![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I used to get very preoccupied with the idea that I was personally responsible for increasing the representation of f/f and f/m fanworks through my output, largely because of moral scrupulosity OCD brain. I don't feel the same way anymore.
I think it's worth thinking about how and why we ship what we ship and if we might have unconscious biases that make us overlook characters who are not men or ships other than m/m ships. Just so I'm not misunderstood, I'm certainly not saying that any individual has to ship things they are not enthused by or that they are obligated to Blorbify characters who do not speak to them. I'm also not saying that individual fans have to meet a quota of different ship categories or that they are personally responsible for increasing the representation of a diverse category of ships on AO3. Additionally, I'm not saying that the answer to the question, "Why do I mostly ship m/m?" is always, "Because I overlook and undervalue characters who are not men." Sometimes it's, "because I am primarily or exclusively attracted to men and ships featuring characters I am not myself attracted to do not interest me" or, "because I mostly read/write explicit fic and explicit fic about women makes me dysphoric" or, "because the kinds of characters I tend to be drawn to are seldom not male" or any number of other perfectly valid reasons. Again, this is a big picture issue, not a problem with individual fans' preferences. Note: the focus of this post is gender, but there are obviously many other forms of diversity that can be represented in fanworks. I took this as my primary focus mainly because the default ship categories make it easier to look at numbers for this particular kind of diverse representation.
[EDIT Jan 22 2023: I think that I could have expressed myself better in the above here. For one, I think that my use of the word "we" implies that I think everyone reading this post is primarily an m/m shipper or someone whose favourite characters are all men, which is obviously not the case. I meant "we" in the sense of "transformative fandom on AO3 collectively" which does disproprortionately favour m/m and male characters. I think I also neglected to say that people should create for and engage with ships and characters that they like! I said that no one is obligated to create for or engage with things they don't like, but that still leaves room for the interpretation that it would be a good thing for them to prioritise increasing representation at the expense of having fun anyway even if they chose not to do it. That's not at all what I want! I think that we could all be having even more fun, basically, and that people who primarily or exclusively like m/m ships and male characters are potentially missing out on fun that they could be having. Also, that people who like ships involving characters who are not men or fans of non-male characters are potentially missing out on friends, community and fanworks that they could have if transformative fandom as a whole was less weighted towards m/m ships and male characters.]
( So you said something about a self audit? What do you mean by that? )
A final note: I in no way would expect anyone to examine their fannish output in this level of detail I have here, or at all, and I don't think that I'm being morally virtuous by doing so myself. I'm just really fascinated by data and this kind of thing is interesting and fun for me. Also, to reiterate, shipping is not activism and your fannish output is not necessarily a reflection of your politics or values. While I would personally like to diversify my output in the future, and I think that as a community transformative fandom would be better served by a more diverse offering of fanworks, I don't think that anyone is bad or wrong for liking what they like.
That said...
However, I do think, "I just coincidentally only ship m/m ships ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" can be a cop out and attempts to explain m/m's overrepresentation in the works posted to AO3 as, "male characters are typically the only ones given the depth and dimension which lends itself to shipping" is, in my opinion, disingenuous when you consider how ready, willing and able fandom is to invent characterisation out of whole cloth for minor male characters and shippable dynamics between male characters, who may never share screentime together or reference each other in dialogue, that just do not exist in the source material. I would like to clarify: I do not think this kind of transformation of the source material is sinister! I just think that since we can do that and we often do do that, we can, as a community, also do it for characters who are not male and ships that are not m/m more often.I think it's worth thinking about how and why we ship what we ship and if we might have unconscious biases that make us overlook characters who are not men or ships other than m/m ships. Just so I'm not misunderstood, I'm certainly not saying that any individual has to ship things they are not enthused by or that they are obligated to Blorbify characters who do not speak to them. I'm also not saying that individual fans have to meet a quota of different ship categories or that they are personally responsible for increasing the representation of a diverse category of ships on AO3. Additionally, I'm not saying that the answer to the question, "Why do I mostly ship m/m?" is always, "Because I overlook and undervalue characters who are not men." Sometimes it's, "because I am primarily or exclusively attracted to men and ships featuring characters I am not myself attracted to do not interest me" or, "because I mostly read/write explicit fic and explicit fic about women makes me dysphoric" or, "because the kinds of characters I tend to be drawn to are seldom not male" or any number of other perfectly valid reasons. Again, this is a big picture issue, not a problem with individual fans' preferences. Note: the focus of this post is gender, but there are obviously many other forms of diversity that can be represented in fanworks. I took this as my primary focus mainly because the default ship categories make it easier to look at numbers for this particular kind of diverse representation.
[EDIT Jan 22 2023: I think that I could have expressed myself better in the above here. For one, I think that my use of the word "we" implies that I think everyone reading this post is primarily an m/m shipper or someone whose favourite characters are all men, which is obviously not the case. I meant "we" in the sense of "transformative fandom on AO3 collectively" which does disproprortionately favour m/m and male characters. I think I also neglected to say that people should create for and engage with ships and characters that they like! I said that no one is obligated to create for or engage with things they don't like, but that still leaves room for the interpretation that it would be a good thing for them to prioritise increasing representation at the expense of having fun anyway even if they chose not to do it. That's not at all what I want! I think that we could all be having even more fun, basically, and that people who primarily or exclusively like m/m ships and male characters are potentially missing out on fun that they could be having. Also, that people who like ships involving characters who are not men or fans of non-male characters are potentially missing out on friends, community and fanworks that they could have if transformative fandom as a whole was less weighted towards m/m ships and male characters.]
( So you said something about a self audit? What do you mean by that? )
A final note: I in no way would expect anyone to examine their fannish output in this level of detail I have here, or at all, and I don't think that I'm being morally virtuous by doing so myself. I'm just really fascinated by data and this kind of thing is interesting and fun for me. Also, to reiterate, shipping is not activism and your fannish output is not necessarily a reflection of your politics or values. While I would personally like to diversify my output in the future, and I think that as a community transformative fandom would be better served by a more diverse offering of fanworks, I don't think that anyone is bad or wrong for liking what they like.
