I've been thinking about this issue for the last couple of days, too, or at least a variation on it. I tend to stay on the fringes of a lot of fandom stuff, and at least in the Who fandom I guess I fall into the category of a Doctor/Rose shipper ignorant to the greater fandom. I keep an eye on the whodaily community but the only fic I read is Doctor/Rose (though I'm not reading anything in the Who fandom lately). I never put much thought into any of it and I have only been vaguely aware of the Rose hate, and certainly not until recently that it was so vehement.
Anyway, to slowly approach my point, I never thought much about shipping wars or people feeling oppressed or whatever because I was part of the dominant trend and only interacted with people with that same perspective. But now I'm getting sucked more and more into the Merlin fandom and have discovered that since I ship Arthur/Gwen instead of Arthur/Merlin, I'm very much in the minority. It's been illuminating -- I'm definitely more aware of people's sensitivities, my own included. I don't feel oppressed and pretty much stay in my corner, but that's another example of how fandom is different than real life: I'm not out with some agenda to expand my horizons or convert people or be inclusive. I like a TV show, I miss that there aren't more episodes of that TV show, and so I seek out fanfiction that basically gives me more of the show. But people may have all sorts of other reasons for participating in fandom.
I never thought I'd ever put this much thought into shipping, but it can be a filter through how you see the whole show or fandom so I see how people can take it pretty seriously. But like you say, no matter what, people who turn off their civility buttons... NOT COOL. :P
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Date: 2010-07-17 04:03 am (UTC)Anyway, to slowly approach my point, I never thought much about shipping wars or people feeling oppressed or whatever because I was part of the dominant trend and only interacted with people with that same perspective. But now I'm getting sucked more and more into the Merlin fandom and have discovered that since I ship Arthur/Gwen instead of Arthur/Merlin, I'm very much in the minority. It's been illuminating -- I'm definitely more aware of people's sensitivities, my own included. I don't feel oppressed and pretty much stay in my corner, but that's another example of how fandom is different than real life: I'm not out with some agenda to expand my horizons or convert people or be inclusive. I like a TV show, I miss that there aren't more episodes of that TV show, and so I seek out fanfiction that basically gives me more of the show. But people may have all sorts of other reasons for participating in fandom.
I never thought I'd ever put this much thought into shipping, but it can be a filter through how you see the whole show or fandom so I see how people can take it pretty seriously. But like you say, no matter what, people who turn off their civility buttons... NOT COOL. :P