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Shipping: Difference between revisions
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Of all the obsessions that universally afflict fandom, '''Shipping''' is by far the most persistent, widespread and prone to be [[Serious Business]]. It knows no boundaries of age, demographic and gender.<ref>contrary to expectations one might reasonably have involving [[Yaoi Fangirl|Yaoi-worshipping]], [[Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls|fan fiction writing]], [[Chick Flick]]-addicted, squealing teeny boppers</ref> This might raise an eyebrow or two on first inspection, but honestly, shipping is just a consequence of plain old human nature: we are wired to seek a romantic partner in such a powerful, fundamental way that we even get a considerable kick out of doing it by proxy—and fictional characters are plenty, easy to relate to, often [[Everybody Is Single|in want of someone to make out with]], usually [[Happily Ever After|get their happy ending]] and nearly never fall out of love. We wish we were them. We are drawn to reimagining ourselves in their place like moths to the flame.
Somehow, this leads to vitriolic forum threads with a hundred times the activity of all the other threads in the forum combined, titled something like "[[Ship-to-Ship Combat|will Bob get together with Alice or Eve? Round 997!]]" <ref>For all we know, this very well may have actually been a thread title in a [[Alice and Bob|Cryptography]] forum.</ref> Which in hindsight is understandable, given that when a lot of fans are projecting themselves into one character, it's bound to get very crowded in there. Really, put just ''two'' fans in a room and give them five minutes or so, and they'll get into an argument to the death about [[Fan Dumb|some incredibly fundamental fandom issue]]; having hundreds of fans in the same internet is just asking for trouble. And when you ask for trouble what you get is, in the words of [[J. K. Rowling]], scary and vehement cyber gang warfare.
Shipping is all about the anticipation. Paragraphs and essays and counter-essays weighing megabytes at dozens of pages will be written about who ''will'' get together, who ''should'' get together, and what the disciplines of political science and feminism and probability theory have to say about the issue (the above is [[Not Hyperbole]]). No ecstatic shipper has ever written a gigantic dissertation titled "Hurray!! [[Alice and Bob]]! FINALLY!!" or any fandom equivalent. People will argue endlessly about the romantic future of nearly any given ensemble, but if that point should actually be resolved, the discussions will basically go through a round of ranting and gloating and then unceremoniously run out of steam.
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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
[[Category:Shipping]]
[[Category:Alice and Bob]]
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