Pro-shipper

A pro-shipper or proshipper is a fan who opposes the anti-shipper movement in fandom. 
"Proshipper" has also be shortened to proship and has been used as a noun referring to the person or as an adjective describing the person's opinion. A fan might say "I am proship" to indicate that they are a "pro-shipper" or that they oppose anti-shipper beliefs. 
A common misconception is that pro-shipper is short for "problematic shipper"; some fans, especially anti-shippers, have used the term proship to refer to a type of ship and proshipper to refer to the fan who ships that proship. 
Some social media users add the 🌈 + 🍖 emoji combo to their bios to indicate they are proship.Urban Dictionary 🌈🍖 entry
==History==
===Anti-Anti===
The original term for fans who opposed anti-shippers was anti-anti, a shortening of anti-anti-shipper. The term may have arisen on Tumblr and/or Dreamwidth circa 2015-2016,There are a lot more anti-anti-shipper blogs now. fail_fandomanon, Nov 5, 2015 (Accessed 7/25/2021) with people making blogs to track, expose, or otherwise comment on the behavior and beliefs of anti-shippers. 
One of the earliest uses of "anti-anti" comes from a 2015 Dreamwidth fail_fandomanon post, calling them "anti-anti-shippers". The post also shows that the term "anti-shipper" was being used at that time as well. By 2016, anti-anti-shipper had been shortened to anti-anti, possibly due to Tumblr blogs using "anti-anti" in their usernames, which was considerably shorter than anti-anti-shipper. 
According to anons on fail_fandomanon from 2016, the anti-anti and anti-shipper movements were gaining noticeable traction on Tumblr. The discussion and use of anti-shipper and anti-anti on Dreamwidth may have also helped spread the usage of these terms to those who may not have heard it otherwise.See thread starting with "Do you not go to tumblr, nonny?" , fail_fandomanon, 15 March 2016 (Accessed 7/25/2021) At this time, the term pro-shipper didn't seem to be used, at least in these discussions.
===Pro-shipper===
Over time, the term "pro-shipper" or "proshipper" became more common than anti-anti. 
By 2017, pro-shipper was a term being used on Tumblr, as evident in surveys using the term. The prevalence of pro-shipper, as well as the larger spread of anti-anti and anti-shipper, may be in part due to an immense ship war on Tumblr during 2017.
During that year the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom was in the midst of a ship war that was heavy on pro-shipper and anti-shipper terms and ideologies (see Voltron Controveries and Discourse Demographics Survey (Voltron)). 2017 was also the year that the Undertale needle hoax was started (see Hoaxes about Anti-Shipper Violence), which was not only spread through places like Tumblr and Twitter, but Reddit as well. The Voltron fandom itself also had a similar hoax, but the exact year that the hoax was started is unclear as information about it is more sparse than Undertale's anti-shipper hoax. 
The pro in pro-shipper means for, to contrast with the anti in anti-shipper (anti meaning against). However, in some parts of fandom, the pro in pro-shipper has come to be understood as short for problematic instead.For example, see this 2021 definition of proshipper: "a proshipper or 'problematic' shipper is someone who believes shipping abusive, morally wrong, or otherwise 'problematic' ships is okay. this can include pedophilic or incestuous ships." , 24 November 2021. As of 23 March 2022, this post has 168 notes.Another example: "Hi, what's a proshipper?" "problematic shipper (ex. incest)" , 26 February 2022. (Accessed 21 October 2022.)Example from twitter: , tweet by Zenythycal, 21 February 2022.Example from reddit: "people who ship incest, pedophilia, sexual assault or other intense abuse and claim it is "cute", normal, healthy, etc." , 16 September 2021. (Accessed 21 October 2022.) In January 2023, Twitter user freetofic suggested that TikTok was the source of the false etymology., tweet by freetofic, 23 January 2023.
Due to this new definition, many fans (mainly on Twitter) started to insert proshippers in their DNI lists because they do not want any type of contact with problematic ships. These fans may also use the term "proship" as a noun to refer to the problematic ship that the proshipper allegedly supports.
Others have come to believe the word proshipper to be synonymous with pedophile., tweet by GojiraSpouse, 16 September 2022. They may have simply incorrectly osmosed the meaning due to so many antishippers accusing proshippers of being pedophiles, but claims that "proship" is a pedophile dog whistle may be disinformation spread deliberately."'proship' and 'anti anti' and all labels along those lines are a pedophile dog whistle. it was invented in the past decade to build up a community of pedophiles in fandoms and online spaces frequented by children." , March 2021. As of 13 October 2024, this Tumblr post has 1516 notes., tweet by juke_box8, 15 March 2021., tweet by caterstooth, 10 March 2021., tweet by Kittydoesstuff1, 20 May 2023."If y'all see anyone w 'proship'/profic on their account (here r anywhere) just know that's a pedo dog whistle n they want lil kids" by Zadkiel Ruiel in group thelowestnarakaofincessantsufferingandtorment, 30 June 2023., tweet by nonconarchon, 12 Oct 2024.
Some fans on twitter started referring to proshippers as "proshitters" in 2020, with many still using this terminology as of 2022.Earliest unambiguous example I found: , tweet by calhounz_remade, Jun 25, 2020., twitter search conducted on 17 August 2022. Search without date limiter.
In February 2023, a Japanese fanartist, maromi_ika, posted the essay Must-know for Japanese fandom: the meaning of "proship" and the concept of "proshippers" in Western fandom, which was translated into English by Twitter user orangiah_. The essay described the harassment they received for their work from "English speaking fandom" and instructed others to block accounts with "Proship DNI" in their bios. The post was shared by major Japanese artists, such as multi award winning geikomi artist Gengoroh Tagame and Yasuhiro Nightow, creator of Trigun. It anecdotally resulted in Twitter users being blocked by Japanese creators they were following.
===Definition Debates===
Although the terminology evolved, the debates remained the same, including the debates over the meaning of the terms anti-anti and proshipper.
One type of discussion hinges on how broad the scope of these terms should be--whether it applies only to fans who actively engage in anti vs. pro-ship discourse, or whether it applies to all fans who disagree with anti-shipper views or agree with the principle ship and let ship.Example of a discussion on fail_fandomanon: , 2021-08-01. Some fans have taken the position that they shouldn't have to adopt a special term for what they consider the default position in fandom. In 2019 Tumblr user Korrasera said, "there aren't anti-antis. There's just antis, who are authoritarians, and the people who disagree with them."
Another debate is more contentious. Antis and proshippers have always had very different definitions of the terms; according to antis, proshippers are fans who "support abuse". For example, the 2019 Tumblr discussion Korrasera was responding to was a debate over what an "anti-anti" was. Korrasera argued that antis' supposed definition was itself the anti argument against the "anti-anti" position:
Various people have argued over the years that anti-shippers' definition of proship is self-serving and manipulative."The usage and meaning of the term 'proship' is entirely dependent on the agenda in use by the speaker. If the speaker wishes to appeal to a visceral disgust and the moral sensibilities of their audience, they will define 'proship' in a manner that benefits their cause—that is, they will use the most disturbing definition possible due to the original definition’s inclusivity." , substack post by JD Riley, 4 Oct 2022."Because it's easier to win internet arguments when you make up things to make the other side look awful. It's also nice for pointless virtue-signalling, and to get people you don't like harassed." Comment on , r/AO3, 10 August 2023."Antis and their ideology have been debunked so much by the professionals that they need to now twist the actual definition of a word so people would believe their side more." Comment on , r/AO3, 6 October 2024."Honestly the fact they're using 'proship' as a noun to mean 'problematic ship' feels like a very deliberate manipulation tactic" Comment on , r/AO3, 19 September 2024."Yeah and it's a definition made up by people who don't use the term and are opposed to it. If I hated nonnies and I decided the word nonny means bad person who can't read and probably smells and that caught on, it would still be the wrong definition." , fail_fandomanon, 2024-03-26.
On social media, proshippers have argued with antishippers many many times over antishippers' definition of "proshipper" and "proship". Proshippers have posted many PSAs about the correct definition of these terms, pointing out that "pro-" means "for" and is not short for "problematic"., tweet by asthouwill, 15 Sep 2022. No one ever seems to change their mind., tweet by CORVICIDE_, 16 Aug 2024., tweet by horse_disk, 22 February 2023."so today, i saw a negative comment about proshipping, and i essentially went 'hey! i hope i'm not being rude or anything, but thats not actually what proshipping is. its pretty misunderstood.' and yknow explained what it actually is. anyway, i check reddit an hour later, and bam!! i'm banned." , r/FanFiction, 19 August 2022. The distinction matters because the pro-shipper position is that they are advocating for shippers to be free to ship whichever characters they like without fear of harassment. This meaning is entirely different from the idea that proshippers are just the shippers themselves, shipping a "problematic" ship.
The subreddit r/AO3 has a bot that automatically replies to any post about proshippers or antishippers with the definitions of both terms in order to prevent confusion or arguments over the definitions.Example: "Hi, this is an automated response to make sure we're all on the same page about the definitions of proshipping and antishipping." Comment in reply to , r/AO3, 9 August 2024.
==Pro-shipper Positions==
A large number of people have identified as proship or proshippers, and they may not hold exactly the same beliefs. (For example, some self-identified proshippers are against RPF.) However, in general, proshippers believe that fans should not be harassed or threatened for their shipping preferences, exploring dark themes in fanworks does not reveal anything about a fan's morality or ethical beliefs, and that shipping fictional characters does not cause harm. 
According to Tumblr user insomniac-ships in 2022,
As a Reddit user put it in 2023,
A common catchphrase used in proshipper arguments is "fiction is not reality". Antishippers believe that depicting or "romanticizing" problematic or abusive relationships (including age gaps, rape or non-con, incest, and underage) in fanfiction or fanart can cause real-world harm; they think they are protecting children by harassing shippers who create fanworks (or who like other people's fanworks) that depict "problematic" relationships. Proshippers respond by arguing that harassment is never acceptable and that in addition the antis' justification for harassment is misinformed; fanworks cannot cause abuse in the real world.
===Characterization of Antis===
Self-identified pro-shippers, as well as other fannish observers, have described anti-shippers as being black-and-white thinkers, tweet by doctorbaixue, 30 August 2023., pro-censorship"AAAAnd this is seriously why antis need to realize that advocating for censorship is always a terrible idea, because it will inevitably be used against them, and especially used against LGBT+ and other minorities." , fail_fandomanon, 2017-06-22."I've noticed on tumblr that the anti-anti blogs are pretty frothed about net neutrality, but the anti blogs don't say a peep about it. I honestly think they like censorship. I've seen a lot of them angry that AO3 doesn't practice censorship, and demanding it start." , fail_fandomanon, 2018-03-09."In the fight against censorship, I do think there’s value in trying to understand why so many people support censorship. the surface explanation that is so often given (’we need to shut down pedophilia, incest, and abuse’) is blatantly untrue in so many instances of invocation, which begs the question: what are pro-censorship people really interested in censoring? and why do they lie to others (and themselves) about it?" by freedom-of-fanfic, 1 February 2019., tweet by elotonvarvas, 13 Aug 2023., tweet by _DrinksGlue, 15 January 2024., and authoritarianSeveral comments reference authoritarianism: , post in r/AO3, 10 April 2024.. Many fannish observers have made comparisons between anti-shippers and American Puritans or fundamentalist Protestant Christians. A very popular Tumblr post by queerpyracy started "baffling how much of this site is just conservative protestantism with a gay hat" and included the phrase "I Saw Goody Proctor With The Devil And She Had A Bad Steven Universe Headcanon", reblogged 24 August 2017., which has been quoted and referenced many times in the years since. See also Purity Culture in Fandom.
freedom-of-fanfic has argued that TERFs/radfems influenced fandom antis"I merely think radfems have prominent influence in fandom/anti spaces these days, and every time I mention this people ask me to defend it so it gets talked about disproportionately often." , 17 June 2017. and that antis use alt-right tactics, anon ask answered by freedom-of-fanfic, 30 November 2018. As of 12 November 2024, this Tumblr post has 609 notes. archive.is.
===Harassment is Bad===
Pro-shippers generally define anti-shippers as fans who think it's okay to harass people over their shipping preferences. A common pro-shipper position is that fans who personally dislike certain dark themes in fanworks or certain ship dynamics, but don't think it's ok to harass anyone who does like those fanworks, are not anti-shippers., tweet by ValApocalypse, 10 August 2024.
Pro-shippers have frequently discussed antis' bad behavior, including harassment, doxxing, and death threats. Some have gathered evidence of specific instances. Samantha Aburime is an example of an acafan who has published research on antis and maintains an Antifan Archive.
When a fan of HLVRAI named Metrix-86 was discovered to have a secret Twitter where he drew shota and non-con of the characters, he ended up with two written callout posts and a video essay on YouTube outing his actions. As a result, his art on Tumblr (and likely his ask box) received negative attention. Then, another example is SethPup, a popular furry who also had a secret Twitter, where he drew his fursona having sex with feral puppies. He also had a callout post. While an anti-shipper would likely see merit in outing the actions of these artists (and may see the negative attention as deserved), a pro-shipper would see them as defendable and sympathetic, with the act of making callout posts deplorable.
While anti-shippers may see themselves as being helpful by making others aware of those who are problematic, a pro-shipper may argue that harassing those with problematic ships doesn't actually make less problematic ships or shippers. By this argument, while some people may become more aware of an artist's actions (by way of callout posts), in the end the result is simply someone being harassed with no further positive benefit. They may also argue that the fear of harassment can scare artists into not enjoying the themes they actually like, such as "darker themes" or "edgy" themes, which could possibly be related to cringe culture. 
Though there are a number of popular anti-anti blogs who speak out against harassment for any reason, there are also anti-anti blogs that are, ironically, run only as receipt blogs and callout post blogs for anti-shippers.theassholeantiarchive, Tumblr. (Accessed 10/6/2020) For example, one anti-shipper named bendyhatespaedos made it their goal to dox pedophiles on Tumblr. At a time, this included doxxing minors as young as 12 for shipping children together, which bendyhatespaedos did not deny. Bendy's argument was that "pedophilia is pedophilia no matter how you stylize it," though they stated they no longer doxxed children. Anti-antis responded by harassing and making fun of bendyhatespaedos, told them to delete their blog, and said that they should utilize the authorities rather than take matters into their own hands. 
Another example is of a 2020 occurrence between a 26 year old pro-shipper named MariAkutsu and a 13 year old anti-shipper named Kalmintz on Twitter. Mari had uploaded a NSFW fanfic of the children's cartoon Glitch Techs, and only indicated that it was a smutfic with the tag lemons, a phrase not many younger fandom members may know the meaning of. Kal ended up opening the fanfic and realizing it was NSFW too late. Being a minor and uncomfortable with an untagged smutfic that featured aged-up children close to her own age, she spoke out against it. The author, Mari, would then go on to make a 500 page long callout post for the 13 year old.This Grown Adult Made A 500 Page Callout On A 13-Year-Old, YouTube. Dec 30, 2020 (Accessed 6/2/2021) This may be one of the largest pro-shipping vs. anti-shipping issues to occur within the Glitch Techs fandom, and a good example of how even pro-shippers are not except from the behavior they usually abhor in anti-shippers.
Based on some of the back-and-forth from the "Anti Asshole Anti Archive" on Tumblr (since deleted), some members of both ideologies have been considered in poor taste and guilty of behavior considered to be harassment, despite both movements attempting to appear more "morally correct" than the other. For example, bendyhatespaedos was considered an "asshole anti" for doxxing a 12 year old. However, further up in the Asshole Anti Archive, the OP acknowledges that an anti-anti had begun posting explicit gore, maggots, and disturbing images on anti-shipper posts.
===Anti-RPF===
Various fans have noted with surprise or displeasure that some proshippers appear to be opposed to RPF:
*"calling urself proship but putting rpf supporters dni in ur bio is like friendly fire" (Dec 16, 2024)
*"It's so strange to me that even some self proclaimed proshippers sometimes get grossed out by rpf, even though they're out there writing some of the most scandalous fics lmao" (Jun 29, 2023) on subreddit r/rpfwriters, 29 June 2023.
*"I'm very familiar with the fact that RPF is highly controversial and has been since before I was even in fandom; I'm just surprised by the idea of ~anti RPF proshippers~. Isn't the whole point of proship to, like, ship and let ship, or whatever? (I mean at least in theory, if not in practice.) It just seems hypocritical af, based on my (admittedly limited) understanding of proshippers, to be anti... well, really anything in fic." (Mar 2, 2021), fail_fandomanon, 2021-03-02.
Some self-identified proshippers on Twitter have made various arguments against including RPF under "proship":
*"RPF has no place in the proship community 😁 Being weird to fictional characters is fine because they are not real, which is exactly why RPF is disgusting!" (Dec 7, 2024)
*"Yeah, see, the whole idea is you shouldn't treat fictional characters like real people or real people like fictional characters. RPF and especially RPS are not okay without explicit consent from the subjects." (Sep 10, 2024)
*"Proship does NOT involve real people do you even know what it means?? 😭 we’re literally all abt FICTION. NOT REAL. FAKE!! I don’t fw rpf!! I won’t judge anyone who likes it but I don’t wanna int with them!!" (Jan 20, 2025)
*"RPF isn't 'proship' because it involves the active harassment of real human beings when it's using names and personal life details of a person who has not given consent. It's not illegal but it is harassment and does impact the lives of REAL people so it don't fit the 'code'." (Sep 18, 2023)
*"RPF isn’t a part of proship- and i’m saying this as someone who does read RPF works and has for 6+ years. At the end of the day, it’s real people being written about and if not careful, can have real world affects to them and their relationships with people in their lives" (Nov 18, 2023)
Circa March 2021, someone invented a new acronym "FAIA" as an alternative to the term "proship" that is "more specific and caters to be against RPF of people who dont/cannot consent and is meant to be inclusive of bipoc and mentally ill and/or disabled people."tweet by HelleborusFlos, 3 March 2021. It was discussed on Fail_fandomanon, where some took FAIA's side because it was started by BIPOC fans in response to "actualadultjd's Confederate flag wank" but others thought people on both sides were terrible wankers., fail_fandomanon, 2021-03-03., fail_fandomanon, 2021-03-22.
===Other Comments from Pro-Shippers===
Below are more comments and opinions by those who identify as an anti-anti/pro-shipper.
==Surveys==
A 2017 Voltron survey called the Discourse Demographics Survey (Voltron) gathered a total of 1,998 responses as of Mar 2021. It surveyed anti-shippers, pro-shippers, and neutrals, in regards to both Voltron specific shipping and anti/pro ideologies as a whole. Some respondents in the survey blamed a ship war within the Voltron fandom for the resulting amount of anti/pro discourse among the fans.
In 2018, who-gives-a-ship conducted a Pro Shipping/Anti Anti Survey. fiction-is-not-reality analysed the results of the survey. The results showed those who call themselves "anti-anti" and those who call themselves "pro-shipper" have a bit of a variance in views and attitudes, suggesting these are not 100% synonymous terms. In 2019, fiction-is-not-reality commented that "Last year's attempt at defining pro-shippers as different from anti-antis unfortunately failed completely because only a bunch of us were actively trying to point out the differences. They're both self-applied label that have less to do with definition and intention and more to do with what the single person likes to think themselves as."
There is also a 2020 survey called the Anti vs Pro-Ship Meta Survey by Tumblr user asterosian, another survey hoping to gather the thoughts and opinions of both anti-shippers and pro-shippers. This survey is ongoing as of Oct 2020 and as yet to show its results.
==Example Anti-anti and Pro-shipper blogs==
*Who-gives-a-ship 
*theassholeantiarchive. Archive link 1, archive link 2
*antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-thx https://antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-thx.tumblr.com/
*pro-fiction-konata, formerly fujoshi-and-fudanshi-support
*freedom-of-fanfic
*antiantis-saltminehttp://antiantis-saltmine.tumblr.com/
*golbatgenderhttps://golbatgender.tumblr.com/
*yourshipisfinehttps://yourshipisfine.tumblr.com/
*discoursecatharsishttps://discoursecatharsis.tumblr.com/
*shipping-isnt-moralityhttp://shipping-isnt-morality.tumblr.com/
*reysistantishttps://reysistantis.tumblr.com/
*whoburntmytoast/educating-antisArchive
*just-antithingshttps://just-antithings.tumblr.com/
==Meta/Further Reading==
===Meta by Anti-Antis===
*Anti vs Pro-Ship Meta Survey (Asterosian's Anti VS Pro-ship meta survey)
* early? example in Teen Wolf fandom: post by knottingwolves, with addition by plushstiel - outrage against moral policing of incest ships, with bonus argument that Sterek is worse because fandom doesn't acknowledge that it is problematic (March 2014)
* antishipping as the cool new trend, or: why are most antis under 25 years old?, by freedom-of-fanfic, a prominent and vocal pro-shipper (June 2017)
* 🧵Yes. Why? Let's consult the professionals... by red_devil330. A thread about taboo sexual fantasies with plenty of sources from experts.
===Further Reading===
*ZADR, or Zim and Dib Romance, is a ship with a tumultuous relationship between anti-antis and antishippers. Some antishippers consider it a "problematic" ship while others don't, resulting in ZADR shippers self describing as antishippers while other antishippers call them proshippers. Thus, some ZADR shippers are anti-antis while others aren't.
=== Other Wikis ===
==== Japanese ====
* on PixivEncyclopedia
* , lit. "anti-anti" on Nico Nico Pedia.
==References==
Category:Relationships Glossary
Category:Fandom Wars