"It Makes Me, a Minor, Uncomfortable": Media and Morality in Anti-Shippers' Policing of Online Fandom

Academic Commentary
Title:	"It Makes Me, a Minor, Uncomfortable": Media and Morality in Anti-Shippers' Policing of Online Fandom
Commentator:	Victor Larsen
Date(s):	2021
Medium:	thesis
Fandom:	pan-fandom
External Links:	Full text at the Ghent University Library
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"It Makes Me, a Minor, Uncomfortable": Media and Morality in Anti-Shippers' Policing of Online Fandom is a Master's thesis written by Victor Larsen, who holds a masters in Linguistics and Literature: English - Scandinavian, of Ghent University in Belgium. It analyses how language is used in anti-shipper posts and discourse to present a particular narrative about themselves and others. In addition to analyzing 500 posts on Tumblr between the years of 2015-2020, Larsen also draws on his own experiences in fandom to frame the findings and literature. The thesis places a large focus on Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016), but covers other fandoms and ships briefly.

Abstract

Anti-shipping refers to opposing a ship of two fictional characters on a moral basis. While the concept has been around for decades in fandom, the release of Voltron: Legendary Defender (2016) marked a significant shift in how people viewed shipping. The fandom was infamous for two reasons: the diverse fans, who were mostly women and/or queer people, and relentless campaign of harassment and cyber-aggression targeting anyone who disagreed with anti-shippers, including cast and crew of the show. My research shows that anti-shippers use language in many ways to gain support for their preferred ship while demonising fans of the rival pairing, often with the goals of turning non-fans against them as well. They garner support by framing themselves as a vulnerable minority and falsely alleging that other shippers are paedophiles and incest supporters. Their language use is marked by violence, humour, and deceptive framings of shippers and ships. This leads to a community where critically thinking about media is discouraged in favour of following groupthink. The cyber-aggressing of anti-shippers is also unique in that it not only targets individuals but also online fandom spaces, making them so hostile to other shippers as to drive them away.

Victor Larsen, 2021

Topics Covered

• Klance vs Sheith
• Social Justice and Fandom
• Harassment in online spaces
• Minors in Fandom
• Fiction vs. Reality Discussion

Initial fannish attention and spread

A screenshots from the paper, as well as a link to the thesis was first posted by proshipper Tumblr user pohjanneito on October 21, 2022.

About to make myself a cup of tea and read a whole master thesis on the culture of anti-shipping in fandom spaces 🫖🧐👀

pohjanneito

The post gained over 8,500 notes in only a few weeks.

Reactions

Reactions in the comments of the post varied widely. Certain users expressed being fascinated with the topic and how anti communities function. Others were confused why someone would write an academic thesis on shipping and fandom at all, suggesting that they felt sorry for the professors needing to grade it. Much of the discussion, however, was dominated by arguments on both sides of whether writing and/or reading underage ships equated to pedophilia and grooming of potential victims. Some users complained about the difficulty of filtering out certain content (i.e. incest) and having to learn specific ship tags to avoid it.

Comments

The below comments are quoted from the replies section of the Tumblr post shared by pohjanneito.

I don't think people should have to learn the gross specific tags of these incest ships everytime they encounter a new piece of media just to filter out their Fandom experience.

punkartwastaken

they allow people to write on their MASTER THESIS with that type of writing???? like using " these" in their main points of the summary? I'd love to read the Bibliography of this more than the text itself

minarosario

[wildfire317]
I cant help but wonder if the people who actually do this sort of stuff realize how annoying they are. like if you dont like a ship fine but dont make it so that those who do are demonized by everyone else (with the exceptions of actual pedophilia and one character being abusive to another duh)

[arslanjae]
@wildfire317 no, there are no exceptions when it comes to fictional stories especially if they're as limited in reach as fanworks. The paper also states how anti shippers use pedophilia accusations to appeal to emotion and to shut down any opposition in their ship wars