I don’t remember the origins, but iirc I was maybe 17 or so when I first saw “fictional other” cropping up, and it was only on Tumblr. I was also still self shipping on DA at the time, and it wasn’t a thing there. It felt so weird to use, beacuse I’d been self shipping since I was a little kid without the word haha. It still feels weird. I’d say 2018 or so was when I saw it more widespread on here, so 2017 makes sense as when it was coined to me!
This is what we’ve heard from a few people.
We’ve been self shipping forever, but the term F/O definitely only appeared or at least gained prominence in the last ten years!
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