Shipping Wars

[shipperx]

Old ship wars never die, they just repeat themselves. Endlessly. And in entirely new reiterations (which isn't as much of an oxymoron as you'd think!)

Who knows why we ship certain fictional couples. It has a lot to do with what entertains us, what intrigues us, what we think is hot, what we think could be interesting, what... Actually there are a lot of possible whats. It doesn't really matter what fic kink is the root of our attraction. Everyone is allowed theirs.

Not everyone feels the same way about these things. That's life... and love. It's only when people start to be judgmental about it that ship wars break out. Now, I admit there have been some fics that make me scratch my head and wonder "what the freaking hell?" And there have even been a few fics that make me want to reach for brain bleach to erase the memory of them (one particularly -- epically -- bizarre Supernatural fic I ran into once falls into that category.) But, you know, since they weren't my thing, I didn't spend a whole heck of a lot of time complaining about them or complaining about the way others spent their free time writing fic about stuff that doesn't happen to interest me. It only needed to interest them to be sufficient reason for the creation of fanfic.

There have been/are some fairly popular ships in many fandoms that I don't 'get.' I remember back in my X-Files fandom days, Krycek/Mulder was a hugely popular ship that I just. did. not. understand (beyond the obvious that Nic Lea and David Duchovny were incredibly, freaking hot. I was perplexed not dead). But I would always return to the sticking point of "Krycek murdered Mulder's father!" Same thing would happen to me when Krycek/Scully fic would pop up. I would wonder, 'but, wait, he murdered Scully's sister...') Still, you know, in all my not feeling the ships, I don't think I ever once wrote a screed saying I was viscerally horrified when Krycek/Mulder smut or Krycek/Scully smut popped up on Gossamer or Ephemeral. I would've thought that it would be pointless, silly, and possibly offensive to some authors if I posited that fans had no businesss writing or at least were morally questionable for writing such fics or how bothered I was to see it show up on general fandom comms! Mainly I didn't write such things because I didn't feel that way. My feelings were more easily categorized as a puzzled head tilt and a 'huh' before moving on to the Scully/Mulder MSR that I was watching the list for. (And I had a serious issues with the now departed fic comm mod (Not Ephemeral or Gossamer) that up and forbade Doggett fic -- not just Doggett/Scully fic but any mention of Doggett at all...because she felt it somehow in some inexplicable way threatened her ship. I thought the attitude was absurd and quit the comm over that display of 'how dare people ship stuff that I don't ship!' entitlement.) People's interests vary. Not everyone likes what I like or vice versa. No one need explain themselves to me.

Why can't it be that simple?

There have been/are canon and fanon ships in a number of fandoms that don't do a damn thing for me. There's a huge shipping faction in True Blood that falls into that category. I understand why some people ship it, but I just... don't. Just today I ran across a post in a Being Human comm of "Why aren't there more Mitchell/Annie fics?" which took me by surprise, not because anything was wrong with it but just because it never crossed my mind to ship Mitchell/Annie in the first place. I have friends that ship couples that I just shake my head, puzzled over what the attraction could be, because it doesn't interest me. Heck, in one (relatively popular) canon/fanon pairing in a non-BtVS fandom, I cannot manage to like the characters individually, making it doubly difficult to understand why there are people who ship them together. But, you know what? It doesn't matter. There's nothing wrong with either of us. It's just a matter of preference. Not everyone likes the same thing.

Where fic is concerned there are a near endless list of things that can be done with any ship. There are good, thought provoking, and engaging fics that can be constructed out of just about any pairing if the writer is talented and interested enough. And sometimes the writer's preference and the reader's preference hits that sweet spot of perfect agreement. When that happens, whee!!!

But proclaiming "thou shalt not write X+Y fic (or X+X or Y+Y) because I don't like it" or that "You are only permitted to write X+Y fic (or X+X or Y+Y) under a the conditions I specify and consider to be acceptable" is sadly common and completely ridiculous. Fanfic is made for fans to enjoy. If you aren't a fan of the ship, move the heck along. The fic isn't meant for you. Proclaiming that someone else can't/shouldn't write whatever ship they like because it doesn't float your boat? Out of line.

Now, someone point me to some "how could you write that?!" OTPp penguin fic! Hee! >:)

Comments

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

I love this post. So much. You have no idea. Well, I take that back-I'm sure you do but still.

Thank you for writing this.

[rahirah]

It's been like a (bad) trip down memory lane lately... :P

[next_to_normal]

WORD.

[ms-scarletibis.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've missed something...

Someone's been saying you can't write ship X because they don't like it or something somewhere?

Wtf dude.

And do they really think that by saying that, it will somehow make people stop shipping it? Huh.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Word.

I don't get the "moral outrage trope" either, becaus no one forces people to read a pairing they don't like and all fanfic will always be a bit weird if you're no emerged in the scene.

In the end I tend to think those moral outrages stem from lack of creativity.

I recently ran into some people in SPN fandom, who were extremely looking down on wincest. I'm not reallly into that fandom, but to me it seemed obvious that they were annoyed how many the wincest fans are in their fandom and how productive they are.

Same goes for the latest BtVS discussion, the person seemed mostly annoyed that the Spuffy fans where the most creative about an episodes where the canonical ship has not begun.

[shapinglight]

:applauds:

Nothing pisses me off more than this holier than thou stuff. So ridiculous- especially coming from someone who is a fan of a pairing where one of the parties is equally a mass murderer.

[hkath.livejournal.com]

Here via petzipellepingo's link. Very well said! Except that now I'm curious about all the things you referenced without explicitly naming characters, ships or fics.

Also, maybe sometimes it suits me to be accused of being morally reprehensible ;)

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Well said.

here via petzepellepingo...

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

...to say: thank you. Someone needed to say it, and I'm glad you did.

[quinara]

Now, someone point me to some "how could you write that?!" OTPp penguin fic! Hee! >:)

... I can't get the penguin kink!fic I outlined to somebody (gillo?) out of my head, where it's exhibitionist post-slaughter debauched underwater sex (and possibly bizarre avian buggery...). But I refuse to write kinky porn with penguins. I'm not going to be that person!!

[words-by-ash.livejournal.com]

If this is a response to what I think it's a response to then I have to say that shippers who are constantly at war will see issues with everything regardless of whether it is actually offensive.

That post did not say that "thou shalt not write X+Y fic (or X+X or Y+Y) because I don't like it" or that "you are only permitted to write X+Y fic (or X+X or Y+Y) under a certain conditions that I specify as acceptable".

The post simply states the opinion of the Journal owner towards S3 Spuffy from a canon standpoint and why it doesn't work for her. The last sentence even asks for opinions on this matter from all shippers about this topic.

In case you were wondering, I do agree with the post from a canon stance but I agree with your view on fan fiction. It's open to anyone's imagination. That's why it's there.

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

Seriously, how are we still talking about this? I'm all for fic crit, but it's the morally superior attitude that bugs me. And also the fact that no one on the "it's just wrong" side even read the fics in question.

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

Not everyone likes what I like or vice versa. No one need explain themselves to me.

YES.

The existence and acceptance of slash was this huge validation to me, when I found it on LJ; obviously it doesn't float everyone's boat but the fact that there was this space where those of us who do like it could share and enjoy it was surprising and wonderful to me. I'm fine with people not liking slash, or Spuffy, or Spike/Faith, or insert-your-wtf-pairing-here, but please let me sit over in my corner and enjoy it, yes? I will simply fail to click on links for Angel/Connor, D/s, watersports, whatever, and we can all get along.

I can see someone objecting to a fic in which two characters who don't make particular sense are thrown together and simply get it on with no logical reason to (I never watched X-Files but Krycek/Mulder seems like that would be one such pairing, from what you're saying), on the grounds of bad/lazy writing. I kind of *like* stories that manage to show me why/how a particular crack pairing *could* work - it's a challenge. (I once got assigned Gunn/Andrew for an exchange. Uh.) But hey, some people just like the visuals and PWP is fine - and again, I don't have to read that fic and there's not much point in my being offended by its very existence. The entire concept of shipping wars has never made much sense to me.

Hee, too funny re: Mitchell/Annie. I've only seen up to 1.4 but so far the show seems to be shipping them for me! *g*

[goodbyebird]

I completely agree. Standing up and condemning those that dare ship something different than you is brattish, entitled behavior of the fun-sucking kind. How anyone fails to see how hypocritical it is just baffles me.

[quinara]

Now, someone point me to some "how could you write that?!" OTPp penguin fic! Hee! >:)

I had to come back to this, because funnily enough...