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Another mini-rant about something that bothers me. That are those rabid shippers who just can not leave people alone who ship a different pairing than them. I am trying to differentiate between what is bashing and respectful disagreeing.
Before I dive into the subject and why I loathe ship bashing so much, let me go into the subject of turning characters who are gay in their canons straight or bi-sexual. Just so I do not have to bring it up later on.
I do understand that for some people this is a no-go. While I agree to some extent with the sentiment that with so little gay characters appearing in stories (and often badly written at that) it feels wrong to make them straight for the purpose of role-play or fanfiction. However, I see no point in going to a shipper and bash them over the head with it. Even respectfully explaining it to the author/player will do little good.
Shippers ship because that particular pairing gives them good vibes. Some people might be homophobes but I don't think there are many shippers out there who write a gay character with an opposite sex character to discriminate against homosexuals. They write about the pairing because it makes them feel good. So telling them, they should not write about their favourite pairing is not going to change anything.
As I already mentioned most people ship certain characters because thinking about those characters either fucking or maybe even developing a truly intimate relationship (does not happen often enough in canon and with non-canon pairings even less, IMHO) full fills a need for shippers that other pairings do not.
By running around and telling people they can not write Person A shagging Person B bashers just trying to bully people for individual preferences. I am not saying you can not object to a certain pairing but there is a time and a place to do that.
For example, you read a fanfic, that is labeled Draco/Hermione. You do not like that pairing, you hate it on epic proportions. While it makes me wonder why you reading a fanfic with that pairing in the first place, the appropriate response would be to go to your sandbox rant away about how you dislike that story or even outline while you feel this pairing is so off.
What you do not do, is review that story and tell the author that the pairing would so not happen, that they suck for writing them and so on. What you might do when reviewing is maybe point out that the characters do not act or feel like the canon characters and if it was not for the names you would not have recognised them. That approach is at least respectful although it is often pointless.
That is another thing. I read fanfic with the hopes that the author made an effort to keep the character's personalities recognisable. Yes, there is room for interpretation and that is fine. Often enough though, it is not about the personalities. It is about a general idea the characters evoke with the author or sometimes just about this pretty guy fucking this pretty other guy. That is fine. Fanfic is allowed to be just simple wish full fillment.
Expecting that everyone has to follow canon strictly is unrealistic. So if the author does not care about how the pairing fits in with canon, it is unproductive to expect them to. If they claim it to be canon, that is a different story. Then you can bring up canon to make your point and you might have a respectful discussion about the subject. Just don't expect the author to not shipping their pairing anymore. If they are reasonable they might come to the conclusion well this is non-canon.
Personal experience tells me that most likely shippers will disregard all canon evidence against their pairing and still insist it is canon. I feel it is okay to respectfully point out that disregard in communities where the subject is open for discussion, I think it is pointless and unproductive to harass these authors. They are not going to listen and there will be other authors out there, who will actually profit from someone pointing out canon they overlooked.
Let me give you an example. A long time ago, I read a number of Sirius/Remus fanfic (yes, those two guys from Harry Potter). Most of them very pretty much just about the fucking, some had hurt/comfort sentiments thrown in but none of them full filled my needs in regards to this pairing. So I posted on some community boards and asked if anyone could recommend a story to me where the pairing is not taken as established but actually deals with them becoming a couple.
Answers were mostly flames. That I must be stupid or something, as the pairing is established and those two are ultimate soul mates since their days at Hogwarts. I was like: WTF? But, but what books have you been reading? Pointing out that this does not fit with the fact that Sirius distrusted Remus so much for being a werewolf that he thought Remus was Voldemort's spy? That Sirius tried to use Remus to kill Severus, even though he knew that Remus dreaded nothing more than actually killing someone? Oh, yes I was making that up, that never happened. (If you think that this is not true, re-read Prisoner of Askaban)
I guess bashing is even more extreme in role-play. Have not done more than one on one rp for sometime but what I read and experienced in the past, people are very aggressive to players who play part of their ship and then ship the character with someone else. I think it is okay to ask if there is a chance at some developments for the prefered ship - but if the answer is no, people need to accept that. They can find another sandbox if they must play that pairing. Nobody is obliged to go along with someone else's preferences - the www is so big that it is easy to find someone with the same preferences.
So in short: Let people have their shipping fun. Don't judge them because the characters in canon said that this pairing is not possible. Don't object to people writing a character with a different sexual preference. Don't expect people to like your pairing - don't let others tell you what pairings you are allowed to like.
If you have issues with the writing itself, the way the pairing is written that is a different matter - but never go to someone and order them to stop, shame or bully them for liking a certain pairing.
That is not a hard concept, is it?
Before I dive into the subject and why I loathe ship bashing so much, let me go into the subject of turning characters who are gay in their canons straight or bi-sexual. Just so I do not have to bring it up later on.
I do understand that for some people this is a no-go. While I agree to some extent with the sentiment that with so little gay characters appearing in stories (and often badly written at that) it feels wrong to make them straight for the purpose of role-play or fanfiction. However, I see no point in going to a shipper and bash them over the head with it. Even respectfully explaining it to the author/player will do little good.
Shippers ship because that particular pairing gives them good vibes. Some people might be homophobes but I don't think there are many shippers out there who write a gay character with an opposite sex character to discriminate against homosexuals. They write about the pairing because it makes them feel good. So telling them, they should not write about their favourite pairing is not going to change anything.
As I already mentioned most people ship certain characters because thinking about those characters either fucking or maybe even developing a truly intimate relationship (does not happen often enough in canon and with non-canon pairings even less, IMHO) full fills a need for shippers that other pairings do not.
By running around and telling people they can not write Person A shagging Person B bashers just trying to bully people for individual preferences. I am not saying you can not object to a certain pairing but there is a time and a place to do that.
For example, you read a fanfic, that is labeled Draco/Hermione. You do not like that pairing, you hate it on epic proportions. While it makes me wonder why you reading a fanfic with that pairing in the first place, the appropriate response would be to go to your sandbox rant away about how you dislike that story or even outline while you feel this pairing is so off.
What you do not do, is review that story and tell the author that the pairing would so not happen, that they suck for writing them and so on. What you might do when reviewing is maybe point out that the characters do not act or feel like the canon characters and if it was not for the names you would not have recognised them. That approach is at least respectful although it is often pointless.
That is another thing. I read fanfic with the hopes that the author made an effort to keep the character's personalities recognisable. Yes, there is room for interpretation and that is fine. Often enough though, it is not about the personalities. It is about a general idea the characters evoke with the author or sometimes just about this pretty guy fucking this pretty other guy. That is fine. Fanfic is allowed to be just simple wish full fillment.
Expecting that everyone has to follow canon strictly is unrealistic. So if the author does not care about how the pairing fits in with canon, it is unproductive to expect them to. If they claim it to be canon, that is a different story. Then you can bring up canon to make your point and you might have a respectful discussion about the subject. Just don't expect the author to not shipping their pairing anymore. If they are reasonable they might come to the conclusion well this is non-canon.
Personal experience tells me that most likely shippers will disregard all canon evidence against their pairing and still insist it is canon. I feel it is okay to respectfully point out that disregard in communities where the subject is open for discussion, I think it is pointless and unproductive to harass these authors. They are not going to listen and there will be other authors out there, who will actually profit from someone pointing out canon they overlooked.
Let me give you an example. A long time ago, I read a number of Sirius/Remus fanfic (yes, those two guys from Harry Potter). Most of them very pretty much just about the fucking, some had hurt/comfort sentiments thrown in but none of them full filled my needs in regards to this pairing. So I posted on some community boards and asked if anyone could recommend a story to me where the pairing is not taken as established but actually deals with them becoming a couple.
Answers were mostly flames. That I must be stupid or something, as the pairing is established and those two are ultimate soul mates since their days at Hogwarts. I was like: WTF? But, but what books have you been reading? Pointing out that this does not fit with the fact that Sirius distrusted Remus so much for being a werewolf that he thought Remus was Voldemort's spy? That Sirius tried to use Remus to kill Severus, even though he knew that Remus dreaded nothing more than actually killing someone? Oh, yes I was making that up, that never happened. (If you think that this is not true, re-read Prisoner of Askaban)
I guess bashing is even more extreme in role-play. Have not done more than one on one rp for sometime but what I read and experienced in the past, people are very aggressive to players who play part of their ship and then ship the character with someone else. I think it is okay to ask if there is a chance at some developments for the prefered ship - but if the answer is no, people need to accept that. They can find another sandbox if they must play that pairing. Nobody is obliged to go along with someone else's preferences - the www is so big that it is easy to find someone with the same preferences.
So in short: Let people have their shipping fun. Don't judge them because the characters in canon said that this pairing is not possible. Don't object to people writing a character with a different sexual preference. Don't expect people to like your pairing - don't let others tell you what pairings you are allowed to like.
If you have issues with the writing itself, the way the pairing is written that is a different matter - but never go to someone and order them to stop, shame or bully them for liking a certain pairing.
That is not a hard concept, is it?
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