I've said this before like multiple times but pro/anti-shipping discourse is exhausting.
Like first of all FUCK proshippers, I'd never call myself a pro-shipper because their end-all be-all is ALWAYS, WITHOUT FAIL, CHILD RAPE FANTASY. WHY. Why are they so into kids??? That's ALWAYS the main thing you see them defending!!
But at the same time I don't feel comfortable calling myself an "anti" or a "proud anti" because generally yeah, I hate proshippers and they're gross, but you see Antis on here like "You're a pedophile if you have an Ao3 account even if you don't make pedophilic content bc SOME AO3 users do (???)" or "Absolutely all content should be child-friendly or banned from the Internet completely (fuck that???)" or "absolutely all fictional portrayals have to be 100% unproblematic, as much so as IRL relationships. Any amount of conflict to drive the plot is not acceptable" or "If you are into/write about any kink, even if it is portrayed as consensual and safe, you are actually a disgusting abuser. All sex should be vanilla missionary (just kidding sex shouldn't exist at all)." Like ??
Like a lot of Antis wouldn't even tolerate that I ship Goldenheart because they have a problematic/violent backstory. I've SEEN antis who think Goldenheart is unacceptable and they lump ships like that together with ships that are literal pedophilia. Like HELLO???
So basically, where do I draw the line? I don't care if a fictional relationship is problematic as long as
1- the characters portrayed are ADULTS (and no grooming was involved before one of them was an adult)
2- the characters portrayed CONSENT to any romanticized situation.
3-I do not mind portrayals of abuse (childhood or adult) IF they are portrayed as evil, disgusting, and wrong, and NOT sexualized or romanticized for audience gratification and are not tagged inappropriately
That's it. I don't mind consensual kink, I don't care about power dynamics or age gaps between ADULTS as long as there isn't manipulation involved, I don't mind a backstory with way more conflict than the average IRL healthy relationship would have, and I don't mind stories which explore dark topics such as abuse/SA in a realistic and respectful way that isn't portrayed as "hot" or "cute" 🤮 At the same time, I think that to pretend that getting off on fictional people ESPECIALLY fictional children being abused doesn't have real world consequences is fundamentally and intentionally dishonest.
Idea for a new word. Not pro-shipping, not anti-shipping, norm-shipping. I'm a norm-shipper. I.e. a NORMAL FUCKING PERSON who is okay with fantasy stretching further than reality but also recognizes that it's not okay to wanna FUCK KIDS.
Norm-shippers unite.