Fandoms and Ship-Wars

Okay, I’ve spent some time recently strolling dedicatedly through Tumblr exploring the tags for my favourite shows, fandoms, fanfiction and my favourite pairings within said fandoms, and I’ve noted a truly disappointing, not surprising mind you, but still disappointing trend:

Namely the major Ship-Wars within fandoms.

Now I’m no newbie to this, I am after all a Xenite first and foremost and know all about, and went through the tail-end of, the great Shipper/Subber conflicts of the X&A vs X&G era. There were flame wars and terrible things said and done between the groups, the major part of which I count myself SUPER LUCKY to have missed.

Coming to the fandom very late, like two years after the show was off the air, I entered a gentler, more settled arena for the fandom. One where most, of the fans who saw different things and different pairings within the show had not only stopped the battles, but had reached the stage where it was let bygones be bygones and everyone just see what they want to see. A view by the way, supported and advocated by the shows’ writers, creators and stars.

Now, having moved on to new fandoms including, amongst others, SG1, Voyager, Warehouse 13 and Once Upon a Time, it is incredibly disheartening to see the same thing happening all over again in each of the fandoms, only this time it’s so much worse. With the sheer proliferation of the online world, and social networks people spew knee jerk reactions at the drop of a Tweet. No thought, no idea of responsibility, civility or consequence seems to inform the vitriol that people WITHIN each fandom are heaping on each other.

I feel, in my disappointment that I really want to say;

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! GROW UP AND START ACTING LIKE HUMAN BEINGS TO EACH OTHER!!!

Absolutely everyone is entitled to:

Say “This is what I see in the show.” Or “I really don’t see the same thing as you.”

Say “I want Pete and Myka to be paired or I want Bering & Wells or I want Claudia and Jinx or I want Pete and Claudia, or Pete and Lena or Artie and Mrs Fredricks or if you’re into OUaT, then likewise any and all pairings can be seen, from Rumple/Snow to Cora/Charming and all the stops and characters in between” 

All of them are EQUALLY valid, because someone has seen their potential and derived pleasure from it.

It is also perfectly acceptable to say “Hmmm, that pairing? Yeah I don’t see that.” Or “Personally that idea really isn’t for me, or my cup of tea.”

It is NOT ACCETABLE to say “Are you kidding me? That pairing? You’re an idiot if you see that! You HAVE to see my pairing is the only one that makes sense AT ALL.”

It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to deliberately go into groups or on sites that are dedicated to a pairing or fandom you DON’T like and start to disrespect the people there who DO like that pairing or fandom.

It is NOT ACCEPTABLE to say that one view point is greater or more valid or the only one to have…EVEN IF IT IS A VIEW POINT THAT APPEARS TO FOLLOW CANON!!!!  Helloooo going off script and diverging from canon is what Fanfiction and Fan forums etc are all about.

Why don’t we all just take a breath and realise that we should:  ‘Let everyone see what they want to see and express their joy, creativity and passion advocating their viewpoint, and I’ll do the same for my viewpoint.’  In other words, ‘You see what you see, I don’t see that I see this, but hey you write/read your fics and edit/watch your music vids and create/post your artwork and I’ll do the same for mine. Oh and by the way isn’t the show itself just MIND BOGGLING BRILLIANT?!?!’ 

Take joy each in your own way and share that joy with others of like mind, rejoicing too that there is such great diversity for us to choose from.

Let the wars be ended.