Reversible
| Synonyms: | Reversible, リバーシブル, りばーしぶる, Reversi, リバシ, Reverse, リバ, rebashi, riba, Reverse Handling, 逆取り扱い, gyaku toriatsukai |
| See also: | Seme (Attacker), Uke (Receiver) |
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Reversible (リバーシブル)「りばーしぶる」, also known as Reversi (リバシ) or Reverse (リバ) is a term used by Japanese-speaking media fandom to indicate that a coupling "switches," either in a sexual sense or in the sense of having no set dominant partner. The opposing term is usually "fixed", meaning that ship has a dominant and submissive partner. The term translates into English from Japanese directly as rebashi or riba (from reversi and reverse respectively.) The phrase Reverse Handling (逆取り扱い) may also be used in older sources, and it translates into English directly as gyaku toriatsukai.
In Japanese and other Southeast Asian fandom spaces, tagging in the proper order (e.g., SasuNaru or NaruSasu,) is considered extremely important etiquette. Many people will put a short statement in their profile or bio about whether or not they accept switching, and may go as far as blocking other users who post a version of the ship they don't like. Fans who accept switching will usually indicate this by putting the ship name in their bio as AxBxA, or something along the lines of "リバOK" or "リバ👍". Fans who only like their coupling one way may treat fanworks of the other as a landmine and block to lessen confrontations and discourse.
Although reversibles are most seen with Boys' Love couplings, this is sometimes seen with Yuri and NL ones as well. The sense of "reversible" doesn't necessarily extend to each individual fanwork; an artist may have AxBxA in their bio but still choose to tag individual pieces as AxB or BxA.