedophilia by claiming that the dictionary definition of pedophilia would only include children 13 or under.
* July 2015 answered Tumblr ask by sunshineandabutterfly: People are allowed to express themselves if they see something that makes them uncomfortable. If you can't deal with someone expressing that a relationship between a 16 year old and a 32 year old grosses them out, even when it's fictional, then how do you exist in the real world?
* September 2015 answered Tumblr ask by dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram: Could you please recommend where to look to learn more about the history of homophobia towards queer relationships with age gaps? (archived)
==See also==
* Minors in Fandom
* Dogpiling and Fandom
==References==
Category:Slash Fanfiction
Category:2014 Fanfiction