Unfortunately fandom has always had to deal with this for certain pairings, for as far back as I can remember.
Tumblr just makes it worse because it's right there in a tag all the time, so it's not like you can get away from it whereas on forums on journals, bashing and trolling still happened, but there was at least some level of moderation and posts were easily deleted.
Yeah, unfortunately this is true - there have always been certain pairings that have been picked on, often for no apparent reason. I mean, look at the MsScribe story and how she basically waged a one-woman war against Harry/Ginny shippers, to the point of alienating them from some of the biggest fandom spaces. It's terrifying, the effort people will put into hurting others for something as simple as enjoying different fictional couples!
The only thing I respectfully disagreed with in the comment I replied to (I don't know if that was yourself or somebody else) is the notion that what's happening to Reylo shippers doesn't count as a personal attack because it's being done for internet cred.
Like, to use a somewhat awkward analogy, if a kid is being picked on by the popular kids in class, and other kids start to pick on that kid too so that they can fit in, even if they don't personally have an issue with that kid, then at the end of the day that kid is still being picked on. Doesn't matter the reason for it, they're still being put through that ordeal. I know classroom bullying and ship attacks are very different creatures, and I'm not trying to compare the severity of the two. What I'm trying to say is that all levels of harrassment and bullying and trolling will still be personal to the victim, no matter the intent behind those attacks. If that makes sense.
I didn't write the comment you replied to, but I definitely agree with what you're saying.
I've never understood raging hatred for seemingly innocent pairings. I can sort of understand where people are coming from with their dislike of pairings based around abuse or rape, or something similar, since they're often pairings with dubious or manipulative intentions, but I don't think it makes it okay to personally attack people for their ships.
When I was part of the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fandom, I found a lot of the pairings disturbing, but I just kept to my own pairings and let people ship what they wanted. But I know there were a lot of ships and shippers that received hate. Just because someone ships a pairing that's based on abuse or rape doesn't mean they actually condone those actions in real life. It's like reading Lolita. Just because I think it's an interesting book and some of Nabokov's best writing doesn't mean I think pedophilia is okay.
The only issue I've ever had with shippers who like hated pairings are the ones who make comments trying to justify rape as love or condone abuse, but those people are a very, very tiny percentage of overall shippers and imo are more trolls than true shippers. But those types of people can be fans of any type of pairing. Every pairing has mean fans.
Basically, when it comes down to it, someone can really hate a pairing, but don't tag your hate or make attacks on shippers.
(Also, throwing all my love across the internet for the msscribe mention. After all these years in fandom, I've still seen very few things that compare to that level of insanity.)
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(Anonymous) 2016-01-07 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)Tumblr just makes it worse because it's right there in a tag all the time, so it's not like you can get away from it whereas on forums on journals, bashing and trolling still happened, but there was at least some level of moderation and posts were easily deleted.
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(Anonymous) 2016-01-07 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)Yeah, unfortunately this is true - there have always been certain pairings that have been picked on, often for no apparent reason. I mean, look at the MsScribe story and how she basically waged a one-woman war against Harry/Ginny shippers, to the point of alienating them from some of the biggest fandom spaces. It's terrifying, the effort people will put into hurting others for something as simple as enjoying different fictional couples!
The only thing I respectfully disagreed with in the comment I replied to (I don't know if that was yourself or somebody else) is the notion that what's happening to Reylo shippers doesn't count as a personal attack because it's being done for internet cred.
Like, to use a somewhat awkward analogy, if a kid is being picked on by the popular kids in class, and other kids start to pick on that kid too so that they can fit in, even if they don't personally have an issue with that kid, then at the end of the day that kid is still being picked on. Doesn't matter the reason for it, they're still being put through that ordeal. I know classroom bullying and ship attacks are very different creatures, and I'm not trying to compare the severity of the two. What I'm trying to say is that all levels of harrassment and bullying and trolling will still be personal to the victim, no matter the intent behind those attacks. If that makes sense.
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(Anonymous) 2016-01-07 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)I didn't write the comment you replied to, but I definitely agree with what you're saying.
I've never understood raging hatred for seemingly innocent pairings. I can sort of understand where people are coming from with their dislike of pairings based around abuse or rape, or something similar, since they're often pairings with dubious or manipulative intentions, but I don't think it makes it okay to personally attack people for their ships.
When I was part of the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fandom, I found a lot of the pairings disturbing, but I just kept to my own pairings and let people ship what they wanted. But I know there were a lot of ships and shippers that received hate. Just because someone ships a pairing that's based on abuse or rape doesn't mean they actually condone those actions in real life. It's like reading Lolita. Just because I think it's an interesting book and some of Nabokov's best writing doesn't mean I think pedophilia is okay.
The only issue I've ever had with shippers who like hated pairings are the ones who make comments trying to justify rape as love or condone abuse, but those people are a very, very tiny percentage of overall shippers and imo are more trolls than true shippers. But those types of people can be fans of any type of pairing. Every pairing has mean fans.
Basically, when it comes down to it, someone can really hate a pairing, but don't tag your hate or make attacks on shippers.
(Also, throwing all my love across the internet for the msscribe mention. After all these years in fandom, I've still seen very few things that compare to that level of insanity.)