Do you worry about if "anti" will one day become the new "SJW", where people will just lob the phrase at anyone who is merely critical about a ship without argument? I've already started seeing the latter happen slowly.
yes and no, because … well, it’s funny, but ‘anti’ has kind of … come full circle? in this respect?
a brief history of the word/label ‘anti’ in fictional media tumblr fandom spaces is below, but please remember that the word/label ‘anti’ is used in a lot of other communities as well, with different connotations in each one (see ‘antis’ in RPF fandoms for an example).
brief history of the ‘anti’ label in fictional media fandoms on tumblr
in fictional media fandom spaces on tumblr, ‘anti-[ship]’ started out as the tumblr version of ‘that ship is my notp’ and had nothing to do with moralizing or bullying.Â
(’anti [ship]’ was itself an outgrowth of the anti-[topic] tags used to keep [topic]-negative posts out of the ‘main’ tag on tumblr (’don’t tag your hate!’), which encompassed everything from intellectual critique of [topic] to vendetta tirades against [topic].)
due to tumblr fandom’s conflation of shipping and activism, anti-kink/anti-porn radfems (swerfs) influence anti-[ship] communities in particular by intermingling anti-[kink/porn] & anti-[ship] blog content.*Â
following the social models cued by anti-kink radfems & puritanical anti-sex-ed Christians, a significant portion of self-identified ‘antis’ eventually semi-organize into an abusive fandom-policing machine geared towards picking on fans/fanworks of designated ‘bad ships’ (which are invariably described as ‘pedophilia’/’incestuous’/’abusive’). the superficial appearance of doing good, likely coupled with other factors such as ship wars, feelings of disgust towards dark/kinky fandom content, and misogynistic cultural background radiation draws new fandomgoers into the movement, growing their ranks.
the constant vitriol, hatred, harassment, and negativity spewing from these militant ‘anti-[ship]’ communties cause the word ‘anti’ to become associated with cyberbullying and moral abuse.
a backlash against anyone using ‘anti-[ship]’ tags or calling themselves an ‘anti’ (whether they were partaking in this type of militant anti-shipping or not) results, unfairly hurting self-identified antis who were minding their own business, alienating them from the shippers attacking them. militant antis intensify the resulting polarization by using non-militant antis as shields & strawmen to paint the backlash as unwarranted.
nonetheless, 'anti’ and ‘anti-[ship] as self-identifiers start to fall out of use. militant antis migrate to ‘anti-pedophilia’/’anti-incest’/’anti-abuse’, though they continue to focus on fictional depictions and not real life examples of these things. they assert that anyone criticizing them or their stance on fictional dark content must be a [wannabe] irl pedophile/rapist/abuser, or an apologist for them at the least.Â
the constant polarization and nonstop harassment still streaming from militant antis takes its toll on its targets and its bystanders, encouraging hypersensitivity to any sort of critique or negative comment in their relatively anti-free spaces.
hypersensitivity led to shushing and discouragement of negativity of any kind whatsoever in ‘pro-ship’ or ‘ship and let ship’ communities. people who complain ‘sound like antis’.
 and the ironic thing is ... they do. but in the original tumblr fandom sense, not the ‘militant hater anti’ sense.
*come to think of it, radfem descriptions of kinky relationships such as clg & ddlg as ‘pedophilia’ or ‘incest’ and of bdsm relationships as ‘abuse’ no doubt had a significant influence on the way these words would come to be employed by militant anti-shippers.Â
