WARNING
This page has mentions of : homophobia, pedophilia, harassment.
If you came to this page only to label me as either proship or anti, just to be very clear, I'm neither a proshipper or an anti and don't want to be associated with either groups. If you've read the summazied version of this page, you know how much I dislike this argument. If you side with either, I don't care, and I'm open to discussions, but don't expect me to side with you or get convinced easily.
Keep in mind that this page is mostly my opinion, and if I say something is factual, I'll link the source of that information.
This page is NOT finished yet !
The Proship and Antis is an online discourse, which takes its origin in shipping war (especially in early tumblr years), and focuses on shipping. To heavily summarize, according to those who partake in it, it tries to define what shipping are deemed as "problematic" and which aren't, based on criterias that aren't proprely defined. Because of that lack of clear seperation between problematic and non-problematic, two people within the same group could have completly different conclusions.
Shipping:The idea of pairing two or more characters, mostly in romantic, rarely platonic and/or sexual relationships. It could be as vague as thinking two character would make an interesting relationship, or very detailed justification for why this relationship is canon or should be canon.
Shipping culture:Culture created by people who partakes in shipping and takes it seriously. This has lead to shipping discours, which are arguments between people on shipping, either for individual ships (I.E if Zoro x Sanji is better than Zoro x Luffy, or if Zoro x Sanji is problematic), or for shipping as a whole (I.E if shipping abusive relationship is fine).
Problematic:A label used to describe something that causes, encourages or enables a problematic idea or act. I.E, lolicon is problematic because it encourages the sexualisation of underage girls.
Canon/Fanon/Headcanon:Canon are elements presents explicitly within the story or stated as true by the creators. Fanon are elements created by fans and adopted by the fandom (The name of the purple guy being Vincent before it got confirmed being William Afton). Headcanons are elements created by fans, either very personal or shared among a significant part of the fandom.
THIS:THAT
THIS:THAT
History
TBA
What are these groups ?
Proshippers are those who believes that people should be allowed to ship anything they want, even if it's deemed as problematic. Most agreed to not bother others for their ship and believe that fiction doesn't affect reality, or it affects it differently than real life events. They'll either post about these problematic ships and themes, repost/retweet/share them, or ignore them altogether. However, they might interact with antis if they're publicly against problematic themes as a mean to defend the right of self expression.
Antis are those who believes that people shouldn't ship anything they want because of its problematic themes. They believe that fiction does affect reality, therefore shipping problematic ships will negatively affect people's lives. While some will keep their discomfort to themselves, a significant part of them will interact with posts that includes problematic ships, either to explain why it's not okay to ship it, or to ask the original poster to remove the post.
Might believe it or not, but both proshippers and antis are the same kind of people, with little differences. Both believes that their morals and approach to art is inherently better than the other, therefore the other is problematic. And while some problems are worse than the other (such as proshippers hosting many predators in their group, and antis encouraging puritanism), neither group is better than the other, because they both have the exact same core problem of putting their personal biases over other's freedom.
Don't get me wrong, I'm against using "freedom of speech" to spread disgusting art work and fan fictions and I see those who do that, but harassing them isn't going to change their mind, especially if your method is just spamming "problematic" like mousquitos above a pond.
Why is this debate harmfull ?
Might believe it or not, but both proshippers and antis are the same kind of people, with little differences. Both believes that their morals and approach to art is inherently better than the other, therefore the other is problematic. And while some problems are worse than the other (such as proshippers hosting many predators in their group, and antis encouraging puritanism), neither group is better than the other, because they both have the exact same core problem of putting their personal biases over other's freedom.
Don't get me wrong, I'm against using "freedom of speech" to spread disgusting art work and fan fictions and I see those who do that, but harassing them isn't going to change their mind, especially if your method is just spamming "problematic" like mousquitos above a pond.
While most proshippers are young adults and older teenagers trying to break free from censorship, it's not rare to see self-proclaimed proshipper who uses self-expression and exploration as excuses to be innapropriate with minors. Grooming is a form of exploitation and abuse, in which an older individual (mostly adult) befriends, lowers the boundaries then exploits a vulnerable individual (mostly a child, sometimes a vulnerable adult). It could be sexual, romantic or financial depending on the situation. While grooming can happen in real life, online grooming is much more common nowadays, as children are way less carefull online and predators has more means to approach vulnerable children to exploit.
Now, how is grooming and proshipping related ? Groomers may use risky, dark content to lower a child's boundary and even condition them into being into what's portrayed in the media. An adult could use art work depicting unhealthy, toxic power dynamics and twist it, until they could convince the child into believing this relationship is fine and desirable. Groomers could exploit a teenager's natural curiosity in dark subjects, romance and sex, lower their guards and exploit their naivity using problematic or dark fictions. While the art work itself doesn't hurt, when used and consumed by the wrong people, it could lead into an exploitative, abusive enviroment.
Another link between grooming and proshipping, on the other hand, would be a teenager or adult, who was groomed in the past or currently is groomed, and may produce child (sexual) abuse material as a coping mechanism or as a trauma respond. We should not shame them for coping unhealthily, and only their close relative and friends should be able to help and stop them. We, strangers on the internet, shouldn't insert ourselves in their trauma, however it is still important to warn the artist that their content is illegal (note : this only applies if the art work is explicitly sexual and gratifying. Vent art isn't the same as lolicon, do not attack people for making vent art, even if said art work upsets you.).
Look, I get it, sometimes we have to delete problematic content. Child pornography and pro-rape narratives has no place online nor in real like. However, being anti-cringe culture and anti-ship are not compatible. Shipping culture has been frowned upon, shamed and shoved in cringe compilation, especially queer untraditional ships. This also extends to selfshipping/yumeshipping, because let's be honest, if we follow antishipping narratives, dating someone who can't consent (fictional characters) is parasocial and toxic (I don't personally believe it's toxic, but I'm not really talking about my personal opinion here).