By Fiona Valdez
What are “ships”?
“Ships” are relationships, usually between two fictional characters. Ships can take many forms and have different characteristics; they can be heterosexual or homosexual, polyamorous, asexual, platonic, or between characters of different ages. Ships can be “canon” or “fanon.” Canon means the relationship is already established within the material it came from, and fanon means it was not part of the original story (but were later imagined/drawn/written by fans). Examples of canon ships are Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan from Mo Dao Zu Shi, Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura from Banana Fish, and Uenoyama Ritsuka and Mafuyu Sato from Given. Examples of fanon ships are Tenko Chabashira and Himiko Yumeno from Danganronpa v3, Todoroki Shouto and Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia, and Kyoko Kigiri and Celestia Ludenburg from Danganronpa: THH.
What are good and bad ships?
Every fandom has ships, so it is foolish to expect a fandom to not have any or to criticize a fandom just for shipping. Good ships are ships between people with a healthy dynamic in general (not necessarily romantic). People don’t have to be canonically in love for a ship of them to exist, so the argument of them not having feelings for each other is irrelevant.
Most ships can be good ones, depending on who they are handled/written by, the source material, and the fandom. However there are bad ships in every fandom. It is fine to criticize bad ships and toxic shippers. Bad ships could be toxic, pedophilic, abusive, fatal, incestuous, and so much more. Many people would think that it would be a no-brainer to not ship any of these types of ships. This is clearly not the case, as the amount of people who genuinely ship bad ships is alarming. Examples of such ships would be Sangwoo and Yoonbum from Killing Stalking, Bakugo Katsuki and Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia, and Hisoka Morrow and Gon Freecss from Hunter x Hunter. Clearly however there is a range on how bad ships can get, as Bakugo x Midoriya isn’t as bad as the other two examples.
Other bad ships aren’t necessarily toxic, but they create erasure of representation. For example, shipping someone canonically gay or lesbian with someone of the opposite gender is creating gay and lesbian erasure. This is considered harmful to the fandom and the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community has barely any representation in regular/non-animated media, so taking it away in anime is horrible. There is no reason to hate a canon or fanon ship over it just being LGBTQ+.
Does shipping ruin a community?
Yes, shipping can ruin a community if there are too many bad ships being encouraged or liked in the fandom, and if shipping discourse gets out of hand. An example of a ‘ruined’ community is the My Hero Academia fandom. In this fandom, people have sent death threats to other fans—and even to the creator of a show—over ships. They have made the creators and other fans uncomfortable with the way they take their ships, because they take them too seriously. The shipping got so bad that people have stopped watching the original anime over it, and assume that all MHA fans are toxic. This assumption is not fair to fans/ex-fans of the show, the creators, or the show itself. They have acquired a bad reputation just because of a large and toxic group of fans who have ruined the anime for everyone else. Turn around bad reputation to good with reputation management companies.
On the other hand, certain types of ships can ruin a fandom. Bakugo x Midoriya was an extremely popular ship even though it is problematic. Canonically, both Bakugo and Midoriya have feelings of hatred for each other. Bakugo has told Midoriya to commit suicide, and he has tried to harm him in many ways. Thus, basing a ship off the actual anime and manga will create a toxic and unhealthy relationship that would be especially harsh on Midoriya. If people encourage and accept these types of ships in a fandom, it would reflect some real life views of the fans and shippers. Toxic relationships shouldn’t be normalized in real life or in fictional media. Sadly, there are many other fandoms coming to the point of being like MHA such as Haikyu! and Danganronpa.
How can shipping turn toxic?
Shipping can turn toxic when the ship someone ships is already toxic, or if the shipper takes their ships too seriously. It is important to note that at the end of the day, shipping occurs between fictional characters. They aren’t real people with real life feelings. It is fine to feel a strong connection to characters, but you shouldn’t elevate their ‘feelings’ over those of real life people. Due to the fact that shipping takes up a large part of many people’s lives, they develop strong mental and emotional connections to them. Some people might even develop an unhealthy connection, and this is when shipping turns toxic. Toxic shipping can result in death threats, telling someone to commit suicide, doxxing, bullying, etc. This is clearly not acceptable, is even illegal in some cases, and shouldn’t be normalized in any community. Shipping a toxic ship is pretty self explanatory since these shippers are supporting unhealthy behavior and will defend this behavior to extreme lengths.
How is shipping good for a fandom?
Shipping is good for a fandom because it can provide comfort to many people and improve their mental/emotional health. Many shippers have ‘comfort ships’ which help them if/when they are feeling negative. Also, those who “kin” certain characters will find happiness in certain ships with their kin and kin-related characters. Sometimes making fun of someone’s ship/kin/favorite characters can actually hurt someone’s feelings. It is good to keep in mind that if a ship is reasonable, it doesn’t matter if it’s not a ‘typical/regular ship’, making fun of it is something to keep to yourself. Finally, LGBTQ+ individuals will be happy if a ship is LGBTQ+ and good representation. Erasure and hate towards LGBTQ+ is homophobic which is not good for the fandom.
What can you do to help a community facing issues with shipping?
The best thing you could do to try and help prevent your or other fandoms from becoming toxic is not reverting back to toxic behaviors yourself. Those who try to combat toxic fans sometimes become toxic themselves, and use unhealthy and dangerous tactics to change someone’s mind or habits. It isn’t good either way. If you encounter someone you don’t like online, someone who has ships that you don’t like, or someone toxic, just block them. If the person is seriously dangerous to your community and other people, then making a callout post online or to your friends might be a good idea.
Cancelling someone over ships is toxic itself, and should never really happen. However, a good-natured callout post should help others avoid interacting with whoever it is that is causing problems. A respectful callout post would also inform the person that their behaviors are harmful. The best mindset is a calm and understanding one. Don’t attack someone just for having different opinions, and if you feel like you are getting too heated about the issue, you can just take a step back, take a break, or ignore the person.