The Shipper's Manifesto

Journal Community
Name:	The Shipper's Manifesto
Date(s):	4 August 2004 - Last updated 20 September 2015
Moderator:	darkhavens, shipm_mod, spren2v2
Founder:	(possibly spren_cious?)
Type:	shipping meta community
Fandom:	multi-fandom
URL:	ship_manifesto at LiveJournal; ship_manifesto at Dreamwidth
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The Shipper's Manifesto is a LiveJournal community for shippers of a particular pairing to post meta essays in support of that pairing, which may be a particular fan's OTP or OT3. It accepts manifestos for het, slash, femslash, and threesomes.

These essays often include links to direct new fans of the pairing toward informational and fanfic resources; hence, like newbieguide, it is a useful place to go when you aren't sure how to find the fandom for whatever show/movie/book you've become fannish about.

Idol Reflections is a similar community, except that posts are focused on individual characters instead of pairings.

As of 2017, the community had 977 posts. The most recent post was in 2015, asking if people were interested in creating a similar community on Tumblr. Two Tumblr blogs (shipmanifesto and ship-manifesto) for posting ship manifestos were created in 2015, but neither one was affiliated with the LiveJournal community, and both fizzled out.

A Fan Remembers

A few months ago [a month or two after this community began], I happened across a new internet community with a curious but interesting goal. Reading the information page, I saw this description: "Welcome to Shipper's Manifesto, a project designed to bring together 'shippers of every conceivable pairing and share with the world what it is that draws us to those pairings. This community's goal is to provide readers with a detailed listing of pairings, insight into the characters behind the pairings, and contextual understanding of what makes the pairing work. This community will also provide newcomers with a starting point for further exploration."

The term 'shippers comes from X-Files fandom; this was the word used to describe those who focused on or believed in the romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully. The premise struck me as a little odd ("every conceivable pairing...?") but I did rather like the idea of providing insight and resources for people who wanted to find out

more about your fandom while celebrating what you loved about it in essay form. A few days later, I received an e-mail asking if I would like to be one o f the essayists, and i f so, would I write about Kirk/Spock?

Resources

Ship Manifesto Archive, a search engine where you can search by keyword or fandom to find a manifesto.