“can’t two girls/women just be friends anymore?”
yes, they can. of course they can. there are so many female friendships in media, which are greatly appreciated by so many people. same for male friendships. two people of course can just be friends.
i do understand to a certain extent why this becomes a talking point when people ship two characters romantically who aren’t a canon couple/are friends. however, i rarely ever see this question when it’s regarding male/female friendships. don’t get me wrong, i’m sure there’s people who do feel this way about it, this is just based on what i’ve seen.
if you see a queer ship headcanon, and your first thought is “can’t two people just be friends anymore?” ask yourself, ‘would i feel this way if these characters weren’t the same gender?’
if the only reason you express annoyance towards shipping culture is because of people ‘making it gay’ or ‘not letting people just be friends’, then it’s disguised homophobia.
if the only reason you immediately dislike a ship is because the characters are the same gender, then it’s disguised homophobia.
as i said, i understand it to a certain extent - sometimes characters just don’t go well together (this is based on my opinion. you’re free to ship who you want). however, if you’re actively ignoring the chemistry two characters share purely because they’re the same gender, then act as if people are “delusional” for seeing things that are so blatantly obvious, and the majority of the fanbase see it, then you need to sit with the discomfort that you’re feeling and work out why this bothers you so much.
because yes, two people of course can just be friends, but you don’t get to invalidate queer coding and queer yearning because of your own discomfort. gay people DO exist, and invalidating genuine queer representation because you don’t want to see it, is so wrong.
love is so special, and it should stay special regardless of who the characters are.
queer people don’t make things gay if the characters are written that way. you can ignore it and spew hatred towards our communities, try to discourage us and then kick us when we’re down, but we’re not gonna let you try and take away the very little representation/relatability we have.
if a character/tv show/movie gets ruined for you purely based on queer ships/characters (canon or not), then that’s a you problem. it’s fine to want two characters to stay friends, but if that’s only a rule for queer characters - you don’t care about friendships, you just don’t like queer characters/relationships.
don’t get me wrong, if you have a genuine reason for not shipping two characters, then that’s not what i’m talking about. what i’m talking about is the people who actively dislike a ship purely because it’s queer. even if there’s undeniable chemistry, they won’t even give it a chance because it’s queer.
if you don’t like a ship for whatever reason, or don’t ship them, then that’s okay. but telling people they can’t ship it is like me telling you that you can’t eat a donut because i’m on a diet.
