Words: Rachel Currie (she/her)
Much of today’s internet culture is shaped by the power and force of fandoms, and no fans are more fervent than queer shippers. “Shipping”, in online terms, can be defined as pairing together 2 fictional characters romantically. However, real people are also often believed to be having a secret relationship behind the scenes. From Larry Stylinson (One Direction’s Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson) to Camren (Fifth Harmony’s Camila Cabello and Lauren Jauregui), fandom ships are far-reaching and immensely popular. This continuing appetite for queer rendezvouses is linked to a lack of representation in current media, though the decoding of subtle small exchanges seem to speak to something more, even functioning similarly to queer theory. But what is the impact of shipping on fandoms, and online culture more broadly?
Shipping could be described as a tool for queer representation. While media representation has increased with time, queer stories remain limited to the sidelines. On the rare occasion a gay relationship is centre stage, they are rarely given the same time and effort as their heterosexual counterparts. For example, Netflix’s teen drama series First Kill was dropped after just 1 season, despite reaching the top 10 most popular English-language shows 3 days after its premiere. Gay storylines are few and far between, so it’s clear why people would search for queerness elsewhere. You can’t blame fandoms for filling a gap in the market. By decoding relationships that might seem ‘straight’ at first glance and invoking a deeper meaning, fans are able to give gay storylines the love they deserve, even if the shows themselves don’t. It really is no surprise, then, that almost all of the most popular posts on fanfiction site Archive of Our Own are based on queer relationships: there’s desire to both write and read about them.
The methods that fans use to ‘uncover’ secret homosexual relationships can be likened to queer theory, which is defined by LGBTQ Nation as ‘a field of study that challenges traditional ideas about identity, sexuality, and gender’. One aim of queer theory is to undermine heteronormative stereotypes by looking into our behaviours and how we might be ‘performing’ gender or sexuality. This is best applied to fictional ships. Fan edits that read between the lines of each interaction characters have, every moment of physical contact, are essentially doing the same thing as queer theorist Judith Butler, though using a more familiar form. There’s something beautiful about how teenagers online are able to understand the subtleties of queerness through the interpretation of their hyperfixations. Their mutual obsession over the small details of relationships is bound to create a sense of community, as well as setting up gay teenagers with the tools they need to critically understand queer media.
While shipping uplifts and celebrates queer relationships, a critical approach is often taken towards anyone who might interfere with that ship. For example, in the immensely popular Netflix series Arcane, Jayce and Viktor are commonly paired together in a gay ship, with frequent criticism against the character Mel, who dates Jayce on the show. This might not seem too harmful for a fictional series, but it also happens in real life: Louis Tomlinson’s ex-girlfriend Eleanor Calder received constant harassment and backlash as she interfered with Larry shippers’ dreams. Despite its queer positivity, shipping online can sometimes do more real world harm than good.
Worse still, those who are shipped together often lose real life relationships with one another because of constant surveillance by fans. In an interview, Lauren Jauregui described how uncomfortable she felt when being shipped with her girl group counterpart Camila Cabello, with the former being bisexual and the latter straight: ‘I was always the aggressor… Always the one turning her’. The assumptions that ships make about the sexuality and relationships of real people can be narrow-minded, even biphobic, with fans relying on harmful stereotypes about gender roles to get a point across. More than that, the possibility of outing the people who fandoms ship is high. Lauren, too, suffered from this, with a private photo of her kissing her then girlfriend being discovered by fans and blowing up social media. Instead of uplifting queer relationships, fan shipping can create an atmosphere of scrutiny, which makes even queer celebs feel uncomfortable.
The shipping of same-sex relationships has links to elements of queer theory; when shipping, you’re not taking behaviours at face value; you’re analysing every element of every interaction that the 2 characters, or people, have. At its best, this application of queer theory helps us to take a step back from heteronormative stereotypes and adopt a new perspective. Online fandoms also let queer teens find community at what can be a difficult age. However, shipping culture isn’t always a positive thing. When fans constantly interpret the behaviour of real people and criticise them for not conforming to the relationship they want, they are essentially creating the opposite of an inclusive, safe space. While it’s natural to want more queerness in a media-verse that barely gives gay people the time of day, it’s not fair to expect anything from celebrity relationships, especially due to the risk of outing real people. Maybe for now, let’s just stick to fictional characters and Archive of Our Own.
