✿ 𝒩𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈𝒽𝒶𝒹𝑒 ✿

People calling them fetish content and etc of slew of slander

First off

If your immediate reaction to seeing a queer pairing or queer media in general is "this is a fetish," then you need to check your self and your own beliefs, and this is coming from a queer woman

As a queer woman fetishized queer stuff shows up everywhere and anywhere I don’t disagree that it doesn’t it certainly does

But

If your are calling EVERY SINGLE piece of queer media and queer individuals' desire to see themselves represented in their favorite media or characters or in a ship as "fetish slop" is I call this ✨ homophobic ✨

If a people creating or shipping of two fictional men or women or any flavor of the rainbow being romantic upsets you (as long as it is legal of course), then you are the problem, not the ship.

This is not talking about people being toxic to others this just about people who ship and enjoy it and are under the constant hatred of a fandom

And of course there are going to be people who take things too far and do questionable things and are toxic and hurtful to other people

In any fandom that exists you're going to have bad people in it. You're going to have bad experiences, and you're going to witness weird things from weird individuals.

There are way too many individuals in the anime community who are far too open and happy to be misogynistic and queerphobic under shipping posts that happen to have queer pairings or literally any comment about any queer ship

If you don't like certain content, then don't interact with it.

Shipping as a whole has always been a part of fandom culture since the dawn of STAR TREK

(It’s literally where we get the fuck or die trope)

and will continue being part of fandom culture and is one of the main things that helps keep fandoms alive well after the franchise ends.

As a queer woman, Being queer is normal; wanting to have queer media is normal. Queer people are allowed to be loud and proud about their existence and what they enjoy same as any other fan

And this doesn’t just go for being queer it goes for any experience it’s human nature to desire to see yourself and aspects of yourself represented in things you consume

It’s why we as the anime community have strived to pioneer and progress I mean why do you think shojo is a thing? So girls and women could see themselves represented in the medium, black people, other ethnicities identities all should have things that they can find safe and relatable to them, and they find a character regardless who they feel relates to their life and their experiences and sees themselves in that character there is no harm

If you truly get upset by seeing this, then you need to change as a person. You are not being harmed, no one is being harmed just because of people shipping or desire representation

Yes there will alway be people who take things too far far and do bad things but that isn’t a reflection of a group as a whole

To the whole argument of

This argument really bugs me because I almost always seems to appear under posts with queer shipping.

You'll see a male and female character have one conversation, and the fandom immediately starts shipping them without a single 'why can't they just be friends' comment in sight.

Cough Giyu x Shinobu cough

But the second people pair two characters of the same gender who've shown deep emotional vulnerability, mutual sacrifice, or a life-altering bond, suddenly people are fetishizing gayness/lesbianism.

By saying that, you are implying that straightness is the 'default' and queerness is an 'addition' that needs a mountain of black and white evidence to ever be valid or is just blatantly 'wrong' and not normal.

I swear you could have two characters have a 10 minute makeout session and profess their love for one another and people would still be questioning the validity of their relationship and feelings for each other

…oh wait I have

If you aren't using the same 'just friends' argument for every other straight ship that exists in a fandom, then you aren't actually worried about the ' value of friendship nor actual fetishism; you're just uncomfortable with the idea of these characters being queer.

People are allowed to find romantic subtext in deep friendships; that is how MANY of the best stories and real-life relationships start.

We also need to talk about the people who take it a step further by labeling every close bond a 'sibling bond' or “just friends” just to make shipping feel 'wrong.'

There's absolutely nothing wrong with seeing characters as siblings or just friends ; if that is how you see it that’s great!!

it becomes an issue when you start using your own interpretation as a way to demonize queer ships and people who enjoy queer ships and or dictate how other people must also interpret said relationships

If anyone sees romantic potential in a deep, complicated bond between two characters, that is a

literary interpretation

It is not a reflection of anyone's view on their real-life friends or family or how they view friendship

To tell someone they are a 'danger to those around them' or that they “ don’t understand friendship” because they enjoy a queer ship is a hurtful, demeaning and unnecessary

Stop trying to pathologize strangers over fictional characters.

You aren’t a psychologist anyway, you shouldn’t “diagnose” people mentally when you are just a person who feels comfortable demonizing someone behind a keyboard

Suggesting that having a queer headcanon makes someone a real-world predator or 'incestuous' or unable to conceive friendship

Is not a difference in opinion; it's a gross, targeted, hateful attack meant to shame queerness.

It's like saying, "If you don't see the world how I see it, then there's something broken in your brain."

Fictional tropes like rivals to lovers have existed for years. Using them to question someone's real-life morality and psyche is gross.

"B-B-But none of these ships make sense!" “They never interacted!” “They don’t like each other”

or x reason to justify why a ship doesn’t work

Crackships. Cross ships. Rare pairs. Shipping has always been meant to be silly and at many times unserious!

It's a way for the community to create art and make fun headcanons with each other, and explore plot points and dynamics that were never addressed in the cannon story line?

I can guarantee that every person in their life has had a thought about

Ya know I wish I could have seen what happened if X happened

Or

Ya know this idea would have been real interesting for the author to explore I wish they had”

That’s basically what shipping is in though

People are naturally curious and thoughtful about things they enjoy, it’s a good thing too! It shows that something meant something to you or sparked inspiration!

That’s the whole point or art and media is too promote thought and get you to think critically about things

Literature, are or any form of media that doesn’t spark inspiration or interest or further thought other than what is there would never gain a following or stay relevant

A character being straight, married, or literally canonically unavailable has never stopped people from shipping characters in fiction. That's the whole point-it's fiction. It's imagination. It's not a legal contract.

Shipping = fans exploring dynamics they find interesting, cute, dramatic, or chaotic. That's it. It's not activism, it's not politics, it's not 'oppression, and it's definitely not hurting you.

A ship doesn't need to be "canon" to have supporters, as long as it's legal and people find joy in creating content or exploring the dynamic of a ship, than it’s all right

“But I don’t understand x ship

Or

This doesn’t make sense to me”

Perfectly fine, shipping is not required by anyone in a fandom, same way not all anime fans are not required to watch AOT or One piece to enjoy anime

some people don’t enjoy it or find interest in it and that is 100% valid, we as humans are not going to find interest in all things that’s what makes us so interesting as a species is our diversity in thought and ideas it makes us richer

Chances are if you don’t understand a ship or it doesn’t make sense to you or you don’t enjoy it,

The ship isn’t for you, but it is for someone and they love it

Lost my mind a little and added (if my math is correct) 5,615 beads to Nim Teasdale's Odenwald pattern. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!

The goal was “soothingly weighted but not uncomfortable to wear, even as someone with chronic pain.” It could have been a little heavier, so maybe I’ll make a shawl with larger beads another time, but I’m very pleased with this one. I used size 6/0 seed beads, applied as I go with a .6mm crochet hook.

Yarn-wise, used 2 cakes of YarnArt Flowers. I knitted the fully purple sections from both, then knitted all the way through the yellow-oranges with a single ball. When I hit the beginning of red-oranges, I used yarn from both cakes, alternating between them. (Not the entirety of both, I played it by ear to make sure I made it through the full rainbow.)

I do have edited charts with bead placements. I will only share them with Nim's permission.