But what do I know I'm just an aro shipper

[yvannairie]

Reposting some comment I made in the notest of this post about how construing all shipping is amatonormative is not very good because I feel like I'm onto something.

To wit: As things are, the word “shipping” is commonly used to mean (at least) three different things:

1. Constructing a narrative (often but not always an aspirational one) and vicariously experiencing through it what a relationship like that can be like
2. Wanting to see the characters that appeal to you have sex/receive affection/experience emotional catharsis for your gratification
3. The study and analysis of the text of a relationship, just like you’d explore the text of someone’s characterisation or the text of the plot of a story

And to be clear, when people say they “ship” something, it can be any combination of the above. (Arguably the concept of an OTP exists as shorthand for a ship where the speaker experiences it as sitting right in the middle of that triangle.)

This is what leads to the problem of critical analysis becoming impossible in a framework like this. Essentially, both cases 1 and 2 involve some kind of a value judgement – whether something works within the narrative or whether something appeals to the creator – and as such conforming to preference and principle is kind of the entire point, but analysis done in a way that is meant to conform to a preference or a principle… is poorly argued at best, and openly dishonest at worst.

If you point out erotic tension in the text between two characters, that is not actually the same as imagining or enjoying the idea of those characters having sex. If you point out emotional tension from things like miscommunication and how that colours a relationship, that is just pointing out an element of the text, and doesn’t mean the fic you wanna write will deal with that issue. But over and over, simply trying to critically examine the text is labeled as “shipping”, which… well, it does kind of make sense, because we live in a culture that considers “critique” something objective and removed and aimed to “improve” the “product” instead of a form of creative self-expression, but a lot of times it ascribes motivations to the person doing the analysis that they might not have.

As for amatonormativity... I can sort of see where people are coming with it, really? The narrative structures we’ve grown up with insist on amatonormative “love”, no analysis of text is free of cultural baggage, and frankly for a lot of alloromantic people, romance is gratifying. That being said, the criticism that shipping itself is amatonormative because it’s predicated on “needing” to put characters in monogamous pairs only applies to the first of my personal three cases, and even only then if it’s treated as an aspirational fantasy.

At every instance, the shipping can be driven by amatonormative assumptions, but to argue that therefore it inarguably is is some mind-reading bullshit my aro that obsessively analyses the interactions between everything isn’t willing to co-sign.

Comments

[stardust_rifle]

And then there's RPF shipping, which (at least for me) exists on a highly aestheticised level. You ship those two bandmembers together because you think they'd look cute kissing, or they did a photoshoot where they've got a sexy vampire look and that gets your gears turning, and it's not really about liking the "characters", it's about liking the aesthetic, moreso.


(also, like, polyshipping exists? i beg these people to justify "these nine teenagers are all living together and in a polycule" as amanormative.)

also ARO PEOPLE CAN LIKE THE IDEA OF FICTIONAL STORIES WITHOUT BEING ACCUSED OF BEING COMPLICIT IN THEIR OWN OPPRESSION THANKS AND GOOD NIGHT

+1

[hellofriendsiminthedark]

I would also bring up shipping for community/memes, although in those cases, I suppose antis would just say that the fact that there is a community means that people are reinforcing toxic behaviors in one another and promoting [whatever bad thing they're on about].

For example, in my experience, the most visible communities for m/f and f/f ships in Sherlock are... very very vocal about how much they hate all the dominant m/m ships (never mind that it's not the fandom's fault that there's only like two and a half major women in the show anyways, who don't interact???). It very much a factor that pushed me away from any of those ships, because what's the point of engaging with a ship if the people who want to create content for it and bond over it are horrible?

Likewise, there are all those really popular cross-fandom ships or ships with characters who have never interacted, which are frequently just popular because... somebody thought it would be aesthetically pleasing or had interesting meta implications, but everyone else for the most part just jumped aboard because it was amusing to meme about, like, Jack Frost and Elsa.

[sieveandsand]

(hello fellow aro shipper)
(I have nothing to contribute but I wanted to go Same Hat before I forgot)