(Note: The original version of this writing was posted on my Tumblr blog on 3 May 2021)
I feel that the older I get, the less interested I am in shipping in general, and the less I can understand grown adults in late 20s or older who build their personality around shipping and cannot engage with any fiction without shipping something (before I remade my Tumblr account in 2015, I used to follow a 30-something-year-old fandom blogger who was literally like this).
I have also come to actually dislike shipping culture, especially the mindset of engaging with media primarily through a shipping lens at the expense of the characterisation, non-romantic relationships, themes, and general content of a piece of media. Throughout my years of experience with various fandoms, I have witnessed so many incredible characters and non-romantic relationships get ignored or underappreciated by the fandom because they’re not part of a popular ship. On the other hand, there are also many amazing characters get mischaracterised to make a fanon ship work, or get reduced to a handful of tropes as shippers Flanderise them in their shipping fan works.
Do not even get me started on the shippers who will complain about not being able to enjoy a piece of media just because “there’s no couple to ship”. Ffor example, I’ve literally seen people on Tumblr make such complaints about the film Parasite, as if a profound piece of art that brutally critiques the class system does not matter if it does not provide any shipping material. It’s honestly very infuriating to see shippers like these are so willing to ignore art with meaningful story, characters and themes just because it lacks shipping fodder for them to project fanon onto.
Speaking of fanon, I really hate it when shippers, particularly shippers of popular non-canon pairings, expect anyone who is a fan of the same piece of media or any of the characters involved in the pairing to care about ships and treat the popular fanon ships as canon. These shippers also tend to act like their fanon and headcanons are universal, using languages like “the fandom has decided–” and “everyone has agreed that–”. And these shippers wonder why others who do not engage with that piece of media for shipping get sick and tired of shipping taking over discussions about said piece of media.
If you are so invested in shipping to the point that you are willing to disregard a piece of media just because you cannot find anything to ship, or you treat it as a personal attack when people talk about being sick and tired of shipping culture as well as how shipping dominates discussions about a piece of media, maybe you need to consider taking a step back from shipping and learning to take your shipping goggles off when you interact with a piece of media.