Emma Myers has spoken out about the dangers of shipping real people: “I just think that shipping real people is so dangerous because you get into this grey area where you, first of all, are making people uncomfortable. They feel like they can’t interact anymore because of the way that people react”
Posted by mcfw31
27 Comments
Forgot about the slang and thought it was about sending people around in boxes 💀
I wonder if she has seen the /tv/ threads,
Iirc Larry stylinson damaged harry and louis’ friendship because of the insane fans about it. Tho imo as long as you keep your shipping 100% away from the people like fics on ao3/Tumblr i say go for it as long as you can remember its fake
I, a chronic tumblr user during the peak SuperWhoLock era, forgot what shipping meant and was SO confused. I’ve never been more ashamed of myself.
I always feel the shipping of real people is very icky. I don’t mind fans shipping the characters but real people – nope.
Tbh shipping real ppl its a little cringe, if they’re open to that I guess it’s okay but when there are nothing like that ppl should read the room
Its so strange to me that people do this and act like its normal behavior. These are real people with real lives, stop projecting and self inserting, its weird and very off putting to not only these people but everyone else
She put this really well. I wish the fans who need to hear it would actually internalize it, but I don’t think they’re capable.
I always feel like Larries really ruined Louis and Harry’s friendship.
Put those Heated Rivalry weirdos on blast
I think fandom culture and stan culture has *really* evolved with social media and the cat is out of the bag – there’s no going back. Not saying that messages like this won’t work and bring awareness, but if people are going to be loud about shipping celebrities about it and ignore boundaries, I think the conversation should really evolve to how celebrities are protected from social media abuse and undesirable things online.
It’s also dangerous because ultimately it’s dehumanizing- you’re turning real people into characters in a story.
Characters always live in the realm of dramatic function- their actions are based on what the author wants, a specific narrative goal within the context of the story.
When people start thinking of people as characters they, whether they know it or not, also start analyzing that person’s choices through the lens of dramatic narrative. Meaning their actions have to make dramatic ‘sense.’ It has to forward or play a part of a certain story. It has to fit within whatever role the character has.
They find it harder and harder to believe any actions are coming from a place of the myriad human complexities or incongruities or inconsistencies that everyone has and instead believe that that person’s every action *must* be coming from a place of narrative function.
This is where the people in question become frustrated because even though they can outright say what they actually feel and what they actually want, if what they’re saying goes against this narrative the fans have built up they’ll see it as either fake, disregard it, or see it as a part of the narrative (‘their denying PROVES their bosses/agent/girlfriend are forcing them to speak against their will!’ is a common one.) it must be horrific to live through. You are essentially stripped of any autonomy or ability to speak for yourself because of an elaborate fantasy.
I read fanfics as a teenager and adult. When I found out ppl write fanfics about real life folks it weirded me out. It’s nothing wrong with characters from a show or book that you might want to change the ending for or continue their story so you do so in a peaceful way with writing. But this is overstepping an I wish more ppl would respect actors they get so much unnecessary harassment if they play characters ppl dnt like and now I’m learning about this new level of crazy stuff. Their mental health should matter to us if we claim to be fans. The creators of the fanfic sites shouldn’t allow writers to do those types of fics imo. Sorry for the rant.
I was enjoying interacting with the fandom of a new movie I really liked, until some people started shipping the two main actors (one is married with kids). They said “if he doesn’t like it, he can cry to his millions of dollars about it.” Really made me feel weird.
What happened to good old shipping like Legolas x Aragorn or Ellis x Nick from Left 4 Dead.
Bring back innocuous shipping!
Is that Jamie from Made in Chelsea? No idea he had a podcast
it’s never good because we don’t know the whole story in these relationships. if they don’t date, fans come up with reasons why, if they do date and it doesn’t las then theories come up with who was the problem. It’s just all so messy and it’s not good for anyone. Like the Keke Palmer and Sean Evans from hot ones dating, if they ever do date and it doesn’t work I can’t imagine how awful the comment sections will be.
It’s so messed up that people ship real people, like characters ok I get it whatever but *real people* that’s just creepy. Also it messes up the actors real relationship with each other and damages the show or projects that they work on. I mean, and I never knew if this was just a rumor so I’m sorry if I got it wrong, but didn’t that mess up the BBC Sherlock show because Benedict Cumberbatch and the guy who played Watson(I’m bad with names😭) were being really overwhelmed with the Sherlock and Watson shipping to the point were the guy who played Watson got uncomfortable? I don’t think Cumberbatch really minded though.
But I know that even if it’s just the characters the fan art can really go too far as well.
Isn’t it a lot of times the celebs own PR doing this, though?
Shipping real life people is a very strange parasocial relationship to have with celebrity culture. I can imagine children doing it, but full grown adults shipping other real life adults is weird to me.
It’s crazy how some people really can’t just be normal fans of things.
Shipping characters is normal. Shipping people has always been weird to me.
I remember the crazy Arrow fans who attacking Stephen Amell’s wife on social media because they saw her as standing between Stephen and Emily Bett Rickards (who is actually gay, I think).
And in a more niche area, the absolutely insanity of the Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose fans who flat out refused to believe that he was really dating the woman who is now his wife, because they’d put so much energy into making up nasty rumours about her that they gaslit themselves.
This is conflating two different behaviors. RPF shipping and harassing people online. It’s similar to crazy twitter stans who harass anyone and everyone online in defense of their fav. But you wouldn’t lump them in with all fans of [insert pop artist here], and say it’s dangerous and morally grey to be a fan on twitter.
Just don’t be a dick and keep your stuff in fandom spaces and you should be fine.
Was out of the fanfic scene for several years before coming back in to find that folks would ship and write fic about real ass people. Like F1 drivers or Kpop stars.
Is it harmless? Technically yeah. Is it cringe and does it cross a boundary? Absolutely.
I’m all for creative outlets and writing fic, but it’s just too creepy to write, draw, or create content that ships real people.
We need to hold creeps accountable for being creepy. I feel like Myers is saying what a lot of actors want to say.
Off topic, but wow I haven’t thought about Jamie Laing since I lived in England and watched Made in Chelsea.
It’s been 10 years since One Direction disbanded and there is still a large chunk of the fandom that firmly believes Harry & Louis were/are in a romantic relationship. They have both spoken out on numerous occasions, similar to what Emma is saying, about how uncomfortable it was for them & their loved ones. Sadly they grew a part because of it, admitting they began avoiding one another on and off stage to stop fueling the fire. It’s so weird how some fans convince themselves that behavior is okay.