The Squick Factor: WinterPrincess
written by @robinwritesallthethings
You’ve probably heard it before. Squick. As in “that squicks me out”, or “that’s squicky”. What does it mean? Well, squick is a term that’s used in fandom to describe something that grosses you out or makes you cringe. In this feature, we’ll dissect all of the things fandoms find potentially squicky and look at them from all of their best and worst angles.
This month, we’ll be talking about a ship that has rubbed some Marvel fans the wrong way. That ship is WinterPrincess, the combined moniker used to describe the ship of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, and Shuri, the princess of Wakanda. The main reason that some Marvel fans are squicked out by this ship seems to be because of the age difference between Bucky and Shuri. Bucky was born in 1917, which technically makes him over a hundred years old. Shuri’s exact year of birth is unknown, but actress Letitia Wright, who portrays her in the MCU, has confirmed that the character was eighteen years old when she made her first appearance in Black Panther.
This opens up a larger discussion about age gap pairings in fandoms. They’re not unusual, to be sure. Sometimes they’re canon, sometimes they’re fanon, and sometimes they feature original or reader characters. Either way, the reason this trope recurs so often in fandom is because it’s popular. Society tends to frown on very large age gaps, such as when one member of the pair is old enough to be the other’s parent. That makes ships of this nature feel potentially forbidden and scandalous, which can add a layer of intrigue to a story.
On the flip side, though, being desired by someone much older or younger is also often seen as social currency, meaning that it gives status if someone more attractive or more established, and therefore able to choose from a large dating pool, would choose...
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