Snowflake catchup: day 8

[obstinatecondolement]

In your own space, create a quiz or a poll (or tell us your thoughts about answering quizzes/polls)

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine today where we butted up against a difference in understanding we had about what to "ship" something actually meant in practice. Specifically, I was said the following about a ship:

"Yeah, like, I do not ship this! I think it's a fascinating kind of... deconstruction of teen crushes on authority figures? Or people who they think are safe outlets for burgeoning sexual feelings who turn out to be not that? But I think it's repulsive. And my reading of [movie] is that [character 1] had a crush on [character 2] and the betrayal of him turning out to be literally manipulating him as part of an elaborate revenge plot shut down [character 1]'s tentative exploration of bisexuality for years. Also, I have never thought it was reciprocated, lol. Like, I don't get people who ship it in a fluffy consensual way, and I find the way that I think it is actually plausible to be repellent, but I do get it? Idk"

which they found interesting, because their feelings on the ship and reading of the canon was pretty much the same as mine, but they felt that they did ship it. So we clearly meant different things when we said "I ship this" or "I don't ship this" and we teased out what we meant specifically by this shorthand.

I am not aware if there is any agreed upon Definitive™ meaning, but I thought it would be a fun subject for a poll! So, here goes:

Poll #28319 Shipping

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

So like... what does "I ship this" mean to you?

View Answers

I want this to be canon
2 (10.0%)

I think this is an aspirational relationship dynamic
1 (5.0%)

I find this interesting, but I don't necessarily want it to be canon or think it would be a good idea in real life
15 (75.0%)

I find the characters very attractive
5 (25.0%)

I find the dynamic between the characters very attractive
16 (80.0%)

I actively want to engage with this ship (via fanworks, meta, just thinking about them) in a more than incidental way
17 (85.0%)

I think this is a plausible interpretation of their canon relationship
10 (50.0%)

I think this is a plausible extrapolation of their canon relationship's potential evolution
12 (60.0%)

I don't like the relationship in canon but the fanon/what it could be is great
2 (10.0%)

Other I will explain in comments
2 (10.0%)

The responses are check boxes, so tick as many as apply!

Comments

[obstinatecondolement]

Definitely agree! If fiction were only permitted to depict healthy behaviour and relationships it would be very trite and dishonest, imo. Also, while the ship I mentioned in this post is one that I find (personally) repulsive, that doesn't mean that I think no one should ship it or that people who do ship it are themselves repulsive! Like, I definitely get the appeal, it's just not pushing any of my buttons. I have other ships that are desperately unhealthy that push all my buttons.

[lebateleur]

Yes, to everything you've said above. I'm not sure how best to put it, but I don't think that exploring unhealthy things--or even having them push any (let alone all)--of your buttons, is in itself unhealthy. If anything, in my own personal experience (which I am not generalizing to fandom here) it's been the people who refuse to think about these things--even in fiction--who are more likelier to act aspects of them out in their real world lives.

So it doesn't particularly worry me when I encounter something I think is unpleasant, or unhealthy, or that I don't like in fandom so long as there's no indication the author embodies it in real life too; I just backbrowser out and moving on when that happens.

[obstinatecondolement]

Yeah, the idea that it is unhealthy (or Bad For You in a more nebulous moral, psychological or spiritual sense) to have your buttons pressed by certain ideas in fiction (or in a roleplaying scenario) reminds me of nothing so much as the Victorian moral panic over children (or, lol, women, who naturally lacked moral fibre and needed as much guidance in this sphere as a child would) reading novels and being led astray by them.

EDIT: I think that I misread your original comment a little! When I said (in the comment you were replying to) that there were certain ships that pressed all my buttons that were desperately unhealthy, I meant unhealthy for them if they were real people engaged in a similar relationship, not unhealthy for me as a reader/viewer/etc.