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#this is mostly a pre-emptive disclaimer post bc discourse is kicking off AGAIN and I want to give a blanket statement
jayteacups · 24 days
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my stance on ships & shipping culture - a quick note
(please read before interacting!)
I'm seeing discourse in the AOT Tumblr niche ramp up once again (what would the AOT fandom be without harassment and discourse /s), so I want to put up this quick note to be linked in my pinned navigation post. Therefore, from now on, if someone sends an ask about ship discourse, it'll be clear whether or not they've read this post. Therefore that'll make it easier for me to see who respects my boundaries and who is and isn't worth my time.
This blog is primarily a Levi x Reader-insert/OC-insert/Self-ship blog. If you have a problem with this, save us both the time and energy, and just block me. If you harass me or anyone else who enjoys this type of harmless content, I will block you. This is not up for debate.
However, I am also a multi-shipper. You'll occasionally find that I reblog fanworks of Eruri, Levihan, Rivetra, Levifar etc, and that I tag all ship content so you can filter out the ones you may not like. I’m not a ‘proshipper’ though; for example, you won’t find any reblogs of fanworks involving a veteran character being with a recruit character in a romantic or sexual sense. However, I will never harass anybody for shipping a ship that I don't like, so I expect everyone from every corner of the fandom to return that same courtesy.
So please do not bring me into any ship discourse, I’m not interested in entertaining pointless debates over ships. I do not and never will condone harassment over people's opinions on fictional ships.
If somebody doesn't ship your OTP, or they ship something you personally do not like, that doesn't mean you have the moral high ground over them, and that certainly doesn't mean you can falsely accuse people of awful things or leave anonymous death threats in people's inboxes. Additionally, it's okay for your OTP to be fanon. The canon/fanon status of a ship doesn't make it better or worse than another ship. The sooner people accept this instead of twisting canon to suit a false narrative, the better. On that note, please don't send me long-winded, unsolicited asks about how a fanon pairing is 'actually canon if you read the subtext' whilst quoting 'facts' with no or incorrect sources. Let canon be canon and fanon be fanon. There's a difference, and a reason why they have separate labels. I'm not saying that you can't have a different interpretation of canon or the subtext, but I'm saying that not everybody will agree with you, and it doesn't automatically make your opinion the right or 'true' one.
I should also point out that the actions of a few bad apples is not representative of an entire ship community. For example, I have seen some people falsely assume the entire Eruri community are toxic based on the recent anons harassing Levi-centric blogs. This simply isn't true. The majority of shippers are very chill, but the toxic minority just happens to be the loudest. Let's not make assumptions about Eruri shippers or insult their OTP, because I have seen a few people do this in response to seeing the harassment, which I find incredibly hypocritical and unhelpful. Don't lose sight of the bigger picture - which is that we're all fans of the same thing and we all want to have fun in whatever way appeals to us.
Fandom is supposed to be fun, and I believe you should be focusing your energy on what you like rather than what you don't. Personally I think it's strange that these weirdo anons and harassers spend so much time and energy harassing people who don't ship their OTP, rather than using that time and energy to support creators who make fanworks of their OTP, or even creating some fanworks themselves. They care more about making other people miserable rather than fostering a positive community around their ships, and that is something I absolutely do not support or condone.
If you've read everything and have reached the end of this post, thank you for your time. If you fundamentally disagree with my stance, fine, but don't debate me on it. I've made it clear I won't change my mind on it, and you probably won't either, so I suggest you block me instead of starting a futile argument.
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