Another realization: “disgust as morality” leads directly to “mere exposure leads to moral decay”
As you are exposed to something frequently, you become acclimatized to it. It stops eliciting disgust. This happens with everything from gore to porn.
There has been research after research showing that fictional depictions don’t lower empathy for real victims or decrease the perceived severity of the crime, but it does lower disgust reactions at fictional depictions of it.
To antis, this lack of disgust is the normalization they are fighting against, because disgust is how you know something is wrong. If you no longer feel disgust, your morality is compromised.
That’s what I mean when I say antis resemble Puritan Christian morality. Christianity has so many conflicting instructions regarding morality, and many areas where it’s flat-out vague. And yet they know exactly what is good and natural, and what is horrifying and sinful.
How? It’s disgusting.
Antis are impossible to argue with, because the logical arguments are made post hoc to defend what they already know: this disgusts me because it is wrong. The disgust is the true basis of their argument, and no reasoned argument will touch it.
“There has been research after research showing that fictional depictions don’t lower empathy for real victims or decrease the perceived severity of the crime, but it does lower disgust reactions at fictional depictions of it.”
This. This is another reason we have to fight.
Because disgust is a messy and destructive emotion, it doesn’t target perpetrators of violence – it leads to victim blaming.
It usually has a lot to do with liking the characters and thinking that despite anything or everything they would be good together. Sometimes it could be because of character design and aesthetic for ships like Jelsa.
They don’t exist in the same universe but there is something appealing about these two meeting and making a connection based on their individual personalities and their experiences.
Then there are ships where people literally just want the characters to fuck or use them for a kink. When I think about a ship that seems to be mostly about kink then I usually think about a ship like Kylux for example.
It’s a lot of hate fucking from what I’ve seen which is fine, Do you and yes I could be misinterpreting why people ship this but based on the art it feels very smut fueled. Kink ships are fine because it’s a safe exploration of your sexuality without involving yourself or any real people. It’s honestly the safest place in the world because you can always walk away.
Then some ships are about the relationship they could have or already have. Think something some established in canon and just taking it to a more romantic angle. Think the really good friends trope that evolves into something more. Think characters that would take very little to picture them dating.
Usually I think a series like Free! Because these two just have such a good relationship it doesn’t take any stretch of the imagination to picture them dating. Hell even Sheith fits this trope because they do have an amazing relationship and it really wouldn’t be difficult to imagine. Honestly I doubt Sheith shippers even considered the age gap until antis brought it up. I always thought Shiro looked 21 and Keith looks 18/19 and honestly because it’s fiction it doesn’t matter what the writers say. You can make them mer people and take them out of space because fiction has no limits.
Shipping is and always has been about the possibility of what the relationship could be like. For example Reylo is a ship about the possibility, How would Rey and Kylo look if he had switched sides and joined the resistance? What would have changed had Rey become the Dark Queen. Could these broken characters heal each other? Reylo has posed questions since it’s inception in Force Awakens.
Reylo shippers seem to enjoy a bit of drama and they like those what ifs. Some people just like to imagine every possibility for characters that are so opposite and yet so similar. The enemies to lovers ship is popular because it’s interesting as hell and again fiction is the safest place to explore that.
Then you have shippers who ship because they like a sweet love story. Team Fluff if you will and they sometimes chill with the friendship shippers. These characters care about each other in canon and they would without a doubt have a good relationship that maybe people should want for themselves. I’d say FinnRey fits that boat perfectly because they would without a doubt have a good relationship.
There could be some drama and comedy but it’s fairly straight forward. Some people even like these ships for the self insert aspect of it. Rey for as much as I love her tends to become a voice box for the fans at times and honestly she was written as a Star Wars fan so it makes sense that it’s easy to project yourself into a character already kinda like yourself.
Shipping honestly is supposed to be fun. A lot of people multi ship and for each ship they have it usually just comes down to them liking the characters. Very few people go looking for age gaps or any of that “problematic” shit antis are screaming about. They mostly just ship because they like the characters. Usually the age and even the canon relationship is incidental. That’s why we have fanfiction. Say those characters are related but what if they weren’t? What if Finn stayed a stormtrooper and met Rey in the interrogation room? What if they were dating? What would that look like?
The idea of policing probably the most harmless thing online is strange to me. Why would anyone care if that person likes these characters together? A lot of the time it’s really not that deep. The 20 year olds on this site still shipping teenagers don’t have any insidious desire to fuck teens. They probably have been shipping since they were teens and happen to like the characters.
Any way this was my long ass post on why I think people ship. Feel free to add to it and say why you ship.
I-want-my-IWTV 