#taggedhate

[thegirlisuedtobe]

LMAO THAT JEON NA YOUNG??? All this time i knew who she was but didnt put two and two together,,,,

[formerdestielshipper-blog]

Rant of a Recent Former Destiel Shipper

I am destiel shipper...a moderate one. I always enjoyed my ship through fanarts and fanfics on my own, without disturbing anyone with it. I always enjoyed SPN for what the show is: a story about two brothers, one angel and now a (former, maybe) nephilim fighting supernatural evil to save the world with the help of their family, blood-related or not. I always stayed out of fandom drama in general, especially the ones related to ships, because I refused to let that ruin the fun for me regarding my ship and SPN in general. But – even so – it was hard not to see a lot of them, since they always kept popping up on my TL because some of my followers – also destiel shippers – RT them, answered them or caused them. But I always did my best to just ignore them. I ship destiel, but I never wanted it to become canon because romance – heterosexual or LGBTQ + - isn’t what the show is about. I know destiel will never be canon and I’m cool with that.

With the recent events, I realized keeping silence about it was being conivent  with the harassment, blame shifting, hate (tagged and untagged) against the SPN cast and crew and fans of the show who ship a different ship or that don’t ship anyone, pushing that ship on the cast and crew on conventions and on SM. I realized it would be very hypocritical of me disagreeing with that kind of behavior coming from shippers of other ships, but not having the same reaction when said behavior comes from the same segment of the fandom I’m part of.

I’m not comparing the level of abhorrent behavior of some destiel shippers (the hardcore ones) with the abhorrent behavior of bronlies/tinhats or even defending them, because the attitudes of the latter are borderline psychotic/psychopathic that truly makes me worry about the safety of the cast, their families, friends and coworkers and some professional help would be really beneficial for them if they didn’t think they weren’t doing anything wrong…but I digress.

I saw some accounts – some of them really popular among the fandom and with a considerable amount of followers – calling out on the awful behavior of bronlies/tinhats and asking for those who are fans of J2, to regulate them and expose them, report them when they see bronlies/tinhats sending hate against the cast, crew, their families and friends instead of turning the blind eye. But this request of them will fall on deaf years, since they don’t do the same thing.

Lead by example. Practice what you preach. There’s no use you asking other people that if you don’t do the same thing yourself. You obviously know that some destiel shippers do harass and send hate against the cast and crew, tagged or not.  And yet, you’re not vocal about it. The same way bronlies/tinhats attack even the actors’ charities (RA and YANA), I’ve seen plenty of destiel shippers attacking Jared’s AKF campaign over the years.

Tweeting a very superficial message when that happens or ignoring it completely doesn’t help anyone, just validate their awful behavior and they will never realize what they’re doing is wrong. Do with them the same thing you do with the bronlies/tinhats: expose them, ask them to stop because what they’re doing isn’t cool, and report them if necessary. Make them accountable just like you make bronlies/tinhats accountable.

It would be like if I called out the Star Wars fandom for being toxic against the SW cast and directors and ignoring the exact same behavior in SPN Family, by sweeping all the dirt under the rug, just because I’m part of the fandom.

Many of destiel shippers still falsely accuse Jensen of being homophobic/biphobic based on a bad edited video that was posted 5 years ago, that was taken out of context and many still believe Jensen meant to offend the fan even when said fan broke her silence once she found out her name was being used to foment those accusations against Jensen, by telling the fandom what truly happened at that panel. I could see those false accusations and attacks against Jensen again after that click bait article that was full of inaccuracies and lies against some SPN actors came to the surface.

And don’t even get me started on the hate and false accusations of being homophobic/biphobic Jensen got from a lot of destiel shippers just because he said destiel doesn’t exist on the show…which is true, since the ship isn’t canon.

I saw hate – tagged and untagged – being sent against Jared from some destiel shippers (some of them weren’t even at the con, I might add) because he “crashed” the JenMish panel at JIBCon. After all, how dare Jared participate in a panel that he was probably invited to by Jensen and Misha themselves, right? (insert sarcasm here, please).They sent hate against Daniela too, for that same reason among others aka prohibiting shipping questions and ship fanarts, specially the NSFW ones in order to avoid fandom drama in an event that’s supposed to be fun for everyone and to avoid the cast being uncomfortable by such things. You don’t have to agree with Daniela’s rules about the con she organizes, but the moment you buy the ticket, you have to follow them instead of acting like a petulant child to the point of attacking her and one of the three leads of SPN.

Over the years, I saw watching the con panels at YouTube, destiel shippers asking shipping questions to Jensen, Jared, Misha, Samantha Smith, etc., which is considered pushing your ship on the cast. I saw destiel shippers accusing the showrunners, producers, writers, actors, even Kripke of homophobia and queerbaiting just because destiel wasn’t canon.  This has been going on for almost a decade.

The recent episode about the destiel stickers proves exactly that. They aren’t just stickers, they represent a ship and distributing that around is exactly pushing destiel on the fans and even on the cast, since the person in question isn’t going to even bother asking if the people she’s going to give those stickers to at Denver are shippers, let alone destiel shippers too. That attitude is similar - in a way - to fanatic religious people that shove their religion on other people by giving them pamphlets without having the decency to ask those people if they are interested in the first place. By doing so, that person is creating more drama and divide in a fandom that is already divided. Not to mention she’s violating a Creation rule about not bringing shipping related stuff to their cons. It’s the same thing that I said about Daniela and JIBCon: if you buy a ticket to a Creation con, you have to follow their rules, even when not agreeing with them. Just because you paid hundreds of dollars for their ticket, it doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want at the event at the expense of others. Respect is mutual and it isn’t unconditional.

About the queerbaiting, destiel shippers are queerbaiting themselves by demanding a fanon ship to become canon and then being disappointed when that doesn’t happen one season after the other.

I’m LGBTQ+ myself and shipping destiel helped me a lot at being comfortable with my sexual orientation. I consider LGBTQ+ representation to be very important, but I also believe that representation can’t be pushed or used as prop to force a LGBTQ+ ship on a show, especially when the characters of that ship aren’t LGBTQ+, canonically speaking.

LGBTQ+ representation has to happen naturally in order to be convincing, in order to have good and convincing LGBTQ+ characters. And SPN had plenty of good and convincing LGBTQ+ characters over 13 seasons and I don’t mean by that only Charlie and Chuck. SPN had almost 30 LGBTQ+ characters in 13 seasons and destiel shippers ignore those characters or dismiss them just because the canonically heterosexual two characters they ship aren’t amongst them. Maybe those destiel shippers should revaluate if their worry about LGBTQ+ representation on SPN is legit or it’s just something they use as an excuse/blackmail to demand destiel becomes canon.

Other thing that bothers about some destiel shippers. One thing is – outside the show – having the interpretation that two heterosexual characters are LGBTQ+ in order to enjoy fanfics and fanarts, it’s okay. What’s not okay is distorting lines, scenes and even answers of actors whose characters they play for a decade or more (therefore knowing said character better than you ever will) just to fit your destiel agenda. Or worse, ignoring the answers of the actors and even Kripke himself when their answers refute your arguments about destiel. Kripke created those characters. Jensen and Misha play Dean and Cas for years…the three of them know those characters well and way better than you. None of your mental gymnastics, twisting and the incorrect use of the meanings of subtext and archetypes and appeal to fanmade theories will change that. You are basically letting your destiel shipper brains cloud your judgment.

Keep it in your minds that subtext is in the eye of the beholder and your personal interpretation of the characters and how you perceive them will not always coincide with the official view and plans the showrunners, writers and creator of the show have for the characters and their stories. That’s why fanfics exist: so you can read and/or write your own personal interpretation of those characters and how you want their story to be. If you’re going to use subtext as evidence for “my ship is canon” argument, the same thing goes for all the other ships this fandom has, including that one that makes you cringe (believe me, that ship makes me cringe too).

That being said, something that used to bring me joy and helped me in so many ways lost all the fun for me. You won. You managed to turn something beautiful into something ugly and that makes some people hate the character or even the actors who play them due to your very insisting, annoying and hypocritical behavior.

I’ll still continue to enjoy SPN for what the show really is: a story about two brothers, one angel and now a (former, maybe) nephilim fighting supernatural evil to save the world with the help of their family, blood-related or not. I will still continue to love and support the cast and the crew. I will always be thankful for them to making such an amazing and magical show. I will always be thankful for the actors for bringing to life the characters I love and cherish since I watched the show for the first time years ago. I will always be thankful to all of them for sharing the BTS and even a small part of their personal lives with us. I’m thankful for the amazing and positive fans – shippers and non-shippers - I met both online and on IRL and for them being part of my life. But I’ll no longer be a destiel shipper. Thanks for reading and please, be kind…always.

A Former Destiel Shipper.