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I wish I understood why pro-censorship fans think that its normal and okay to treat “shipping” as some kind of sacred moral space away from other types of fiction where only good and pure and desirable things can happen.
I think this is all really down to the confusion on what it means to “ship” something I think.
It’s really annoying how the actual definition of “ship” is “consider the possibility of what it would look like if two characters were romantically or sexually involved”–
and some people treat “ship” as if it meant “think that it is the best, most ideal possible relationship for the characters to be in and that it should be canon.”
Honestly I think it has something to do with the fact that media as a whole is heavily used as escapism and wish fulfillment. And these people assume, that’s all it’s really for.
Which explains why people are so horrified when you ship or write about something that you personally wouldn’t want to experience in a relationship.
It’s why people ascribe that “healthy ships” are worth more and better, as if ships are like real-life relationships, and are more fulfilling when it’s healthy.
How a ship is compelling, how a ship moves the narrative, how a ship highlights character development and traits and how a ship is in relation to character arcs. Gets entirely ignored, the ship itself gets divorced from its source material, and is rated on how well it would fare in real life. And it’s a darn shame!
Its wish fulfillment and escapism that is never allowed to go too far in imagining elaborate, interesting dilemmas that come with a story.
I feel like this also shows a bit of a gap in understanding wish fulfillment and escapism, too, actually.
because like… escapism ISN’T always what you would actually want. seriously, how much escapist fantasy is an isekai where everyone back home probably assume you’re dead, and you NEVER go home again, and you don’t even have the body you grew up in anymore?
as a fantasy about getting to be a badass with super powers, that’s fine and fits the narrative.
as a reality, that’s horrifying.
even basic wish fulfillment will follow this pattern; it’s not just about getting what you want, but getting what you want without the natural consequences having to effect you. for an extreme example, see how everybody talks about what they’d do if they found the Death Note.
sometimes dark stuff that you wouldn’t want to actually happen IS escapism, and a form of wish fulfillment. we’ve known for a while that the reason “cold loner who’s Dangerous and Could Kill You and is super possessive” is such a popular trope in fiction is because it provides the fantasy of a protector, where all of these red flags are okay because it’s fantasy so when he says he’ll never hurt you you know he actually means it. where you ONLY get hurt in ways that you’re personally okay with, and have narrative control over.
and i wonder if that’s part of it? if you reject all of the obviously dark stuff, you don’t have to Think about your fantasies. you don’t have to analyze the holes.
I think it might have something to do with not understanding things that don’t fit their personal idea of escapism. It runs alongside the fact a lot of the same people will say if you do something to cope that would’ve hurt them then you must be hurting yourself. They can’t seem to understand escapism leading to any emotion other than happy fluffy ones because that’s all they want.
Also, as some people in the notes have already pointed out, that many of them are projecting on the fic they read. Which would also explain what feels like a pretty big increase in reader insert fic over the last few years. They can’t process shipping being about you caring how specific characters interact or how that impacts the story because they think about shipping as them + the character they’re attracted to.
Both of these contribute to “Why would you like stories where (dark thing) happens when you could have fluffy coffee shop aus?”
Discussion ¬