Watercooler Journal Apr. 2014 1

A Vindication of the Rights of Shippers

eilowyn (screen name preferred by author) California State University, Monterey Bay (2015)

I’ve been reading a bunch of French post-structuralists the past couple of weeks, and I think I

understand the problem with fandom: we overidentify with our favorites (be it ship, character,

show, narrative device, whatevs), so when someone insults them, we take it as a personal blow.

De Certeau (the guy I’ve been reading the most) has this thing about “strategies” and

“tactics”—strategies are the ways “the system” or “the man”/hegemony makes us conform to

the dominant narrative, and tactics are developed by individuals to navigate those strategies.

We are given a media narrative and told the strategic meaning by the dominant culture. You

can “buy in” to the message given, or you can deconstruct it and take what meaning you want

from it.

Fandom is a tactic against the strategies of mass media. Star Trek is a very masculine narrative.

Except for the awesome Uhura, guys get to do most of the fun stuff. However, fans say,

“Thanks for your masculinist narrative, Star Trek, but I’m going to ship Kirk/Spock and create

my own narrative that isn’t confined by your heteronormative story.” Thus, slash shipping is a

tactic meant to navigate the strategy of the masculinist narrative. Fans deconstruct the

Watercooler Journal Apr. 2014 2

message and create a version that appeals to them. We see this in fandoms based on very

masculine narratives, from Sherlock to Supernatural.

Fandom also picks and chooses what it identifies with. In Harry Potter, it can be you’re house or

what you ship. I am a troubled Ravenclaw shipping Tomione like it’s nobody’s business, but

you can be a Gryffindor shipping Cho Chang and Minerva McGonagall—whatever revs your

engine. Likewise with the Buffy fandom. I am a late-season-loving, Dawn-adoring, Buffy-centric

Spuffy shipper. I identify with the B-Team of Spike, Dawn, Anya, and Tara more than Giles,

Xander, and Willow. When I say I am a Browncoat, I am making a statement not just

about Firefly, but about myself. I use these identifiers as my tactic to make meaning of mass

media. They become who I am and how I see myself.

“It’s how we differentiate ourselves from every single other mass media consumer. When I write my list of fandoms and ships on my Tumblr page, I’m making a declaration about

who I am.”

So when someone insults Buffy Summers, I want to get in their face about it—because insulting

Buffy is like insulting me. People say shippers see the entire series through their shipper-

shaped lenses. My answer? Of course they do. The thing they identify with most in the show is

the particular relationship they’ve chosen, so that relationship is going to color the way they

see the show itself. What bothers me is when people dismiss shippers as all being

“problematic” or “troublesome” or “the reason why fandom is so terrible.” Let’s say you’re

a Lost fan. You’re in it to solve the mysteries and make sure all the questions are answered, not

to see who Kate ends up banging back at the Dharma station. You’re unhappy with the finale,

because it wasn’t about the mysteries—it was all about character relationships. Likewise, maybe

you’re into Buffy for Xander’s wisecracks. You really don’t have a horse in the race for

Buffy’s vagina heart. In both these scenarios, you’re a “gen” fan—someone who isn’t in it for

the shipping. Why should we privilege how you view the series over the shipper? You have

your tactic to make sense of Lost or Buffy, and they have theirs, and neither is an invalid or

incorrect way to approach mass media.

Watercooler Journal Apr. 2014 3

I’ve been known to get up in people’s grilles about particular ships and characters, but here’s

my line of thinking: disliking these ships and characters (I’ll leave what they are up to the

reader) is also part of how I differentiate myself from other mass consumers; it’s a part of my

identity as much as being a late-season-loving, Dawn-adoring, Buffy-centric Spuffy shipper is.

So when I say something passionate against said ship or character, I’m saying it because

something fundamental inside me objects to said ship or character. I don’t need to be rude or

mouthy about it—much of fandom conflict exists because people get rude and mouthy—but

disliking something doesn’t necessarily relegate me to the realm of “hater.”

So this brings us to ship wars. You have people who overidentify with ship A, which goes

counter to those who overidentify with ship B. “A” shippers object to “B” shippers because

we’re all rapist lovers (was that too specific? Okay, we’re all problematic people who like

problematic characters). When “A” shippers and “B” shippers meet in discourse, of course

Watercooler Journal Apr. 2014 4

there’s going to be conflict. It’s extremely naive to conceive that two groups of people who

firmly believe and identify with two contrasting things won’t have some conflict.

But that doesn’t mean we should dismiss shippers completely. Some of the people who dismiss

shippers would be the first ones out of the gate with a chainsaw if their favorite character was

disparaged or dismissed. We all overidentify with our favorites. It’s how we differentiate

ourselves from every single other mass media consumer. When I write my list of fandoms and

ships on my Tumblr page, I’m making a declaration about who I am. So it really annoys me

when people place all the blame about fandom conflict on shippers. If your favorite was

threatened, wouldn’t you rally to support them?

So, yeah, I support the shippers, because they have every right to identify with what they

identify with, as what they identify with is their tactic to understand mass media. That doesn’t

give them (or me) the right to be a jackass about it, but shippers shouldn’t be looked at as

some lesser being because their distinguishing identifier is a romantic relationship. When you

say “shippers ruin fandom,” you’re privileging your own way of reading media. You’re not

some monolithic bastion of objective truth because you don’t ship anyone in a show.

Everything is subjective, and the way fans operate is to take their subjective experiences and

apply them to media, making their own meaning through whatever means they find appealing.

Watercooler Journal Apr. 2014 5

works cited de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. originally a LiveJournal post http://eilowyn.livejournal.com/209574.html image credits, in order: ©Viacom image: Ez0rus, via http://ez0rus.deviantart.com