#-and also im just kinda in a unfeeling mood rn since im not fully woken up yet so the topic isnt too uncomfortable for me rn

[rouge-the-bat]

I don't often visit your blog and usually don't understand anything when I see any discourse on your page... So that's what this discourse with paganism and anti/pro ship is all about?

im honestly not familiar with the pagan shipcourse part of all this since ive never seen it before until i got an ask for it, so i cant really explain anything about that since i ultimately dont know a lot of details. you can check my ask tag (#starry asks) for some recent asks on the subject if ud like, though. theres just 3 posts (other than this one) about it rn on my blog.

if youre asking about anti/proship stuff specifically too tho, i dont really feel like getting into it right now and really dont want asks about it (as you can see in my pinned post) but i can give a general explanation for you here. at the very basic, the cores of the beliefs are:

anti: against people shipping anything that can be deemed problematic

proship: support people shipping problematic things

there can be additional sides to it, some antis treat fiction affects reality on a 1:1 ratio, and that your fictional interests inherently define your real life morals, while some other antis arent as extreme as that. some proshippers take the full opposite approach and act like fiction never affects reality, while others arent as extreme as that. im unsure on how common either of these extremes are, but i defintely see extreme antis way more than extreme proshippers, personally. the idea that your fictional interests dont equal your real life morals is pretty much a universal proship stance, though.

a lot of proshippers define it like "against harassment over fiction," as harassment from antis is EXTREMELY common (but ofc not all of them are harassers), but inherently, when theres any sort of wide group of human beings, theres always a bad bunch, so its not like theres zero proshippers who engage in harassment too. and also, not all proshippers engage in problematic ships, but they support those who do.

i myself do not ship things thatd fall under proshipping, as im a csa victim and it makes me very uncomfortable. but i know that a controlled exposure of triggering topics through fiction is a legitmate way some csa survivors, or other people with triggers, can sometimes work past being so heavily affected by their triggers. and i also do not believe people should have to expose something so personal such as their trauma, especially to complete strangers, for others to deem it okay for them to engage in a fictional thing.

i know fiction can affect reality, but its usually more watering the seeds of gross things already set in some peoples minds, than planting new seeds. someone growing up surrounded by racists and falling into that mindset is going to be affected by racist propaganda, while someone who didnt have that upbringing and knows a variety of people of different races is more likely going to find it gross and harmful. fiction simply doesnt affect everyone the same. and personally, since i very much enjoy whump, and thus call myself a "fictional sadist," im deeply offended by people treating others fictional interests as their real life morals. real people suffering horrifies me. i cant even watch true crime shows without getting anxiety. i know first hand that my fictional interests do not match my real life morals, so i know as a fact that others can be in the same situation.

so yea, generally i take the stance of "yes fiction is complex and there can be real world effects from it, but that doesnt mean someones fictional interests represent their morals, and people should not be harassed over it." i think how fiction can affect reality should absolutely be discussed, but not in an trying-to-enforce-censorship sort of way. just keeping people aware of how to safely engage in fiction, and separating it from reality in their mind, so there would be even Less effects on reality.