Shipping

Shipping in fandom is the act of enjoying, creating, or supporting a particular romantic relationship — that is, a het (male/female), slash (male/male), femslash (female/female), non-binary (involving a character whose gender is non-binary), or poly (three or more partners) ship. Shipping as an activity may include discussing it with other fans or writing meta, creating fanart or other types of fictional fanworks exploring the ship, consuming other shippers' fanworks, or simply imagining ship scenarios in your head. Fans who have and promote favorite ships are called shippers. Some shippers care about whether or not the characters in their ship become romantically involved in canon (see Ship War), but others don't care. Shippers who support multiple ships within a single canon are often referred to as multishippers, especially if they support those ships equally.
The relationships that fans promote or wish for are not all happy-fluffy-bunny ones; fans also enjoy enemyslash and wrongshipping.
Some shippers prefer relationships that are portrayed or acknowledged as established in canon, some shippers prefer relationships that exist only as subtext (whether intentional or accidental -- itself a topic of debate), and some prefer relationships where the characters have no subtext discernible to non-shippers. Some fans ship characters who never even appear in canon together! It is important to note that some percentage of fans actively do not want their ship to become canon, especially wrongshippers and fans who don't trust the show's writers and producers to "do it right". Shippers have been known to regret it when their wish came true.
Shippy is the adjectival form of ship. Shippy can be used to describe canon interactions between characters, as well as fanworks that are not gen. Like slashy, shippy can be applied to subtext, as well as to acknowledged romance.
Since the 2010s the term seems also more and more used by people who want their pairing to get together and expressing this via interaction of social media platforms of TPTBs as noticed by this tumblr post with 59K notes as of February 2019:
==Etymology==
===The X-Files Origin===
The term was first used in 1993: 
The term gained popularity in the X-Files fandom at alt.tv.x-files.creative and alt.tv.x-files where viewers who wanted to see a romantic relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were dubbed "relationshippers," or "shippers." 
The antithesis of a "shipper" is a Noromo.
Also see: intellishippers.
===The X-Files Origin: Fan Comments and Usage===
====1996====
A comment by a fan in March 1996: 
In April 1996 a fan describes her story as something: 
An early use of a variation used as a verb is from May 1996: 
Another X-Files fan in May 1996 posted: 
For more, see the May and June 1996 "relationshipper wars" on alt.tv.x-files. (May 28, 1996) On Relationshippers... (May 13, 1996) my problem with the "relationshippers" (May 29, 1996) 
====1997====
A fan in 1997 ("Michael Gosselin - shipper!roo") explained: 
By December 16, 1997, the phrase was being used on private fan run mailing lists: 
A few weeks later, on December 31, 1997 Sandy Hereld posted to the Virgule-L mailing list: 
===Lois and Clark===
Another early usage of the term was in discussion groups for Lois and Clark (1993), where "shippers" were those who were pushing for stories in which the pair would get together romantically onscreen. 
==Comments About Star Trek and X-Files Shipping==
In late 2023, a fan ran a poll asking fans to vote on their favorite ship. Star Trek's Kirk/Spock beat out The X-Files. A fan commented on this survey and explained how the two fandoms represented "two sea changes in fandom that are both equally deserving to be in the annals of fandom history, but reflect two fundamentally different ecosystems.": 
 
==Uses of the Word==
===The Noun===
"Relationshippers" became "Shippers" or "R'shippers," which then evolved into the shortened term "ship," which was used to refer to a potential romantic pairing a fan supported or wished to see become canon.
From May 1996: "To explain it is to diminish the mystery. Which is why I'm not a fan of straight-forward relationshipping: it is to denegrate [sic] the purity of Mulder and Scully's partnership to reduce it to simple giggly handholding." It is unclear if "relationshipping" is used here as a verb or a noun. Gossamer Interview with an Author: Alec Nevala-Lee (LoneGunGuy) 
===The Verb===
"Ship" was subsequently used as a verb: "(to) ship a certain pairing."
A 2000 comment: "And as to Ron/Harry shippers -- let'em ship. I know that JKR would never screw up a perfectly lovely series like HP because she wanted to make the main characters boyfriends. That would instantly make me set down the book and run screaming." This is a quote used by Heidi Tandy in a chapter of Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World (2013), though the exact provenance of the quote is not included. See 
Another early use of "to ship" was 2001 and in regards to a m/f pairing is from a message on a Harry Potter mailing list regarding a chapter of Cassandra Claire's story Draco Veritas: "...if Hermione isn't with Harry in this story, I at least want her with Draco. It's not like I'm not a Hermione/Ron shipper. I ship Hermione with almost anyone. It's just that I don't think for this story that it makes sense." comment by Lia at [https://beta.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ParadigmOfUncertainty/conversations/messages/12241 
12241Re: DV2], October 5, 2001 
One use of "ship" as a verb for a m/m relationship was in 2004: "Why I Ship Them" from The Shipper's Manifesto: Jim/Blair of The Sentinel posted September 1, 2004 
===Ship and Het and Slash===
In the past, "shippers" was sometimes used to refer exclusively to fans of heterosexual pairings, as opposed to "slashers" who wanted two male characters to get together. For example, see Slashing versus 'Shipping, or Why it's Easier to be a Slasher, a 2004 meta essay by T'Mar. Today, it now also means fans of slash pairings. 
From a 2014 discussion at Fail-Fandomanon: 
===Ship War===
:See also Ship War
A clash between rival groups of pairing supporters is called a "ship war" or "shipping war". 
Because of their homophones, the terms are often accompanied or embellished by nautical or maritime imagery (for example, if canon makes a particular pairing unlikely or difficult to write, shippers may say it has "sunk their ship.") When the song "White Flag" by Dido came out, one of its lyrics, "I will go down with this ship," became a motto for passionate shipping, appearing on many, many Livejournal icons, banner graphics and other website and blog decorations. A factor in the rapid adoption of this quote by fandom may have been the use of David Boreanaz (Angel) as Dido's stalker / love interest in the music video,White Flag video on YouTube (retrieved July 4th 2015) at a time when the Spuffy vs Bangel ship war was still arousing passions in Buffy fandom.
===Shipper and Ship Nicknames===
Shippers of a particular pairing may make up names to describe themselves, such as the Rocketshippers of Pokémon fandom. Sometimes shipper names denote a specific subgroup of fans of that pairing, such as the Harmonians in Harry Potter or Larries in One Direction. 
Nicknames for the ships themselves are ubiquitous and usually follow specific naming conventions. In the 2010s, portmanteaus or smooshnames (e.g. "Johnlock" or "Destiel") are particularly common. A single relationship may have multiple names. See Pairing Name for more detail.
===Anti-Shippers===
The term anti-shippers has taken on a variety of meanings throughout fandom history. In X-Files fandom "anti-shipper" was another word for a noromo - a person who was against the possibility of a romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully. It later migrated to a variety of other fandoms and was used by any fans opposed to a specific ship; these fans were not necessarily anti-shipping, but were opposed to one particular ship (or multiple ships).
Beginning in 2016 and through the late 2010s the term "anti-shipper", usually shortened to simply "anti", came to refer to someone who was opposed to a ship for specifically moral reasons, usually because the pairing is perceived as "problematic" (see also purity culture). Refer to current use and example ships for more on the types of ships opposed by these fans and the rationale behind the opposition.
Taking things one step further, an anti-anti is a person who opposes anti-shippers. These types of fans are sometimes called pro-shippers.
==Some 1990s Practical Advice for the X-Files Fan==
The following advice was given to X-Files fans in the 1990s on how to deal with hostility towards their ship. While nowadays the practice of shipping not just one pairing, but a variety of pairings, is not only well-established but practically a given in fandom, the advice still applies to anyone who might be facing hostility over their ship choice or other fandom preferences.
See "Dealing with Discrimination".
Some excerpts:
==Further Reading/Meta==
===General===
*The Shipper's Manifesto is a Livejournal community dedicated to promoting ships.
* What Are Ships And Where Can You Find Them? Fandom Basics by ShippersGuideToTheGalaxy
===1996===
* Clarification (was Re: My problem with 'anti-relationshippers'....), a very early discussion at alt.tv.x-files.creative (May 17, 1996)
===1997===
* (1997)
===1998===
* (1998?)
===2002===
* by andrastewhite (November 20, 2002)
===2006===
* (post and comments about shipping, and pairing, history of terms, and prevalence) (2006)
* by Emma Love (2006)
* The Hth Field Guide to Slash & Other Associated Strange Attractors (2006)
===2014===
* Dear "Slash" Fandom (2014)
* Fetishizing Homosexuality... (2014)
===2015===
* (2015)
* , In Media Res, (2015)
* , In Media Res (2015)
* , In Media Res (2015)
* , "The Mothership" (2015)
* Captain America and Bucky are Just Friends (2015)
* On Shipping: What’s Disney’s, What’s Yours, and What’s Mine (2015) 
===2016===
* Star Wars, queer representation, and the mainstreaming of slash (2016)
* To Ship or Not To Ship: An explainer about the terms “ship” and “slash”, a 2016 essay/article by Flourish Klink
===2017===
* Ok, well don't say I didn't warn you. archive link; WebCite by Bokai (May 2017)
* antishipping as the cool new trend, or: why are most antis under 25 years old? , freedom-of-fanfic (June 2017)
* , freedom-of-fanfic (July 2017)
* , freedom-of-fanfic (July 2017)
===2018===
* Shipping, Explained; archive link by Gita Jackson
* Pro Shipping/Anti Anti Survey by who-gives-a-ship
===2019===
* Shippers on Shipping; by Flourish Klink (May 2019)
*Are You Pairing Fictional Characters the Way I Want You To?; archive link by Ratkinzluver33 (2019)
===2023===
* Hobby Scuffles Week of April 17, 2023; archive link by iwasonceafangirl (2023)
==Notes==
Category:Glossary
Category:X-Files Fandom Glossary
Category:Fan Activities
Category:Relationships Glossary
Category:2020 Featured Articles