Shipping

As a result of becoming a member of tumblr I have become aware that there are some pretty hardcore fans out there... Far more so than I ever will be. But it's also made me aware of a strange, (from my point of view) fandom phenomena known as "fan-shipping" or simply "shipping".

In all honesty, I don't mind "shipping". The craze that seems to have gripped all girls that are involved in a fandom (regardless of what fandom that is) does bug me a little but, you know, horses for courses. If you enjoy taking to characters from a show/ fandom that are totally non-romantic; have no connection greater than acquaintance/ friend then fine. Go have fun. It's weird and a bit creepy to me, but you know, each to his own. I do find that the idea of shipping real life people as opposed to characters very weird, in fact. It's one thing to invent fictitious romace/ relationship situations for fictional characters, but doing the same for people that are, aside from their celebrity status, normal and real is something else.

But what I really hate is when people ship everyone with everyone else. To the people that do this, if a character is in a fandom then they can and WILL be shipped with another character, or maybe even every other character. It's too much, it takes it too far. It just doesn't need to be done, and it gets very old very quickly. Another issue I have is the way a lot of fangirls are make up a new ship and it's suddenly their "OTP"; their one true pairing. The hint there is in the name; ONE true pairing. The pairing you ship most. How can ever pairing you come up with be your one true pairing? It's really ridiculous.

Last annoyance, I promise. It relates to the shipping of irl people that I mentioned earlier. Now, this is nowhere more prominent than in the phenomena known as "belldom". This is the fictitious shipping of Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard from the band Muse, in case you don't know. When I first became aware of it it didn't really cross my mind with more than a casual, mental pfft. But now It really winds me up because it's so over the top and over done, aside from the bias I have against pairings of real life people. If you wanna write some random fanfics, that's fine. But I read one slash fiction once and it was honestly the most horrendously pornographic piece of scarring trash I've ever set eyes on. And it was apparently a milder fic.
Back to my main point; the thing that I really hate is when a picture of two real life people who are the subject of a popular emerges. In this picture the subjects are sitting reasonably close together, but there is still a reasonably large chunk of air between them. But the fangirls feast on this; the cry goes out "OMG, ~insert name of pairing~ IS REAL." No, it is not real. It will never be real. You are delusional.

I have no problem with people making up their own relationship scenarios within a fandom. I'm a fan of fanfic and if someone wants to write about the potential that a relationship between two un-paired characters then fine, go for it. I'd personally find it more enjoyable to write about and develop the characters and relationship of a pre-existing couple from my point of view. But I think that it can, and often is, taken way too far.

Till next I type, K.B.O.