Comship
| Synonyms: | comshipper |
| See also: | Anti-shipper, Pro-shipper, Don't Like Don't Read, Ship and Let Ship, Shipping, Darkship |
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Comship is a fannish term that was coined as an alternative to the existing term proship. Comship is short for "complicated ship" or "complex ship". According to Urban Dictionary, the comship label is used by "those who have complicated feelings" about shipping discourse.[1] Opinion is divided on whether "comship" and "proship" have the same meaning (or what either term means).
Some fans claim the distinction is that proshippers support the right of fans to ship whatever they like, including problematic ships, whereas comshippers are the ones who actually ship the problematic ships.[2] However, others claim there is no difference at all--comshippers don't necessarily ship "complex" pairings but support the right of others to do so. Both groups are opposed to harassment.
The rumor is that the term was invented by a former antishipper who was being harassed.[3][4][5]
The term may have been coined in 2021. A twitter account called comshippy was created in August 2021 along with an informational carrd, all about comship!, that states it is written by a former anti.
The term is lesser known than proship, and internet searches turn up mostly people asking what it means. It may have achieved visibility in more fandom circles due to a February 2023 essay written by a Japanese fanartist advising other Japanese fanartists to block antishippers; the essay mentioned that antishippers could be identified by the presence of "proshippers DNI" on their social media profiles, and other fans reported that antishippers were responding to the essay by updating their profiles to "comshippers DNI" to avoid being blocked.[6]
Links with definitions
- Comship Carrd: "comship is, in essence, proship rebranded, as well as more unknown/stealth, giving comshippers more ease of mind."
- Comshipping Crd: "Proship is the same as comship in terms of ideals, but aren't typically used to mean a complex or taboo ships or the act of shipping taboo ships."
- What's a comshipper? at reddit: Antis invented the term 'comshipping' meaning 'complicated shipping' to say "I enjoy dark fiction, but I understand it's bad irl ! I don't NORMALIZE it, unlike the proshippers" (Note: not the only response)
- Make Pro/Comshipping unlawful at change.org: "proshipping is the act of not caring whether or not a fictional pairing of 2 or more characters is legal or not" (Despite the title, does not define comshipping as different from proship)
- My opinon on proshipping and comshipping: "comshipping are people who indulge ships are just what they sound like, problematic ships usually these ships have content such as pedophilia (minor x adult) incest (family member x family member) and abusive ships (abused x abuser). While proshipping means you indulge in (fetishized if I must state) media."
- Proshipping: What is it? (Or did you mean ComShipping?): "A ComShipper is someone who enjoys more complicated or complex ships. These can include "dead dove" content, morally gray, problematic, socially unacceptable, abusive, or toxic dynamics. Comshippers do not endorse these things in the real world, but enjoy them in fiction."
References
- ^ Urban Dictionary: Comship (Accessed 27 February 2023.
- ^ ask answered by blackheart-biohazards, Archived version, 25 February 2023.
- ^ Someone on T.iktok tried to tell me that c.omship is different than p.roship and the only difference is that the term "c.omship" was coined by a former anti so they wouldn't be harrassed for being p.roship 😭😭😭😭, Archived version, tweet by jonsteddie, Oct 14, 2022.
- ^ antis with "problematic ships" literally made up comship so they wouldn't be bullied by their friends and this is where it got them, Archived version, tweet by leonyxxy, 25 February 2023.
- ^ Comshipping is just proshipping with a different name because people got upset they were getting called out on being pedophiles 💀, Archived version, Nov 2, 2021.
- ^ Hello. From what I'm seeing, comship is just another label for proship and some people are using it because Japanese fandom is spreading the word to insta-block anyone with "Proship DNI" in their profile and they don't want to lose access to the pretty art they claim to hate., Archived version, tweet by avidbeader, Feb 25, 2023.