Proshipper is defined as an individual who holds a ship and let ship mentality, believing that fictional relationships are fiction and can't hurt real people. Includes a belief that relationships don't have to be depicted as 100% healthy in order to be engaging.
What antis think proship means: "Problematic shipping", including the depiction of unhealthy relationships, abuse, paedophilia, incest and more, with said latter terms being applied to relationships including age gaps where all characters are adults, or where an alternative view is that the characters are found family stuffed into a heteronormative box.
Myth: Every proshipper enjoys everything problematic from pedophilia to zoophilia.
Truth: Proshipper don't have to enjoy and may even strongly dislike all of those things, but simply doesn't support censorship, thinking that it is a responsibility of individual to curate their online space, and believes that uncensored existence of tags makes it easier to do so.
What antis think proship means: "Problematic shipping", including the depiction of unhealthy relationships, abuse, paedophilia, incest and more, with said latter terms being applied to relationships including age gaps where all characters are adults, or where an alternative view is that the characters are found family stuffed into a heteronormative box.
Myth: Every proshipper enjoys everything problematic from pedophilia to zoophilia.
Truth: Proshipper don't have to enjoy and may even strongly dislike all of those things, but simply doesn't support censorship, thinking that it is a responsibility of individual to curate their online space, and believes that uncensored existence of tags makes it easier to do so.
"You're proshipper, does it mean you support ped*philes?"
"No, it simply means I don't support censorship of fictional works because what is considered "problematic" can be defined to include whatever anyone wants it to be. This way, homosexuality was (and in many places still is) equated with pedophilia and censored, same with transgender people whose whole existence and mention of thereof is considered to be problematic adult content dangerous to kids in many countries and censored. I think fiction is allowed to be complex and explore all kinds of sensitive topics in all sorts of ways because that's what fiction is for. Not all fiction needs to be sanitised with the same rules as fiction for kids. I don't need a story to tell me what's good or wrong, sometimes I just want a story to be interesting."
"No, it simply means I don't support censorship of fictional works because what is considered "problematic" can be defined to include whatever anyone wants it to be. This way, homosexuality was (and in many places still is) equated with pedophilia and censored, same with transgender people whose whole existence and mention of thereof is considered to be problematic adult content dangerous to kids in many countries and censored. I think fiction is allowed to be complex and explore all kinds of sensitive topics in all sorts of ways because that's what fiction is for. Not all fiction needs to be sanitised with the same rules as fiction for kids. I don't need a story to tell me what's good or wrong, sometimes I just want a story to be interesting."
by flyingtie May 15, 2025