Why Do You Ship What You Ship?

[pennswoods]

I posted the following question to my Tumblr a little while back in responses to some of the arguing over shipping and assumptions being made about why people ship. I'm often frustrated by the simplistic and reductive assumptions that emerge in this kind of wank and wonder where other people are coming from. I expect we all ship for a number of

Comments

[akatnamedeaster]

This is really interesting, thank you for sharing this here. I'm glad to hear that your current shipping is pure joy for you and that you're feeling better and actively improving things for yourself.

It's funny how personal and deeply important shipping can be (although it doesn't have to be and probably isn't for many people.) and how those things can be a real anchor in life when everything else is going pear shaped.

I know it is for me and I credit my ship and the work I put into it for making it possible for me to make it through some really horrendous stuff. Thank goodness for it.

Congrats on finding a therapist who's working for you and here's to 2014 continuing to get better and better for you. :)

[pennswoods]

I read what you went through and can really understand how much of a refuge or source of relief or joy or whatever that a ship can be.

The therapist has been a help as a stepping stone to getting me to actually communicate with my husband. That's been huge. But Johnlock has also been a comfort.

[frodosweetstuff]

Ooooh, interesting! I read some of the responses to your Tumblr post but ack Tumblr makes it not easy to read them

[teddyradiator]

I fell for my first ever OTP because in his story fate had treated my favourite character very poorly (especially in the film version of his story) and I wanted a happy end for him - which came in the shape of the unconditional love of a strong, supportive partner who saw and appreciated all that my fav character did and had done and that was overlooked or not understood by everyone else around them.

This. It's simply the reason I ship. And the reason I'm so protective of the ship, and want to keep its integrity strong by encouraging writers and artist to contribute to it. I can get horribly gung-ho about it at times, but when you love something, you want to take care of it and see that it thrives.

[akatnamedeaster]

A big heaping, helping of yes to this.

[pennswoods]

I love this enthusiasm and love.

[ex_logospil]

~and that it’s a positive and valuable thing to nurture that joy while dealing with the parts of my life that continue to challenge and overwhelm me~

Yes! ♥

*tender robed embrace*

Me, it's not so much the shipping that helps me to grow and deal with evolving life circumstances, but what a character means to me, on a mystical level. What Professor Snape means to me on that level has changed over the years, and it's evolved along with how I see and experience things, and he teaches me a lot, he helps me to adapt and live life to the fullest; and Robert Englund surfaced from "just beneath my radar" to the forefront, and he as a person along with all the roles he's played has been teaching me even more, often in unexpected ways :-)

[pennswoods]

Thank you professor. I always love your tender robed embrace, and that's another part of why I ship (whatever I ship) or become enamored of a character. I love meeting the people who are drawn to similar things. It's been a wonderful way of making friends.

Snape is really special and I've appreciated seeing how your experience with him has changed as reflected in what you write about and your photos and your tattoos. He really is a gift of a character.

[ex_logospil]

Thank you so much for your kind words ♥

~I love meeting the people who are drawn to similar things. It's been a wonderful way of making friends~

I so agree! It's one of the truly magical aspects of fandom.

~He really is a gift of a character~

He's the gift that keeps on giving! I'm really looking forward to writing a fourth book of essays about my understanding of him :-)

[ex_logospil]

Here's another robed embrace for you :-)

[sandrine]

Here via emmagrant01. It's so interesting to read other people's reasons for shipping!

For me, about 95% of the time, I ship a pairing because I feel like they share a certain (often unresolved) chemistry in canon that I want to explore. I often don't mean to - I don't go into something (be it a show or a movie or a book or even a sport) looking for ships, it just happens. Two characters / people share a moment and my brain goes, "Oh" and that's it.

I don't even have to like the characters - there are quite a number of pairings that I ship passionately when I don't like either partner, but the chemistry is what gets me every time.

The other 5% it's a bit like frodosweetstuff said above: falling in love with a character and wanting a happy ending for them, in which case it doesn't necessarily have to be about canon chemistry because there are a couple of cases when I actually ship those pairings who barely / never shared any 'screen time', but that's really the exception.

[pennswoods]

I am so thankful for people who identify that chemistry and then explore it in some medium like fic or art or meta. I'm not an early adopter when it comes to shipping so the exploration done by other fans is what opens my eyes and serves as a gateway to my own shipping.

And I appreciate the desire for a happy ending for a character I really admire or resonate with.

[frodosweetstuff]

Oooh, I do agree with you about the chemistry in canon - all my OTPs have that. I don't think I could simply take two characters and put them together, if there wasn't something special between them in the first place.

[clevermanka]

Oh gosh. Everyone is being so thoughtful and has such meaningful motivations...

I honestly don't ship many pairings. And when I do ship, it's gotta be something I can in the actual text or on the screen. I have to notice the chemistry between the characters and feel like there's something going on there that isn't explicitly stated in their interactions but comes through in their behavior or body language. Actual, obvious, and prolonged eye-fucking on screen is pretty much a prerequisite for me to be on board with a ship. I can't intellectualize or mentally rationalize a ship--my emotions have gotta be on board and manipulated by the actors or (in very rare occasions) the author.

I would love to be able to ship pairings that didn't have such an obviously emotional component for me. One, I think it limits me in my interactions with some fandoms, and two, I have a tendency to run out of fics.

pennswoods, I'm so glad you've had fandom to help you through rough patches in your life, but I'm extra happy to hear you've found a therapist to work

[pennswoods]

I think I am very clueless when it comes to identifying the onscreen chemistry that fuels a lot of shipping, but Johnlock is really my first visual ship. My other ships have all been textual, so I've had a greater glimpse into the dynamic and the minds of some of the characters I have shipped as a result. In this TV based medium, the eye-fucking definitely helps. I feel like the gifsets on Tumblr which have isolated these moments over and over and then added commentary to them have worked to enhance my ability to notice chemistry. That's been kind of neat.

I'm glad to have had fandom too and I hope this therapist thing continues to be fruitful.