Shipping (fandom)
Encyclopedia
Shipping, derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two fictional characters, typically from the same series, are in an intimate relationship
, or have romantic feelings that could potentially lead to a relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of romance
in a work of fiction
. Though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet
, and is seldom used outside of that context.
Shipping can involve virtually any kind of relationship — from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable and the blatantly impossible. People involved in shipping (called shippers) variously assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, or simply that they would like it to exist.
The term for a fan of shipping also evolved: from relationshipper, R'shipper, 'shipper, and finally just shipper. These terms were already established and required no explanation when posted in alt.tv newsgroups in 1996.
Various naming conventions have developed in different online communities to refer to prospective couples, likely due to the ambiguity and cumbersomeness of the "Frick and Frack" format. The most widespread appears to be putting the slash character (/) between the two names ("Frick/Frack"). Other methods include
Portmanteaus are especially popular among soap opera
fans, who use them to describe existing couples as well as couples that they would like to see together, or that they feel should reunite. Some examples are from one of the most popular soap operas General Hospital
. Some current GH ships are: Lante (Lulu/Dante), Krithan (Kristina/Ethan), Jolivia (Johnny/Olivia), JaSam (Jason/Sam), Spixie (Spinelli/Maxie), CarJax (Carly/Jax), and Niz (Nikolas/Elizabeth)
Under the right circumstances, fandoms tend to evolve unique trends in their shipping notation. The Pokémon
, Harry Potter
and Yu-Gi-Oh!
fandoms have specific semi-descriptive names corresponding with their ships. In Pokémon the Ash and Misty pairing is PokéShipping, and a ship consisting of Ash and May is called AdvanceShipping, while the two characters May and Drew who both participate in competitions called Contests are paired in ContestShipping. This also occurs in the Warriors fandom, an example being the Firestar and Cinderpelt pairing could become BarbequeShipping. The Harry Potter fandom has taken this a step forward and uses puns on the naval ship/fandom ship linguistic duality in the form of "HMS
foobar". The Saiyuki fandom has a system by which each of the main characters is assigned a number corresponding with their name, and a ship could be referred to as "1X5" or "2X4" (a similar notation system is in use among Gundam Wing yaoi
enthusiasts).
community, homosexual pairings are also popular (known as "slash
and femslash
" or by their borrowed Japanese terms yaoi
, male homosexuality, and yuri, female homosexuality). A person who supports homosexual pairings and reads or writes slash fiction
may be referred to as a "slasher".
The term "Slash" itself predates the use of "shipping" by at least some 20 years. It was originally coined as a term to describe Kirk/Spock
(or "K/S"; sometimes spoken "Kirk-slash-Spock", whence "Slash") homosexual fan fiction
. For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, both "K/S" and "Slash" were used to describe such fan fiction, regardless of whether or not they were related to Star Trek. But as homosexuality became more accepted in society, so too did the terms lose their derogatory connotation. Thus "Slash" became a universal term to describe all homosexual themed fan works.
Parallel to this development, the term "Slash" was also being used in some fandoms to denote fan fiction or other fan works depicting sexual acts with an implied rating of NC-17, whether homosexual or heterosexual. It is likely that this is the same "Slash" term born of the Star Trek fandom, but adapted to the pornographic focus that commonly dominates fanfiction and fan works in the Kirk
/Spock
ship, as well as the ships of other homosexual couples, allowing the use of the term to spread to heterosexual ships. However, this use of the term has now become largely archaic due to the standardization of terminology by large fandom sites such as fanfiction.net.
Shipping often defies social standards and taboo
s, perhaps because of internet anonymity. Some online groups support ships which constitute incest
or bestiality
. Characters of any age, even adults and children, may be paired together in romantic fan fiction
.
circles, authors often let their shipping tendencies influence their work and espouse a certain romantic pairing between two particular characters in their fiction; in fact, the pairings found within are considered such a defining factor that story summaries in fiction archives often notify the potential reader of them while neglecting other important features. The extremity of this phenomenon can be found in many fan fiction archives, where fanfiction is searchable by rating, length, genre, date, language, and "pairing". While this in part reflects an emphasis on shipping by many fan fiction authors, it is also considered a useful service to those readers who only wish to read about certain pairings (or conversely, wish to avoid reading about pairings they dislike).
To a lesser degree, this influence still exists in other fan works. Since fan art
, for example, is by nature more focused on a particular scene or character(s) and allows for less flexibility in terms of theme integration, it is usually either without shipping influence at all or wholly a tribute to a certain pairing.
fandom was marked through its entire run by shipper debate. From the series' first season, the main conflict was between people who thought that the title character, Daria Morgendorffer, should have a relationship with Trent Lane, a slacker rock-band frontman, whom Daria met through his sister, Jane. A common argument against this possible outcome was that such a development would signal a turn away from the more subversive aspects of Daria's character, and thus the show.
The show's writers responded by having Daria develop a crush on Trent, even having Daria go as far as to get a piercing because Trent encouraged her to, as well as having her get rashes on her head at the sight of Trent. Trent, however, remained involved with his off-and-on girlfriend Monique, who immediately became a target of shipper ire. The crush ended in the third season's finale, "Jane's Addition", when Daria realized that Trent could never satisfy her in the long run.
That same episode introduced Tom Sloane, a charming and intellectual son of privilege who nonetheless drove a Ford Pinto
. Although Tom became Jane's boyfriend, threatening Daria and Jane's friendship in the process, Daria and Tom warmed up to each other throughout the fourth season, leading up to its finale, "Dye! Dye! My Darling," broadcast August 2, 2000. With Jane and Tom's relationship in crisis, a heated argument between Daria and Tom led up to a kiss in Tom's car. With Daria indecisive as to whether this relationship should be pursued further, Daria and Jane's friendship was in tatters for the rest of the episode. In the made-for-TV movie "Is it Fall Yet?," Daria decided to begin a relationship with Tom, and Daria and Jane patched up their friendship.
This caused an instant uproar. The shipper faction having won the initial debate (in fair part having do with other artistic decisions Daria made after Season 1 reflecting a conceptual desire towards post-modernity, such as a musical episode, "Daria!", extended dream sequences laden with 70s-80s detective show references ("Murder, She Snored"), and human representations of the major holiday
s (and Guy Fawkes Day) manifesting themselves in Lawndale in "Depth Takes A Holiday"), conversation now turned to whether Tom was more appropriate than the long-dismissed Trent. The debate was satirized by the show's writers in a piece on MTV's website.
In the series finale, the made-for-TV movie, "Is It College Yet?", Daria and Tom broke up over the fact that they were going to different colleges. The debate was over, and so was the series.
In interviews done after the series' run, series co-creator Glenn Eichler
revealed that "any viewer who really thought that Daria and Trent could (have) a relationship was just not watching the show we were making," Tom came about because "going into our fourth year... I thought it was really pushing credibility for Daria to have only had one or two dates during her whole high school career," and "teaser" episodes like "Pierce Me" were "intended to provide some fun for that portion of the audience that was so invested in the romance angle. The fact that those moments were few and far between should have given some indication that the series was not about Daria's love life."
and his close female friend Hermione Granger
at odds with supporters of Hermione ending up instead with Ron Weasley
, close friend of both.
Quotes from Rowling which seemed to contradict the possibility of Harry ending up with Hermione were usually countered by claiming them to be deliberate obfuscations designed to lure astute observation off-course (though such claims were far from undisputed, given that these allegedly vague quotes included such phrases as "[Harry and Hermione] are very platonic friends"http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-pressclubtransc.htm, and were repeated on at least three different occasions).
Another alternative is of Harry ending up with Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, whose obvious crush on him served as a comical plotline starting in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
and apparently subsiding in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
, where Hermione informs Harry that Ginny has "given up" on him.
The resolution did not come until 2005, with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
. The book contained a prominent sub-plot in which Harry develops a crush on the previously-pining Ginny, convinced that he has missed his opportunity with her. In the end Ginny turns out to never have given up on Harry after all, but merely taken Hermione's advice to try to date other boys to boost her self-confidence and be more like herself around him. Though their romantic relationship becomes one of the few sources of comfort in Harry's difficult life, he makes a bold decision to break it apart for fear that Voldemort would learn of it and target Ginny. Rowling later commented that she had planned Ginny as Harry's "ideal girl" from the very beginning.
The effect of this turnout was dramatically amplified by an interview with J.K. Rowling conducted by fansite webmasters Emerson Spartz (MuggleNet
) and Melissa Anelli (The Leaky Cauldron
) shortly after the book's release. During the interview Spartz commented that Harry/Hermione shippers were "delusional", to which Rowling chuckled, though making it clear that she did not share the sentiment and that the Harry/Hermione fans were "still valued members of her readership". This incident resulted in an uproar among Harry/Hermione shippers, some of whom announced that they would return their copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
and boycott future Harry Potter books, leveling criticism at Spartz, Anelli, and Rowling herself. Many of them complained that both sites had a Ron/Hermione bias and criticized Rowling for not including a representative of their community, as a way to avoid difficult questions. The uproar was loud enough to merit an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
.
Rowling's attitude towards the shipping phenomenon has varied between amused and bewildered to frustrated, as she revealed in that interview. She explained:http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm
In a later posting on MuggleNet, Spartz explained:http://www.mugglenet.com/newsfusion/fullnews.php?id=972
Rowling has continued to make references, less humorous and more, to the severity of the shipper conflicts. In one instance she has joked about trying to think of ways of proving to Emerson, when inviting him for the aforementioned interview, that it was really her and not "some angry Harry/Hermione shipper trying to lure him down a dark alleyway"http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=21; In another, she has described her impression of the Harry Potter fandom's shipping debates as "cyber gang warfare".http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2006/0801-radiocityreading1.html
The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in July 2007 saw an epilogue, nineteen years after the events at the focus of the series, where Harry and Ginny are married and have three kids, Lily, James, and Albus Severus, and Ron and Hermione are also married and have two, Rose and Hugo.
fandom saw often "shipping wars" that turned especially intense due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Shortly after the 1995 debut of the action/fantasy series about a woman warrior seeking redemption for a dark past, fans started discussing the possibility of a relationship between Xena
and her sidekick and best friend Gabrielle
.
Toward the end of the first season, the show's producers began to play to this perception by deliberately inserting usually humorous lesbian innuendo into some episodes. The show acquired a cult following in the lesbian community. However, Xena had a number of male love interests as well, and from the first season she had an adversarial but sexually charged dynamic with Ares, the God of War, who frequently tried to win her over as his "Warrior Queen." Gabrielle herself once had a male husband, and his death deeply affected her.
In a 10-year retrospective of the show in Salon.com
, journalist Cathy Young wrote:http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/09/15/xena/index2.html
In 2000, during the airing of the fifth season, the intensity and sometimes nastiness of the "shipping wars" in the Xena fandom was chronicled (from a non-subtexter's point of view) by Australian artist Nancy Lorenz in an article titled "The Discrimination in the Xenaverse" in the online Xenaverse magazine Whoosh!http://www.whoosh.org/issue43/lorenz1.html, and also in numerous letters in response.http://whoosh.org/issue44/letter44.html
The wars did not abate after the series came to an end in 2001. With no new material from the show itself, the debates have been fueled by often contradictory statements from the cast and staff. In January 2003, Lucy Lawless
, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess
, told Lesbian News magazine that after watching the series finale (in which Gabrielle revived Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss) she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay."http://lucylawless.info/articles/lesnews03/index.html. However, in the interviews and commentaries on the DVD sets released in 2003-2005, the actors, writers and producers continued to stress the ambiguity of the relationship, and in several interviews both Lawless and Renee O'Connor
, who played Gabrielle, spoke of Ares as a principal love interest for Xena. In the interview for the Season 6 episode "Coming Home", O'Connor commented, "If there was ever going to be one man in Xena's life, it would be Ares."
In March 2005, one-time Xena screenwriter Katherine Fugate
, an outspoken supporter of the Xena/Gabrielle pairing, posted a statement on her website appealing for tolerance in the fandom:http://www.katherinefugate.com/katresponds/katherineresponds30.htm
Intimate relationship
An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
, or have romantic feelings that could potentially lead to a relationship. It is considered a general term for fans' emotional involvement with the ongoing development of romance
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
in a work of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
. Though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and is seldom used outside of that context.
Shipping can involve virtually any kind of relationship — from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable and the blatantly impossible. People involved in shipping (called shippers) variously assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, or simply that they would like it to exist.
Etymology
The activity of fans creating relationships out of some or most of the cast of characters far predates the term. Though the word "ship" evolved from "relationship", where and when it was first used to indicate involvement with fictional romance is unclear.The term for a fan of shipping also evolved: from relationshipper, R'shipper, 'shipper, and finally just shipper. These terms were already established and required no explanation when posted in alt.tv newsgroups in 1996.
Notation and terminology
"Ship" and its derivatives in this context have since then come to be in wide and versatile use. "Shipping" refers to the whole phenomenon; a "ship" is the concept of a fictional couple; to "ship" a couple means to have an affinity for it in one way or another; a "shipper" is somebody significantly involved with such an affinity, and so forth.Various naming conventions have developed in different online communities to refer to prospective couples, likely due to the ambiguity and cumbersomeness of the "Frick and Frack" format. The most widespread appears to be putting the slash character (/) between the two names ("Frick/Frack"). Other methods include
- using the letter X in place of the slash ("FrickxFrack")
- putting characters' names in CamelCaseCamelCaseCamelCase , also known as medial capitals, is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the elements are joined without spaces, with each element's initial letter capitalized within the compound and the first letter either upper or lower case—as in "LaBelle", "BackColor",...
("FrickFrack") - abbreviating both names (usually taking only the first letter of each, with additional letters used if necessary to avoid two or more couples in the same fandom sharing a name) ("Fri/Fra")
- using the initials of either the characters' first names or their full names ("FF" or "FAFB")
- forming a portmanteau from the names of the two participants (e.g., "BrangelinaBrangelinaBrangelina is a celebrity supercouple consisting of American actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Pitt has appeared in over 40 major films, including 12 Monkeys , Ocean's Eleven , and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , while Jolie has appeared in over 30 major films, including Girl, Interrupted...
", when the names of the characters are "Brad Pitt" and "Angelina Jolie"); this is common mostly within fan communities of animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
in emulation of the naming conventions for couples used in the equivalent Japanese fandoms. (e.g., IchiRuki in Bleach, or SasuNaru in Naruto). In anime/manga communities, shipping is more commonly referred to as 'pairing' or 'pairings'. - using codes for the character names that can be used in shipping. For example, in the anime/manga Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, the character names can be translated into numbers. (e.g., "Takeshi YamamotoTakeshi Yamamotois a fictional character in the Reborn! manga and anime series created by Akira Amano. Portrayed as one of the protagonist's first friends, Takeshi Yamamoto is introduced as a 14-year-old starting pitcher for his school's baseball team. After the protagonist Tsuna Sawada prevents him from...
"=80 and "Hayato GokuderaHayato Gokuderais a fictional character in the anime and manga series Reborn! created by Akira Amano. Portrayed as one of the protagonist's first friends, Hayato Gokudera is introduced as a 14-year-old bad boy born in Italy. After the protagonist Tsuna Sawada prevents him from dying due to his own explosives, he...
"=59, thus the pairing is "8059".) - using 'titles/nicknames' for pairings. For example, in the anime/manga Prince of Tennis, Shuchiro Oishi and Eiji Kikumaru play together as a doubles team for tennis and as known as the "Golden Pair" for their talent, thus they are also called the "Golden Pair" when referring to them as a pairing.
- using the template '?A?R' (the A standing for 'and', and the R standing for 'romance'), inserting the first letters of characters names filling the '?s'. This unique example comes from the Invader Zim fandom, "ZADR" for example standing for Zim and Dib Romance.
Portmanteaus are especially popular among soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
fans, who use them to describe existing couples as well as couples that they would like to see together, or that they feel should reunite. Some examples are from one of the most popular soap operas General Hospital
General Hospital
General Hospital is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns....
. Some current GH ships are: Lante (Lulu/Dante), Krithan (Kristina/Ethan), Jolivia (Johnny/Olivia), JaSam (Jason/Sam), Spixie (Spinelli/Maxie), CarJax (Carly/Jax), and Niz (Nikolas/Elizabeth)
Under the right circumstances, fandoms tend to evolve unique trends in their shipping notation. The Pokémon
Pokémon
is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
, Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
and Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh!
is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...
fandoms have specific semi-descriptive names corresponding with their ships. In Pokémon the Ash and Misty pairing is PokéShipping, and a ship consisting of Ash and May is called AdvanceShipping, while the two characters May and Drew who both participate in competitions called Contests are paired in ContestShipping. This also occurs in the Warriors fandom, an example being the Firestar and Cinderpelt pairing could become BarbequeShipping. The Harry Potter fandom has taken this a step forward and uses puns on the naval ship/fandom ship linguistic duality in the form of "HMS
Her Majesty's Ship
Her or His Majesty's Ship is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies, either formally or informally.-HMS:* In the British Royal Navy, it refers to the king or queen of the United Kingdom as appropriate at the time...
foobar". The Saiyuki fandom has a system by which each of the main characters is assigned a number corresponding with their name, and a ship could be referred to as "1X5" or "2X4" (a similar notation system is in use among Gundam Wing yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
enthusiasts).
Slash and non-conventional ships
Shipping is not limited to heterosexual (or "het") relationships. In the fan fictionFan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
community, homosexual pairings are also popular (known as "slash
Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex...
and femslash
Femslash
Femslash is a subgenre of slash fan fiction which focuses on romantic and/or sexual relationships between female fictional characters. Typically, characters featured in femslash are heterosexual in the canon universe; however, similar fan fiction about lesbian characters is commonly labeled as...
" or by their borrowed Japanese terms yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
, male homosexuality, and yuri, female homosexuality). A person who supports homosexual pairings and reads or writes slash fiction
Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex...
may be referred to as a "slasher".
The term "Slash" itself predates the use of "shipping" by at least some 20 years. It was originally coined as a term to describe Kirk/Spock
Kirk/Spock
Kirk/Spock, also commonly referred to as "K/S" and referring to James T. Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, is a pairing popular in slash fiction, possibly the first slash pairing according to Henry Jenkins. Early on, a few fan writers started speculating about the possibility of a sexual relationship...
(or "K/S"; sometimes spoken "Kirk-slash-Spock", whence "Slash") homosexual fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
. For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, both "K/S" and "Slash" were used to describe such fan fiction, regardless of whether or not they were related to Star Trek. But as homosexuality became more accepted in society, so too did the terms lose their derogatory connotation. Thus "Slash" became a universal term to describe all homosexual themed fan works.
Parallel to this development, the term "Slash" was also being used in some fandoms to denote fan fiction or other fan works depicting sexual acts with an implied rating of NC-17, whether homosexual or heterosexual. It is likely that this is the same "Slash" term born of the Star Trek fandom, but adapted to the pornographic focus that commonly dominates fanfiction and fan works in the Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
/Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
ship, as well as the ships of other homosexual couples, allowing the use of the term to spread to heterosexual ships. However, this use of the term has now become largely archaic due to the standardization of terminology by large fandom sites such as fanfiction.net.
Shipping often defies social standards and taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
s, perhaps because of internet anonymity. Some online groups support ships which constitute incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
or bestiality
Zoophilia
Zoophilia, from the Greek ζῷον and φιλία is the practice of sex between humans and non-human animals , or a preference or fixation on such practice...
. Characters of any age, even adults and children, may be paired together in romantic fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
.
Fan works
In fan fictionFan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
circles, authors often let their shipping tendencies influence their work and espouse a certain romantic pairing between two particular characters in their fiction; in fact, the pairings found within are considered such a defining factor that story summaries in fiction archives often notify the potential reader of them while neglecting other important features. The extremity of this phenomenon can be found in many fan fiction archives, where fanfiction is searchable by rating, length, genre, date, language, and "pairing". While this in part reflects an emphasis on shipping by many fan fiction authors, it is also considered a useful service to those readers who only wish to read about certain pairings (or conversely, wish to avoid reading about pairings they dislike).
To a lesser degree, this influence still exists in other fan works. Since fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
, for example, is by nature more focused on a particular scene or character(s) and allows for less flexibility in terms of theme integration, it is usually either without shipping influence at all or wholly a tribute to a certain pairing.
Daria fandom
DariaDaria
Daria is an American animated television series produced by Paramount Television, and created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn for MTV. The series focuses on Daria Morgendorffer, a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic teenage girl who observes the world around her...
fandom was marked through its entire run by shipper debate. From the series' first season, the main conflict was between people who thought that the title character, Daria Morgendorffer, should have a relationship with Trent Lane, a slacker rock-band frontman, whom Daria met through his sister, Jane. A common argument against this possible outcome was that such a development would signal a turn away from the more subversive aspects of Daria's character, and thus the show.
The show's writers responded by having Daria develop a crush on Trent, even having Daria go as far as to get a piercing because Trent encouraged her to, as well as having her get rashes on her head at the sight of Trent. Trent, however, remained involved with his off-and-on girlfriend Monique, who immediately became a target of shipper ire. The crush ended in the third season's finale, "Jane's Addition", when Daria realized that Trent could never satisfy her in the long run.
That same episode introduced Tom Sloane, a charming and intellectual son of privilege who nonetheless drove a Ford Pinto
Ford Pinto
The Ford Pinto is a subcompact car produced by the Ford Motor Company for the model years 1971–1980. The car's name derives from the Pinto horse. Initially offered as a two-door sedan, Ford offered "Runabout" hatchback and wagon models the following year, competing in the U.S. market with the AMC...
. Although Tom became Jane's boyfriend, threatening Daria and Jane's friendship in the process, Daria and Tom warmed up to each other throughout the fourth season, leading up to its finale, "Dye! Dye! My Darling," broadcast August 2, 2000. With Jane and Tom's relationship in crisis, a heated argument between Daria and Tom led up to a kiss in Tom's car. With Daria indecisive as to whether this relationship should be pursued further, Daria and Jane's friendship was in tatters for the rest of the episode. In the made-for-TV movie "Is it Fall Yet?," Daria decided to begin a relationship with Tom, and Daria and Jane patched up their friendship.
This caused an instant uproar. The shipper faction having won the initial debate (in fair part having do with other artistic decisions Daria made after Season 1 reflecting a conceptual desire towards post-modernity, such as a musical episode, "Daria!", extended dream sequences laden with 70s-80s detective show references ("Murder, She Snored"), and human representations of the major holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
s (and Guy Fawkes Day) manifesting themselves in Lawndale in "Depth Takes A Holiday"), conversation now turned to whether Tom was more appropriate than the long-dismissed Trent. The debate was satirized by the show's writers in a piece on MTV's website.
In the series finale, the made-for-TV movie, "Is It College Yet?", Daria and Tom broke up over the fact that they were going to different colleges. The debate was over, and so was the series.
In interviews done after the series' run, series co-creator Glenn Eichler
Glenn Eichler
Glenn Eichler is a comedy writer who started out as an editor for the National Lampoon magazine. From there, he moved over to work as story editor for the MTV television shows, Beavis and Butt-head and The Maxx. He was later responsible for creating and producing the television show Daria, a...
revealed that "any viewer who really thought that Daria and Trent could (have) a relationship was just not watching the show we were making," Tom came about because "going into our fourth year... I thought it was really pushing credibility for Daria to have only had one or two dates during her whole high school career," and "teaser" episodes like "Pierce Me" were "intended to provide some fun for that portion of the audience that was so invested in the romance angle. The fact that those moments were few and far between should have given some indication that the series was not about Daria's love life."
Harry Potter fandom
The Harry Potter series generated ship debates with supporters of the prospective relationship between Harry PotterHarry Potter (character)
Harry James Potter is the title character and main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard...
and his close female friend Hermione Granger
Hermione Granger
Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She initially appears in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a new student on her way to Hogwarts...
at odds with supporters of Hermione ending up instead with Ron Weasley
Ron Weasley
Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. His first appearance was in the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as the best friend of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger...
, close friend of both.
Quotes from Rowling which seemed to contradict the possibility of Harry ending up with Hermione were usually countered by claiming them to be deliberate obfuscations designed to lure astute observation off-course (though such claims were far from undisputed, given that these allegedly vague quotes included such phrases as "[Harry and Hermione] are very platonic friends"http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-pressclubtransc.htm, and were repeated on at least three different occasions).
Another alternative is of Harry ending up with Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, whose obvious crush on him served as a comical plotline starting in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, during which a series of messages on the walls on the school's corridors warn that the "Chamber of...
and apparently subsiding in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, and was published on 21 June 2003 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic in the United States, and Raincoast in Canada...
, where Hermione informs Harry that Ginny has "given up" on him.
The resolution did not come until 2005, with the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling...
. The book contained a prominent sub-plot in which Harry develops a crush on the previously-pining Ginny, convinced that he has missed his opportunity with her. In the end Ginny turns out to never have given up on Harry after all, but merely taken Hermione's advice to try to date other boys to boost her self-confidence and be more like herself around him. Though their romantic relationship becomes one of the few sources of comfort in Harry's difficult life, he makes a bold decision to break it apart for fear that Voldemort would learn of it and target Ginny. Rowling later commented that she had planned Ginny as Harry's "ideal girl" from the very beginning.
The effect of this turnout was dramatically amplified by an interview with J.K. Rowling conducted by fansite webmasters Emerson Spartz (MuggleNet
MuggleNet
MuggleNet is a Harry Potter fansite founded by Emerson Spartz. The site is composed of news, editorials and synopses of the Harry Potter books and films, an encyclopedia of the books, an IRC network, in which the fans of Harry Potter can discuss predictions and share thoughts, a discussion forum,...
) and Melissa Anelli (The Leaky Cauldron
The Leaky Cauldron (website)
The Leaky Cauldron, also called Leaky, TLC, or Leaky News, is a Harry Potter fansite and blog. The site features news, image and video galleries, downloadable widgets, a chat room and discussion forum, and an essay project called Scribbulus, among other offerings...
) shortly after the book's release. During the interview Spartz commented that Harry/Hermione shippers were "delusional", to which Rowling chuckled, though making it clear that she did not share the sentiment and that the Harry/Hermione fans were "still valued members of her readership". This incident resulted in an uproar among Harry/Hermione shippers, some of whom announced that they would return their copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth and penultimate novel in the Harry Potter series by British author J. K. Rowling...
and boycott future Harry Potter books, leveling criticism at Spartz, Anelli, and Rowling herself. Many of them complained that both sites had a Ron/Hermione bias and criticized Rowling for not including a representative of their community, as a way to avoid difficult questions. The uproar was loud enough to merit an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
.
Rowling's attitude towards the shipping phenomenon has varied between amused and bewildered to frustrated, as she revealed in that interview. She explained:http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm
In a later posting on MuggleNet, Spartz explained:http://www.mugglenet.com/newsfusion/fullnews.php?id=972
Rowling has continued to make references, less humorous and more, to the severity of the shipper conflicts. In one instance she has joked about trying to think of ways of proving to Emerson, when inviting him for the aforementioned interview, that it was really her and not "some angry Harry/Hermione shipper trying to lure him down a dark alleyway"http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=21; In another, she has described her impression of the Harry Potter fandom's shipping debates as "cyber gang warfare".http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2006/0801-radiocityreading1.html
The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in July 2007 saw an epilogue, nineteen years after the events at the focus of the series, where Harry and Ginny are married and have three kids, Lily, James, and Albus Severus, and Ron and Hermione are also married and have two, Rose and Hugo.
Xena: Warrior Princess fandom
The Xena: Warrior PrincessXena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
fandom saw often "shipping wars" that turned especially intense due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.
Shortly after the 1995 debut of the action/fantasy series about a woman warrior seeking redemption for a dark past, fans started discussing the possibility of a relationship between Xena
Xena
Xena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
and her sidekick and best friend Gabrielle
Gabrielle (Xena)
Gabrielle is a fictional character played by Renée O'Connor in Xena: Warrior Princess. She is referred to by fans as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and later, the sais...
.
Toward the end of the first season, the show's producers began to play to this perception by deliberately inserting usually humorous lesbian innuendo into some episodes. The show acquired a cult following in the lesbian community. However, Xena had a number of male love interests as well, and from the first season she had an adversarial but sexually charged dynamic with Ares, the God of War, who frequently tried to win her over as his "Warrior Queen." Gabrielle herself once had a male husband, and his death deeply affected her.
In a 10-year retrospective of the show in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
, journalist Cathy Young wrote:http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2005/09/15/xena/index2.html
In 2000, during the airing of the fifth season, the intensity and sometimes nastiness of the "shipping wars" in the Xena fandom was chronicled (from a non-subtexter's point of view) by Australian artist Nancy Lorenz in an article titled "The Discrimination in the Xenaverse" in the online Xenaverse magazine Whoosh!http://www.whoosh.org/issue43/lorenz1.html, and also in numerous letters in response.http://whoosh.org/issue44/letter44.html
The wars did not abate after the series came to an end in 2001. With no new material from the show itself, the debates have been fueled by often contradictory statements from the cast and staff. In January 2003, Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless, MNZM is a New Zealander actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the internationally successful television series Xena: Warrior Princess....
, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....
, told Lesbian News magazine that after watching the series finale (in which Gabrielle revived Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss) she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay."http://lucylawless.info/articles/lesnews03/index.html. However, in the interviews and commentaries on the DVD sets released in 2003-2005, the actors, writers and producers continued to stress the ambiguity of the relationship, and in several interviews both Lawless and Renee O'Connor
Reneé O'Connor
Renée O'Connor is an American actress, producer and director best known for playing the role of Gabrielle on the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess from 1995 to 2001.-Early career:...
, who played Gabrielle, spoke of Ares as a principal love interest for Xena. In the interview for the Season 6 episode "Coming Home", O'Connor commented, "If there was ever going to be one man in Xena's life, it would be Ares."
In March 2005, one-time Xena screenwriter Katherine Fugate
Katherine Fugate
Katherine Fugate is an American film and television writer and producer.-Biography:Fugate is the creator of the TV series, Army Wives. She graduated with a B.A. in Theatre Arts from University of California, Riverside. Fugate and her aunt, the actress Barbara Eden, are direct descendants of...
, an outspoken supporter of the Xena/Gabrielle pairing, posted a statement on her website appealing for tolerance in the fandom:http://www.katherinefugate.com/katresponds/katherineresponds30.htm
External links
- TV Tropes wiki article on Shipping
- The Shipper's Manifesto - A LiveJournal community that documents multi-fandom shipping essays.
- ShipWar - A LiveJournal community which parodies the ship debates.
- A Call to End The Shipping Wars - An essay on Mugglenet.
- Masterlist of Ship Essays - A collection of Harry Potter shipping essays.
- "Creating a Pocket Universe: 'Shippers', fan fiction and The X-Files online", essay by Christine Scodari and Jenna L. Felder on the "shipper" debate within The X-Files community during the 1990s and how fans' reading of the show differs from that of the creators
- Shippers' Paradise - A subsection of the Bulbagarden forums (Pokémon fandom), dedicated to shipping discussion.