A shipping problem with fandoms. (Shipping is okay… but I’ve noticed something)

[ComicMimic]

I have said it before in a different thread, but I think that more people should at least be aware of it.


In shipping, I’ve noticed a great problem that I’ve realized after playing a weird game…


The problem being that more Guy x Guy ships are overly sexual and completely fetishized by women. As an example, I’ll use Project Sekai. All of the guy characters that aren’t Vocaloids (Akito, Toya, Rui, and Tsukasa) are overly sexual in fanbase discussions. I’ve seen so much overly sexual Rui x Tsukasa artwork and fanfics and the fandom just... likes it? It’s always been so weird because these characters are in high school and that’s extremely weird. But then, all the other ships that are M/F or F/F are more or so tame.

 

[Kanjouhi]

I'd say this isn't really unique to M/M ships, I see a lot of F/F ships reduced to being exclusively sexual (which usually tends to alsyo involve supporting/sexualising adult/child relationships as well, in a way I don't see as much with M/M ships) by (straight) dudes too (they're more common in fandoms like Fire Emblem and other console RPGs than mobile game fandoms though) but (straight) women fetishizing M/M ships is still a lot more common to the point where I've seen people saying really homophobic shit under the guise of "being against fetishization" and accusing actual gay men of fetishizing M/M ships because they make even just vaguely suggestive content of them. It sucks :x

 

[ComicMimic]

I'd say this isn't really unique to M/M ships, I see a lot of F/F ships reduced to being exclusively sexual (which usually tends to alsyo involve supporting/sexualising adult/child relationships as well, in a way I don't see as much with M/M ships) by (straight) dudes too (they're more common in fandoms like Fire Emblem and other console RPGs than mobile game fandoms though) but (straight) women fetishizing M/M ships is still a lot more common to the point where I've seen people saying really homophobic shit under the guise of "being against fetishization" and accusing actual gay men of fetishizing M/M ships because they make even just vaguely suggestive content of them. It sucks :x

It’s really different for different fandoms lol.

But I’ve seen less of F/F ships in my experience, but maybe that’s because most of the things I like have more male characters, or just a fanbase consisting of straight women fetishizing M/M, like Genshin for example. I’ve noticed that more straight women fetishized the male characters and are very open about it, most likely giving Genshin the cover of ‘the game is bad because of the fans’.

 

[Herbizarre]

This sort of thing in general is the reason I don't go on Tumblr or some fanart sites. For some reason there are always some people thinking it'd be a good idea to draw cursed stuff without using a NSFW filter. Not just the shipping part, but even just looking up your favorite character's name can get you those types of results, and it's infuriating to say the least because I can't even appreciate the characters I like without some weird fanart popping up like some kind of jumpscare.

 

[AddyNoSketchpad]

It seems to me like fandoms like to ship everything EXCEPT legal, healthy, or straight ships (no disrespect intended on that last one)

There's more gross Bowuigi than there is Luigaisy (I CANNOT find any good Luigi fanart anymore)

 

[mastermind lissi]

I found a Luigi x Mario fanart one day and I was horrified. The art was ok, and if it was of any other normal ship I would have been ok, but Mario and Luigi??? There’s something wrong with this world.

 

[Okido]

This is... unfortunately nothing new, and an honest problem that all kinds of fanbases often fall victim to.

The way so many people tend to objectify M/M and F/F ships has resulted in all sorts of detrimental side effects in the long run — inherently problematic pairings run rampant in certain spaces, and unpleasant depictions of certain ships are sometimes unavoidable. I personally had to step back from the entire online shipping scene for a few years, because as a gay guy, I had started to feel so dehumanized and discouraged by how M/M pairings were treated; either being sensualized or bashed, seemingly never anything in between. I know plenty of sapphic women who have felt the same way about F/F pairings.
But I think it's also resulted in a lot of unfair generalizations being made about shipping culture as a whole; because even though the vast majority of us are actively against that kind of fetishization, an outside observer is often only ever going to see or hear about the unsavory side of a fanbase. When someone lumps together everyone in a particular group as being harmful, that only hurts the fans who have no part in that toxicity. It's a very valid problem to address, but there's also a very difficult nuance to acknowledge when discussing it.

However, all that being said... I wanted to give you guys a heads-up that due to the nature of this topic being primarily sexual, staff has decided to close this thread for any further replies.
There is a time and a place to talk about these issues within the shipping circles of fandom, but overall this is a subject we feel is too murky for our forums in particular. Specifically, we're concerned that this thread will only continue to bring up unhealthy, questionable, or NSFW material from other sites or fanbases. Many of the people that frequent Bulbagarden are under 18, and we want to keep the forums a safe place for all our users; that means we do not want to introduce anyone to illegal or inappropriate content here, even indirectly.

We hope you understand. If you have questions, please send them in a message over to a Shippers' Paradise moderator.
Thank you