Problematic ships: are we having a semantics issue here?

eatingcroutons:

bastlynn:

eatingcroutons:

More and more I’m beginning to think that a lot of wank
about problematic “ships” comes from the fact that we’re collapsing an entire spectrum of how people approach fandom pairings into a single word. (To keep the language
simpler here I’ve only talked about “pairings”, but this also applies
to poly ships.)

At one extreme, I’m personally reluctant to use the word “shipping” at all about
pairings I read and write, because I don’t think “shipping” really
describes how I approach fandom. I don’t have strong feelings about who
characters should be paired with. When I read or write a pairing it’s because
that pairing has a dynamic I’m interested in, not because I think it would be good for the characters.

At the other end of the spectrum, I know people for whom

“shipping” really is believing that two characters should be together, because they have such a great relationship dynamic in canon. Who believe that being together would be better for both characters.

When people say that nobody should ever “ship” or create fanworks about a pairing because
they have an unhealthy relationship in canon, those people seem to be assuming that
literally everyone who creates fanworks about a pairing “ships” them in that second sense. That the only reason to create fanworks about a pairing is because you believe the
characters have a great relationship dynamic in canon, and would be better off together.

Fandom is about so, so much more than that.

Sometimes we want to read or write about unhealthy relationships. Sometimes we want to explore what circumstances might
make a relationship healthier, or unhealthier, than what’s depicted in canon.

We “ship” characters with unhealthy canon dynamics because we believe these are interesting and important stories
to tell.

Not all relationships are healthy. It’s absurd to insist that we should only ever tell stories about completely healthy relationships.

….

Crap, that makes a *lot* of sense.

I mean, this is an actual quote from an anti post I saw today: “If you ship an abusive ship, you condone that ship automatically. There’s no way around it.”

This person clearly understands the word “ship” to entail some sort of moral endorsement – they’ve said so outright!

But that isn’t the only kind of “shipping”, and that kind of “shipping” certainly isn’t the only reason people create or enjoy fanworks about a pairing.