I don't know if you're aware of this or not already but Pearl has said multiple times that she is incredibly uncomfortable with people shipping her, whether it be her real self or her characters. I know this is supposed to be "for the fans" but personally as a fan I find it kinda gross that people who are supposed to be fans will still purposefully go against boundaries that she's made clear many times over, fully knowing how uncomfortable it makes her. even if you go to the lengths to make it that much more unlikely that she'll see it, you can't guarantee that she won't see and/or hear about it.
I'm going to try to explain my thoughts as succinctly as I can because this is a mentality many people have and I feel like providing the viewpoints of the other side of this discussion is important.
I understand that it is important to respect the boundaries of CCs and to not actively make them uncomfortable. But the thing about boundaries is that it only applies in spaces where we are interacting with the CCs.
Boundaries are set to avoid CCs from coming into contact with uncomfortable situations in their personal spaces where they are interacting with their community. It's there to make sure their environment is comfortable for them.
I haven't mentioned this blog to cc Pearl in any way, shape or form. I haven't entered into her personal spaces to inform her about this bracket, or the fact that people ship her or anything to do with shipping, thus I have abided by her boundaries. Respecting Pearl's boundaries is not mentioning anything about this to her and not invading her spaces.
If you believe that abiding by her boundaries is by not making any of this then I disagree. Because fandom isn't her space. Fandom is a place for the fans. It's in the name, fan-domain. This is a place where fans exist and interact with each other and discuss things related to the creator but it's not for the creator. This isn't a place created for the CCs and the CCs aren't obligated to enter fandom spaces. If they are engaging in fandom spaces it's because they chose to and thus they need to understand that fandom doesn't operate on their rules, because fandom is a shared space and so they don't operate on any rules! Everyone enjoys content differently and it's not up to us to tell other people what's the right and wrong way to enjoy something. Fans shouldn't be expected or forced to make and share things based on what a small handful of people feel comfortable with because in that way it's them invading our personal space.
For example, a person shouldn't be forced to use an ingredient only in the way the manufacturer intended nor should be forced to listen to what a chef thinks is the right way to use it. If they like putting cheetos on a cupcake then they should be allowed to do that, sure some people would find it weird and the creator of cheetos wouldn't have intended it to be used that way but if they enjoy it then they enjoy it and if they post it on their socials saying how much they like it then they should be allowed to do that!
@/codgod's diagram is a good way to visualise this
Pearl does have a Tumblr that she is active on so as a way to prevent Pearl from finding this I don't use Pearl's maintags for any of the shipping content (polls, propaganda or prizes) which is her main tag that she actively looks through, instead I use alternate side tags which allow people to find stuff related to Pearl while not being seen by her, thus I am not invading her space (I don't just do this with Pearl, if a cc is actively on Tumblr I make sure to only use their side tags). The event is also over which further reduces the chance of her finding it, and if she does find it, she can block this blog.
Blocking this blog will allow Pearl to not have to see any of the content here thus making her space comfortable again, she has every right to block me and shouldn't feel the need to tolerate seeing this blog on her dash. The same applies to you, if you don't like what's on this blog or my response you are more than welcome to block me, you shouldn't force yourself to interact with me if you don't like the space here.
This is also a really good post about this topic
This response isn't me justifying shipping, or me trying to persuade you to agree with me, it's just me showing my personal opinion on this topic. Honestly I expected an ask like this to come at some point and I don't blame you for not understanding why people continue to ship mcyt characters. I actually used to not like mcytshipping too back in the day, but I learned more about the community and realised shipping exists because of love for a CCs content. We see the stories they make and the interactions the characters have with each other and expand upon them. We get curious about what would happen if the characters developed feelings for each other, how would that affect the story, how well do their personalities balance each other, would their relationship be better if they were put in a separate context.
Creating new stories and new dynamics for these characters, and expanding them in ways the original media didn't isn't gross, it's beautiful.
At least that's what I think
