Anti- and Pro-ship Spectrum
I get so ungodly tired of having to explain to people what I mean when I say I'm pro-fic/pro-ship, while at the same time having to hold my head in embarrassment at the people genuinely acting like jackasses while wearing the same label as me. Everyone is different and I've seen many different levels of both "pro-ship" and "anti-ship".
So here's my attempt at better identification for us, inspired by THIS tier list that focuses a little more on the ways people enjoy dark/taboo media rather than the beliefs about fiction that shape the discourse around it.
First, optional descriptions of mainstream and niche media for clarity:
Mainstream: Media published to a broad, wide audience through an actual company or team, giving it somewhat of a position as "standard" media and a MUCH bigger influence than niche media.
Niche: Media with an inherently limited reach by virtue of only being posted to one or several social media websites, created by one or few people and only really made for fun at the end of the day.
Obviously niche works have the potential to gain enough of an influence to earn more scrutiny, but generally in discourse, I tend to mostly see anti-shippers target singular fan works or artists with only a few hundred followers, rather than an indie product that got much bigger like Undertale.
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Now then, I broke the spectrum into 3 tiers each, with 1 being the most nuanced and 3 being the most extreme.
I tried to word them all in a neutral/unbiased way (except for the joke one at the end ofc), so that even people who don't align with me will actually find the descriptions useful.
Tier 3 Pro-shipper: A free-speech absolutist, seeing no difference in harm between propaganda and earnest art, or between RPF and purely fictional work. The true embodiment of "fiction has no effect on reality", with the belief that even the worst, most demonstrably harmful art should never be shunned or censored, and that anyone who was influenced by media to commit horrible acts was just mentally unstable to begin with.
Tier 2 Pro-shipper: Sees a clear distinction between Invasive Fiction (propaganda and some/all RPF) and Everything Else, but doesn't bother distinguishing between mainstream and niche fiction. Takes most criticism of media as someone "whining" or "trying to cancel" a piece of fiction, and thus tends to mock critics or call them "antis".
Tier 1 Pro-shipper: Believes that criticizing mainstream media is important because it has a far reach and the potential to influence reality if unchecked, but fan artists only reach a tiny fraction of that. Doesn't see fanwork as immune from criticism, but merely as the least of anyone's worries, whereas mainstream work can be potentially harmful if uncritically slurped up by everyone despite botching morals (for example, homophobic implications or a badly-done abuser redemption).
Tier 1 Anti-shipper: Doesn't make immediate harsh judgements based on kinks or ships, but still believes that those with certain fictional interests must be mentally unwell and should make efforts to change, because if they were healthy, they wouldn't have such interests, and thus wouldn't feel the need to create more harmful content.
Tier 2 Anti-shipper: Sees the value in using dark fiction to cope with trauma or to explore serious topics in a mature way, but the moment it becomes arousing for the writer/reader, they are deemed a terrible person, and the content is deemed nothing but fetish work that shouldn't exist.
Tier 3 Anti-shipper: FULLY believes that people's kinks, ships, and other fictional interests directly reveal their beliefs and motivations in real life. And even if some enjoyers of problematic media aren't literal pedophiles/abusers, they are still causing inexcusable harm by sharing their content, and they should be stopped by ANY means necessary.
Tier 3.5 (Extra) Anti-shipper: Same as Tier 3, but also "It'S bAdD tO SeXuaLiZlzE mInOR CHaRacTrs EVEN IF yOu'rE a mINoR! durrrr" -_-
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BONUS! Bullshit that often gets lumped in with Fiction Discourse and really shouldn't be:
Beyond Pro-shipping: Debates about the morality of irl incest or attraction to real minors does not belong under the "pro-ship"/"pro-fiction" umbrella because those things have nothing to do with fiction. Please do not identify these discussions under these labels.
Groomers: are Groomers. Nothing about the ship war affects that. Anyone can be a predator—anti or proship, left or right, religious or not, etc. This is irrelevant to what "side" of any debate you're on.
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Please remember that everyone is an individual and I don't want to try and shove people into boxes that don't fit them. I don't want this to become a substitute for discussion, but I just felt that the terms "pro-ship" and "anti-ship" were far too broad considering that you have "person that merely thinks we should be critical of what we consume" and "mouth-frothing puritan that harasses people over their fan art" under the same label, and now perhaps those of us on either side of the discourse that are reasonable and willing to trade perspectives can more easily wave our hands and say, "Wait! False alarm! I'm not the type of pro/anti you're thinking of, please don't shoot me on sight!" x'D
