Shipping on Wattpad vs. AO3 and FFN
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Shipping on Wattpad vs. AO3 and FFN |
| Creator: | toastystats |
| Date(s): | May 5, 2019 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | meta |
| Topic: | fanfiction |
| External Links: | tumblr, Ao3 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Shipping on Wattpad vs. AO3 and FFN is a statistical analysis of fanworks posted on Wattpad, AO3 and FFN,
Summary
"I've long wondered how the proportion of shipping in different categories (F/M, M/M, F/F, etc) compares on Wattpad, Fanfiction.net (FFN), and Archive of Our Own (AO3). There have been a number of past analyses of shipping on AO3, where gathering stats is easy. Recently, Franzeska did a study investigating shipping categories on FFN. I decided to gather similar shipping data for Wattpad, and ended up analyzing 683 fanworks (and 2000 Wattpad works overall), with the help of a small army of fantastic volunteers. :) See acknowledgements at the end."
Comments
F/F Reaction
The analysis gained a reaction from femslash fandom when the lead graph was shared outside of toastystats original post. The main gist of the reaction was on how little F/F fanworks there are on each platform compared to M/M and F/M ones.
On twitter VRlSREZl first reposted the graph on May 24th, gaining 1k+ retweets and 2.5K+ likes.
"look at this..... https://archiveofourown.org/works/18721183 fascinating but also (sobs in lesbian)AO3 IS PRETTY BAD FOR F/F BUT ITS THE BEST WE HAVE
damn this exploded... anyway, please make sure to check that ao3 link and support the OP! also read homestuck, we have canonical wlw that get married and dont die. also the most well developed female characters literally ever. we stan media that doesnt queerbait and also is good
also stop making fucking excuses and support your fandom’s f/f writers. i dont want to fucking hear it lol
also if you’re making this into a an issue of fetishization you’re barking far up the wrong tree. writing about people in a group that you’re not in? ISN’T INHERENTLY FETISHIZATION YOU LUNATICS? what universe are you living in...also again. i dont want to hear your excuses." [1]
- "this is actually hysterical because it makes so much sense...gay stuff seemed disproportionately attacked on FF during the porn purge, so het stuff being the most prevalent there now....lmao"[2]
- "As someone who writes a f/f ship let me tell you it’s so depressing bc no matter how much work and love you put into the stories... you barely get engagement on them too. Where it applies I even tag them with “no canon knowledge needed” and still... silence."[3]
- "a reflection of lackluster female characters with little narrative agency who either don't have major female char peers in their stories OR they don't interact or form any sort of meaningful relationships with them with them independently of men. sigh
most popular romantic ships are built upon strong camaraderies and/or rivalries that have a lot of canonical narrative and emotional weight. compared to m/m portrayals, there are not a lot of f/f relationships of that weight and intensity represented in media"[4]
- "part of it is we have male characters out the ass to even ship, and people will literally ship men who even so much as look at each other. meanwhile we have less than half the female characters and people require a 1000 word essay about why it's a good ship"[5]
On tumblr, asynca reposted the graph on May 29th, gaining 1k+ notes
"ah yes, graphic representation of how hard you have to work to make a living writing lesbians, let alone nb folks" [6]
- "Shit like this is why my femslash erasure tag exists."[7]
- "I think this is more a testament to how much straight women fetishize mlm than it is a matter of erasure of wlw."[8]
- "It’s also a condemnation of mass media. Few female characters equals fewer femslash (or even het) options."[9]
- "What happens when most works of fiction have exactly One (1) female character for every 287 male characters."[10]