this might be a bad idea

[avawatson]

So, I found this website, femsplain. It's a "shared experience content publisher powered by contributions from anyone female identified." It's trying to carve out a safe space for female voices, free of harassment, aiming toward community. They're currently having a kickstarter, have been promoted by a few feminist celebrities, and have been going for about 4 months now. The format is that every month, they have themes; February's is desire. People can submit proposals to contribute: articles, art, video, etc. Most of it is articles.

And. I maybe am having the very bad idea of submitting something for it. Something to do with shipping. Women shipping slash ships.

And. I might have already written a proposal for it.

It might be under the cut.

Be gentle, okay? I know it's probably too long for a proposal.
-

I'm a fangirl. It's not a small part of my identity at this point; in the couple years I've self-identified as such, I've jumped feet first into Tumblr and Twitter fan communities, joined a podcast that produces content solely about the BBC Sherlock fandom, written fanfiction, started attending fan conventions across the nation for fun, and have altogether spent an awful lot of time thinking about fictional men falling in love. With each other.

Which means I'm not just a fangirl but a shipper. A slash shipper, at that. I ship Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, a ship that commonly goes by the portmanteau johnlock. And if you're unfamiliar with the terminology, the act of shipping means supporting the romantic involvement with one another, irrespective of canon. It comes from the word "relationship" and even if that sounds like a meme or internet speak, it's a tale as old as time. Or at least Kirk and Spock from the original Star Trek show. Or even the original Holmes and Watson canon written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Where you see a lot of this is in fanfiction, or fan-created fiction. The “slash” part of shipping is actually about shipping homosexual pairs. Mostly that means men with other men, but it also refers to lesbian pairings. And that word, for the etymologically oriented of you reading this, is from the literal slash that separated these pairings. Kirk/Spock, or K/S, was the first, and it came about when people referred to “Kirk slash Spock.” End of history lesson. Not the end of judgment.

At this point, the gears turning in the average civilian’s head are clunking quite loudly. We shippers can hear it.

In some people's eyes, all this means I'm "that" kind of fangirl, interested in shipping and slash ships, interested in romances and the prurient, interested in (let's face it) porn. About as low brow as low brow can get. And, well, gross, right? Ew. Women getting turned on, women imagining and wanting sex, that was bad enough; and now this added layer of women imagining other people having sex? Cue the exaggeration motions of gagging and loud calls for brain bleach. It's a familiar dance.

Why women ship what they ship has been talked about a lot — and very often, not by the women doing the shipping. And so it’s not a surprise that we have something of a bad name, nerds all huddled together in the cafeteria, with articles being written by outsiders looking in. To the larger populace, casual fans, and even other fans, we're not creative and passionate, but rabid and ridiculous. Confusing at best and shameful at worst. And whatever visibility I can give to side of fangirl desire, shipping interests, prurient and pornographic besides, I’d like to give. -

I don't know if I'm submitting it. I'm probably going to think on it.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ack, so stressful to think about submitting something like that. I know I recently considered submitting an essay on disordered eating to a website and then backed down because I am basically too lazy to put in the work.

But good luck and good thoughts to you if you decide to submit it for consideration! Wooo!