#shippers are not an oppressed class - please stop pretending that we are

[kalinara]

I never stop getting annoyed when I see folks claim "anti-shipping" is some kind of equivalent movement to puritanism, homophobia, misogyny or anti-ace rhetoric (all comparisons that I've seen lately.)

The reason that it's so annoying is that there is no real "anti-ship" movement. No one is out there saying "you cannot ship anyone anywhere in any media." (Okay, there might have been one weirdo on twitter, but a single batshit person is not a movement.)

Now, there are people who are "anti" SPECIFIC ships. This may be for good, bad, general or specific reasons. A person might dislike Thorki, for example, because they dislike the dynamic they see on screen. Maybe they dislike either Thor or Loki as individuals. Maybe they dislike incest ships. Maybe they dislike ships involving two men. Maybe they dislike how shipping dominates the fandom discussion.

I'm not trying to claim these reasons are all equal, by the way. They're just examples.

Admittedly, there are fans who are often anti a specific TYPE of ship. Maybe they don't like any incest ships. Maybe they don't like ships with a large age gap or power inequality. Maybe they're just not into het-shipping That happens sometimes. People have tastes and squicks, some reasonable, some not.

I'm not going to say that either of these groups can't engage in bad behavior. Obviously many do. That shouldn't happen. No one should be harassed or mistreated because of something involving fictional people. (Or even involving real people, on the assumption that these fans are not using their RPF to harass the actual people involved. Some assholes do that. Most shippers do not.)

But even the most extreme fandom purist ships something. Probably something boring. Though still waters do run deep, so who the fuck knows. Even the folks, like me, who tend to wish that shipping didn't dominate the fandom to the level that it does, and loudly lament the scarcity of genfic, have a few ships that we like and enjoy.

There is no big "anti-ship" movement. There is no group saying "no one can ever imagine anyone falling in love or having sex ever". That is not a thing that exists.

People like to pretend that there's a big anti-ship movement because then they can pretend that the simple act of fantasizing about two fictional characters fucking is some kind of activism. It also means, of course, that anyone who DISLIKES that particular configuration of fictional characters fucking is part of this awful, oppressive, puritanical movement that should be silenced like hate speech.

No. Sorry. Shipping isn't activism. It's just a way to enjoy a product. And sometimes, someone can dislike something you love, and say so, and you just have to deal with that. No one's taste is universal.

#fandom woes #shippers are not an oppressed class - please stop pretending that we are