Beginning in the mid-2010s, significant discourse emerged within fan spaces such as
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
and
Archive of Our Own
Archive of Our Own (often shortened to AO3) is a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009. ...
(AO3) regarding the ethical implications of portraying taboo and abusive sexual content within
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...
fanfiction. "Shipping"—the depiction of a romantic or sexual relationship between fictional characters—has long been a staple within
fanfiction
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...
. The lack of censorship emerging from spaces such as AO3 allowed for the portrayal of disturbing or taboo dynamics within fan works, including incest, abuse, rape, and pedophilia.
Fandom discourse is divided between "anti-ship" and "pro-ship" camps, focusing primarily on the extent to which fictional works depicting such content affect real-world behavior and attitudes. Anti-shippers, referred to as "antis," take the view that fictional portrayals normalize harmful dynamics and behaviors and pose a particular threat to children. Fanfiction depicting underage characters in sexual contexts is characterized as
child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...
. Pro-shippers oppose antis on a variety of stances, including opposition to censorship and the rejection of notions of fictional abuse affecting reality. Both anti- and pro-shippers draw from primarily
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
fan communities and share similar demographics, although antis are generally younger, with the largest contingent in their early-to-mid teens.
Academic coverage generally disputes antis' claims regarding fictional works, analyzing the movement as a
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usua ...
,
harassment campaign, or "faux-activism." Antis have been criticized for equating fictional content with real-world
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
, online harassment of pro-shippers, as well as the spread of moralistic and
pathologizing attitudes towards kink and sexuality. The pro-shipper backlash has also faced criticism, primarily for minimizing other critiques of fan works by placing them under the label of anti-ship.
Background
![Old Friends and New Fancies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Old_Friends_and_New_Fancies.png)
The term "
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...
," derived from "relationshipping," initially emerged in the mid-1990s within the ''
X-Files''
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
to refer to the fan practice of supporting a hypothetical romantic relationship between the main protagonists,
Fox Mulder
Fox William Mulder () is a fictional FBI Special Agent and one of the two protagonists of the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series ''The X-Files'', played by David Duchovny. Mulder's peers dismiss his many theories on extraterrest ...
and
Dana Scully
Dana Katherine Scully, MD, is a fictional character and one of the two Protagonist, protagonists in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox science-fiction, supernatural fiction, supernatural television series ''The X-Files'', played by Gillian Anders ...
. Supporters of romance between the two characters titled themselves "shippers," seeing it as the inevitable resolution of the show's unresolved
sexual tension
Sexual tension is a social phenomenon that occurs when two individuals interact and one or both feel sexual desire, but the consummation is postponed or never happens. A common scenario is where the two individuals function in proximity, such as c ...
. They were opposed within the fandom by "No-Romancers," who viewed the two characters' relationship as
platonic friendship. Shippers often turned to
fanfiction
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...
to depict romantic and sexual interactions between the characters, leading to contemporary fanfiction websites aligned with either camp.
The term later broadened to include supporters of any fan pairing of fictional characters. Such dynamics paralleled far older romantic pairings depicted in
slash fanfiction
Slash fiction (also known as "m/m slash") is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex.Bacon-Smith, Camille. "Spock Among the Women." New York Times Sunday Book Review ...
, a term first originating in the early 1970s ''
Star Trek
''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
'' fandom. Even earlier examples of romantic fanfiction retroactively described as shipping include the 1914 novel ''
Old Friends and New Fancies
''Old Friends and New Fancies: An Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen'' (1913) is a novel by Sybil G. Brinton that is often acknowledged to be the first sequel to the works of Jane Austen and as such is possibly the first piece of publis ...
''.
Many shippers become strongly emotionally invested in their preferred relationships, even when no such romantic relationship is portrayed in
canon
Canon or Canons may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base
* Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture
** Western can ...
. Because of this, conflict can emerge in a fandom between proponents of different ships. This is exacerbated when there are multiple plausible partners for a particular character, such as within
love triangle
A love triangle or eternal triangle is a scenario or circumstance, usually depicted as a rivalry, in which two people are pursuing or involved in a romantic relationship with one person, or in which one person in a romantic relationship with so ...
s. By the early 2000s,
anti-fan
An anti-fan, hater, or anti is someone who enjoys writing, discussing or in some cases making derivative works about a piece of media, but solely for the purpose of railing against or parodying it. Someone who opposes a ship (a romantic pairing be ...
s opposed to certain ships came to be known as "anti-shippers."
Internet fandom and AO3
The emergence of Internet
fan communities
A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place (geography), place, Norm (social), norms, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Identity (social science), identity. Communiti ...
during the 1990s allowed for the proliferation of taboo fanfiction in an anonymous environment. Traditionally,
erotica
Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...
,
homoerotic
Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homose ...
romance, and depictions of torture (most notably in "
hurt-comfort
Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...
" works) were carefully distributed only within small cliques interested in such works. Large fan-work
host websites, such as
DeviantArt
DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
DeviantArt, ...
and
FanFiction.Net
FanFiction.Net (often abbreviated as FF.net or FFN) is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was founded on October 15, 1998, by Los Angeles computer programmer Xing Li, who also runs the site. It has over 12 million registered users and hos ...
, allowed the free spread of work without traditional
gatekeeping
A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out", in the classic words of manage ...
or the risk of
connection to their creators' offline identities. However, these websites still forced works to adhere to
terms of service that allowed the
fansite
A fansite, fan site, fan blog or fan page is a website created and maintained by a fan or devotee about a celebrity, thing, or particular cultural phenomenon.
Fansites may offer specialized information on the subject (e.g., episode listings, bi ...
s to remain profitable to
advertisers
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
. Fanfiction portraying graphic violence or explicit sexuality was subject to frequent censorship and removal, which fans called "purges." Some purged fanworks depicted abuse, torture, gore, rape, incest,
necrophilia
Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving Cadaver, corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) ...
, pedophilia, or
bestiality. Such taboo works usually have no specific basis in the source material, which is often originally marketed towards children and young adults.
![Ao3-screenshot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Ao3-screenshot.png)
When
LiveJournal
LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary.
American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...
, the largest fan content host in the 2000s, was acquired by the Russian online media corporation
SUP in 2007, the site underwent a mass-scale removal of content considered explicit under
Russian media laws,
including many LGBT works. The "destruction of LiveJournal communities" led to the creation of the
Organization for Transformative Works
The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit, fan activist organization. Its mission is to serve fans by preserving and encouraging transformative fan activity, known as " fanwork", and by making fanwork widely accessible.
OT ...
and the
Archive of Our Own
Archive of Our Own (often shortened to AO3) is a nonprofit open source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. The site was created in 2008 by the Organization for Transformative Works and went into open beta in 2009. ...
(AO3), a nonprofit and advertisement-free hosting site for fanfiction. The gradual migration of much of the fanfiction community to AO3 allowed for the sharing of taboo works without censorship. AO3 implements a
tagging system to allow authors to mark works containing
triggering or upsetting content, although a work's tags can often double as
advertisement
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
. The
microblogging
Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...
service
Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
also serves as a center for fan works, although explicit content was stymied by a ban on "
not safe for work
Not safe for work (NSFW) is Internet slang or shorthand used to mark links to content, videos, or website pages the viewer may not wish to be seen looking at in a public, formal or controlled environment. The marked content may contain nudity, p ...
" material in 2018. Tumblr's unique system of post dissemination and tagging both allows for the discussion of
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
issues and intense conflict between different online fan communities. Tumblr discourse trends towards separate camps around specific viewpoints and identities, creating highly combative "contact zones" where rival factions debate issues.
Viewpoints
Although "anti-shipper" can refer to anyone opposed to a specific pairing of characters, the term ''anti'' generally refers to opponents of fictional sexual content considered harmful. The question of whether "fiction affects reality" is a central point of dispute between antis and the opposing camp of ''pro-shippers''. Antis generally believe that taboo or abusive sexual content within fiction directly influences the views and actions of those who consume it, with pro-shippers disagreeing with antis for a broad spectrum of reasons, ranging from a complete rejection of fictional media's influence on behavior to a defense of harmful sexual dynamics when properly depicted as abusive.
Samantha Aburime, a fandom researcher, described antis as "hybrids that exhibit traits of fans, anti-fans and anti-shippers." Although specific viewpoints vary significantly within the community, they generally share a number of core beliefs. Antis oppose depictions of rape and sexual abuse, describing them as harmful to
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
survivors. Antis consider the opposed content harmful to minors and abuse victims, especially depictions of rape, incest, and pedophilia. Many antis criticize other
tropes
Trope or tropes may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trope (cinema), a cinematic convention for conveying a concept
* Trope (literature), a figure of speech or common literary device
* Trope (music), any of a variety of different things ...
, such as power imbalances (including
age gaps) in relationships and the perceived fetishization of homosexual relationships. Antis also argue that sexual content involving underage fictional characters is
child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...
and that the dissemination of such works functions as a
grooming tactic to normalize
sexual relations between adults and children.
Pro-shippers (also known as ''anti-antis''), etymologically inverted from anti-shipper, believe that creating or consuming fiction which depicts harmful content does not itself function as an endorsement of such actions. Some pro-shippers believe that fictional works can affect societal attitudes towards sexuality when portrayed irresponsibly, but they align with the general movement's support of artistic free-expression and the continuation of adult content within fan spaces. Because most antis were
teenagers
Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
, many pro-shippers consider the anti movement an attack on sexual content in general and an attempt to displace adult-oriented content from fan spaces.
Both antis and pro-shippers are largely LGBT, reflecting the fanfiction community as a whole—a 2013 survey revealed that only 38% of AO3 users were heterosexual, with more
nonbinary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...
users than men. The two groups are demographically similar in terms of racial, gender, and sexual identities and report similar rates of neurodiversity and survivorship of sexual abuse. However, antis are generally younger than pro-shippers, with the largest contingent in their early-to-mid teens.
Analysis
Although antis generally claim to be motivated by a desire to protect minors and abuse victims rather than by opposition to shipping itself, academic scholarship generally analyzes the movement as a "ship war gone too far". Tensions over pairings between various characters within the television series
''Voltron: Legendary Defender'' led to a large-scale expansion of shipping discourse in fandom spaces. Opponents of the romantic pairing of the characters
Keith
Keith may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters
* Keith (surname)
* Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949)
* Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...
and
Shiro (although both characters were adults within the source material, Shiro was several years older than Keith) characterized that relationship as pedophilic in nature.
The actions of antis have been compared to
censorship campaigns against LGBT works, as well as regulatory codes such as the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
and
Comics Code
The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. T ...
. Antis have been variously characterized by critics as a cult, harassment campaign, moral panic, or as an unintentional outgrowth of
religious conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
. Anti tactics have been described as
appeals to emotionally charged
buzzwords
A buzzword is a word or phrase, new or already existing, that becomes popular for a period of time. Buzzwords often derive from technical terms yet often have much of the original technical meaning removed through fashionable use, being simply used ...
;
pathologization of sexual deviance, especially
kink
Kink or KINK may refer to:
Common uses
* Kink (sexuality), a colloquial term for non-normative sexual behavior
* Kink, a curvature, bend, or twist
Geography
* Kink, Iran, a village in Iran
* The Kink, a man-made geographic feature in remote east ...
; and reputational attacks: accusations of homophobia, pedophilia, or abuse to draw support from uninformed outsiders.
The movement has been linked to the convergence of
call-out culture
Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...
and "
faux activism" within
online communities
An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...
such as Tumblr.
The strong emphasis on protecting minors within the anti movement has been described as stemming from broader moral attitudes towards
protecting children and adolescents from inappropriate sexuality and maintaining childhood
innocence
Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience.
In relation ...
. The anti movement may reflect a broader
Generation Z
Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular me ...
discomfort with sexual material.
While many antis disavow more radical actions, the movement has been criticized for
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital s ...
. Some antis
spam
Spam may refer to:
* Spam (food), a canned pork meat product
* Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages
** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages
** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...
gore, violent pornography, and pedophilic imagery to pro-shippers, AO3 volunteer staff, and content tags associated with taboo fan-works. The "baffling" tactic of intentional dissemination of imagery opposed by the movement has been described by fandom researcher Agnieszka Urbańczyk as a means to attack pro-shippers: "The goal of such actions seems to be marginalization of people who create it or enjoy it." Some antis publicly describe pro-shippers as advocates of pedophilia or sexual abuse, and ultimately as causing direct
sexual harm to children. Antis have also been criticized for sending
death threats
A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a deat ...
to pro-shippers. In 2020, ''
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...
'' screenwriter
Bryan Fuller
Bryan Fuller (born July 27, 1969) is an American television writer and producer who has created a number of television series, including ''Dead Like Me'', ''Wonderfalls'', ''Pushing Daisies'', '' Hannibal'', and '' American Gods.'' Fuller worked a ...
was faced with criticism and death threats from antis after expressing support for pro-shippers.
[. Citing ]
Pro-shippers have been critiqued for minimizing valid critiques of fan works by labeling any critics of their works as antis. Anti-racist critiques of fanfiction are sometimes described as anti-ship by white fans, leading to an environment where various motives to opposing fanworks are dismissed as "anti".
See also
*
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...
*
Feminist sex wars
The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, or simply the sex wars or porn wars, are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Diff ...
*
Puriteen
''Puriteen'' is a portmanteau of "puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully ...
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Tumblr navbox
Internet culture
Tumblr
Fan fiction
Fandom
Literature controversies
Shipping (fandom)
Ideological rivalry