Shipping (fandom)

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Shipping, derived from the word "relationship", is a general term for fans' emotional and/or intellectual involvement with the ongoing development of romance in a work of fiction. Though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet, and is seldom used outside of that context.

Shipping can involve virtually any kind of relationship — from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable and the blatantly impossible. People involved in shipping (or shippers) assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, or simply that they would like it to exist.

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[edit] Etymology

The activity of fans creating relationships out of some or most of the cast of characters far predates the term. Though "ship" is undoubtedly a derivative of the word "relationship", where and when it was first used to indicate involvement with fictional romance is unclear. But the archives of the newsgroup "X-files" does show the word "shipper" was already in established use among fans of "The X-Files" as early as May of 1996.[1]

[edit] Notation and terminology

"Ship" and its derivatives in this context have since then come to be in wide and versatile use. "Shipping" refers to the whole phenomenon; a "ship" is the concept of a fictional couple; to "ship" a couple means to have an affinity for it in one way or another; a "shipper" is somebody significantly involved with such an affinity, "shippy" refers to the romantic quality of a certain work, and so forth. Anime that have strongly implied shipping possibilities tend to be more popular than anime without them, and often there are different types of romance that boosts shippings. (For example, Love triangles or Love-hate relationships.)

Various naming conventions have developed in different online communities to refer to prospective couples, probably due to the ambiguity and cumbersomeness of the "Frick and Frack" format. The most widespread appears to be putting the slash character (/) between the two names ("Frick/Frack"). Other methods include

  • using the letter X in place of the slash ("FrickxFrack")
  • putting characters' names in CamelCase ("FrickFrack")
  • abbreviating both names (usually taking only the first letter of each, with additional letters used if necessary to avoid two or more couples in the same fandom sharing a name) ("Fri/Fra")
  • using the initials of either the characters' first names or their full names ("FF" or "FAFB")
  • forming a portmanteau from the names of the two participants (e.g., "FooBar", when the names of the characters are "Foolhardy" and "Barbecue"); this is common mostly within fan communities of anime in emulation of the naming conventions for couples used in the equivalent Japanese fandoms, such as Zutara (Zuko/Katara), Tokka (Toph/Sokka) and Kataang (Katara/Aang) from the anime-inspired cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. In anime/manga communities, shipping is more commonly referred to as 'pairing' or 'pairings.' Another example is the 'Sparrabeth' shipping in Pirates of the Carribbean, made up from Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth.
  • forming a portmanteau from the name[s] of the participants and the type of relationship in which they are engaging (e.g., "Wincest," referring to the incestuous pairing of the Winchester brothers Dean and Sam from the show Supernatural (TV series))
  • these portmanteaus are also used when the names of people involved in a pairing have the same letter. (eg: Larxel. A portmanteau of "Larxene" and "Axel", two characters in Kingdom Hearts fandom.)

Portmanteaus are especially popular among soap opera fans, who use them to describe existing couples, as well as couples that they would like to see together, or that they feel should reunite. As an example, the letters columns in the magazine Soap Opera Weekly used the following portmanteaus over the course of a month (October 2007): "Jefeva" (Jeffrey/Reva, Guiding Light), "Lusty" (Lucy/Dusty, As the World Turns), "Zendall" (Zach/Kendall, All My Children), "Nuke" (Noah/Luke, As the World Turns) and "Liason" (Jason/Elizabeth, General Hospital). [2]

Under the right circumstances, fandoms tend to evolve unique trends in their shipping notation. The Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! (Examples: Azureshipping (Seto Kaiba x Anzu Mazaki), Prideshipping (Seto x Yami), Puppyshipping (Seto Kaiba x Katsuya Jounouchi), Puzzleshipping (Yami x Yuugi), Tendershipping (Yami no Bakura x Ryou Bakura), Thiefshipping (Yami no Bakura x Malik Ishtar), Trustshipping (Seto Kaiba x Isis Ishtar), Euroshipping (Seto Kaiba x Ryou Bakura), Advanceshipping (Ash x May), Contestshipping (May x Drew), etc.) fandoms have specific semi-descriptive names corresponding with their ships.

The Saiyuki fandom has a system by which each of the main characters is assigned a number corresponding with their name (San from Sanzo means 3 in Japanese. Go from Gojyo is 5. Hakkai is similar to Hachi, 8. And since Go is already taken, Ku from Goku (Saiyuki) is 9) and a ship could be referred to as "3X9" or "5X8", or "38" or "59", for example. A similar notation system is in use among Gundam Wing yaoi enthusiasts and when shipping members of Organization XIII from the Kingdom Hearts series of video games.

[edit] Non-conventional ships

Though they certainly tend to be the most commonly encountered, heterosexual relationships are not the be-all and end-all of shipping. The most prominent example of this is the wide support of homosexual relationships (also known as "slash" or the borrowed Japanese terms yaoi, male homosexuality, and Yuri, female homosexuality), with stories of male homosexuality, thanks to their large female fanbase, being by far the most prominent. There are even online groups affiliated with romance that is considered taboo by many, such as incest. In some cases there are even triads involving three people who love each other.

The term "Slash" itself predates the use of "shipping" by at least some 20 years. It was originally coined as a term to describe Kirk/Spock (or "K/S"; sometimes spoken "Kirk-slash-Spock", whence "Slash") homosexual fan fiction, which has been a mainstay of a segment of Star Trek fandom since the early 1970s. For a time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, both "K/S" and "Slash" were used to describe such fan fiction, regardless of whether or not they were related to Star Trek. But as homosexuality became more accepted in society, so too did the terms lose their derogatory connotation. "K/S" eventually fell out of use altogether, but "Slash" became a universal term to describe all homosexual themed fan works.

Parallel to this development, the term "Slash" was also being used in some fandoms to denote fan fiction or other fan works depicting sexual acts with an implied rating of NC-17, whether homosexual or heterosexual. It is likely that this is the same "Slash" term born of the Star Trek fandom, but adapted to the pornographic focus that commonly dominates fanfiction and fan works in the Kirk/Spock ship, as well as the ships of other homosexual couples, allowing the use of the term to spread to heterosexual ships. However, this use of the term has now become largely archaic due to the standardization of terminology by large fandom sites such as fanfiction.net.

Another usage of the term "Slash" is with the prefix "fem-", a shortened version of "female": hence, "femslash". This is used commonly to describe a female/female relationship within fandom.

[edit] Fan works

In fan fiction circles, authors often let their shipping tendencies influence their work and espouse a certain romantic pairing between two particular characters in their fiction; in fact, the pairings found within are considered such a defining factor that story summaries in fiction archives often notify the potential reader of them while neglecting other important features. The extremity of this phenomenon can be found in certain sections of the fanfiction archive fanfiction.net, and many other fan fiction archives, where fanfiction is searchable by rating, length, genre, date, language, and "pairing". While this in part reflects an emphasis on shipping by many fan fiction authors, it is also considered a useful service to those readers who only wish to read about certain pairings (or conversely, wish to avoid reading about pairings they dislike).

To a lesser degree, this influence still exists in other fan works. Since fan art, for example, is by nature more focused on a particular scene or character(s) and allows for less flexibility in terms of theme integration, it is usually either without shipping influence at all or wholly a tribute to a certain pairing.

[edit] Example cases of shipping-conflicted fandoms

[edit] Xena: Warrior Princess fandom

The Xena: Warrior Princess fandom saw often nasty "shipping wars" that turned especially intense due to spillover from real-life debates about same-sex sexuality and gay rights.

Shortly after the 1995 debut of the action/fantasy series about a woman warrior seeking redemption for a dark past, fans started discussing the possibility of a relationship between Xena and her sidekick and best friend Gabrielle. Toward the end of the first season, the show's producers began to play to this perception by deliberately inserting usually humorous lesbian innuendo into some episodes. The show acquired a cult following in the lesbian community. However, Xena had a number of male love interests as well, and from the first season she had an adversarial but sexually charged dynamic with Ares, the God of War, who frequently tried to win her over as his "Warrior Queen."

In a 10-year retrospective of the show in Salon.com, journalist Cathy Young wrote:[1]

“ Almost from the start, the fandom was bitterly divided among various factions, particularly subtext fans pitted against those who saw Xena and Gabrielle as friends. Fandom wars over relationships are nothing new: "X-Files" fans clashed vehemently over whether Mulder and Scully should do the deed. In the "Xena" fandom, though, these wars had the added angle of sexual politics. Some of the anti-subtext sentiment was undoubtedly driven by bona fide bigotry. Some lesbian fans, on the other hand, approached the argument as a real-life gay rights struggle and labeled all dissent as homophobic: To them, denying a sexual relationship between Xena and Gabrielle was tantamount to denying the reality of their own lives, and the "Are they or aren't they" tease was an insulting way to keep the characters in the closet.

In a way, knowing that the staff paid attention to fan opinions may have made matters worse: There was an incentive for the rival groups to out-shout one another to make themselves heard. Many fans who had no appetite for these wars fled the online fandom. Story lines that were seen as betraying the subtext, particularly the Xena-Ares relationship in the fifth season, were met with intense hostility from a small but vocal group; at other times, non-subtext fans grumbled about what they saw as pandering to the pro-subtext fan base (such as several sixth-season episodes emphasizing Xena and Gabrielle's transcendent bond as soul mates).

 ”

In 2000, during the airing of the controversial fifth season, the intensity and sometimes nastiness of the "shipping wars" in the Xena fandom was chronicled (from a non-subtexter's point of view) by Australian artist Nancy Lorenz in an article titled "The Discrimination in the Xenaverse" in the online Xenaverse magazine Whoosh![2], and also in numerous letters in response.[3]

The wars did not abate after the series came to an end in 2001. With no new material from the show itself, the debates have been fueled by often contradictory statements from the cast and staff. In January 2003, Lucy Lawless, the star of Xena: Warrior Princess, told Lesbian News magazine that after watching the series finale (in which Gabrielle revived Xena with a mouth-to-mouth water transfer filmed to look like a full kiss) she had come to believe that Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was "definitely gay."[4]. However, in the interviews and commentaries on the DVD sets released in 2003-2005, the actors, writers and producers continued to stress the ambiguity of the relationship, and in several interviews both Lawless and Renee O'Connor, who played Gabrielle, spoke of Ares as a principal love interest for Xena. In the interview for the Season 6 episode "Coming Home", O'Connor commented, "If there was ever going to be one man in Xena's life, it would be Ares."

In March 2005, one-time Xena screenwriter Katherine Fugate, an outspoken supporter of the Xena/Gabrielle pairing, posted a statement on her website appealing for tolerance in the fandom:[5]

“ The show existed as it did, when it did. And it enabled many to be empowered on many levels, for many walks of life. So if one definition doesn't work for you, then discard it. If it does, hold it gently. But please, allow everyone the grace to take what they need from the show and make it theirs. Let them have what moved them -- be it that Xena was in love with Gabrielle or Xena was in love with Ares. Please stop the arguing and name calling and need to be right, because in the end, the show worked, it healed, it changed lives, it created new friendships, new loves and new thought, and it was bloody fantastic. And that's what matters. That it simply lived. ”



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