Talk:Shipping (fandom)

I hate how the mods keep changing the shipping image to the Mickey X Oswald

Are you guys actually homo I mean there's nothing wrong with being gay but all of you love changing it to that images and making admin abuse excuses even when there's a even more better image that's not copyrighted.

STOP ADMIN ABUSING ShadowDaLoser (talk) 23:29, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

Neither casual homophobia nor accusing people of "admin abusing" (in all-caps and bold!) is likely to persuade people to your point of view. The image you wanted to use in the article has been deleted for copyright reasons, so we clearly can't use that. What other image do you suggest would be better than the current one? Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 00:29, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

You are exactly right. The view of the user you are replying to is definitely not going to persuade people to change their opinions.--Historyday01 (talk) 03:07, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Shipping doesn't have to be romantic.

On the actual article, it states that "the desire by followers of a fandom for two or more people, either real-life people or fictional characters (in film, literature, television series, etc.), to be in a romantic relationship." However, shipping is derived from the word 'relationship,' which is not always romantic. Sure, fandom shipping is USUALLY romantic, but that doesn't change the fact that relationships include siblings, parent and child, and literally friends. Not called a friend-SHIP for no reason, is it?

Not editing the original article because I don't want to cause an issue.

Sorry for being petty. I'm just trying to prove a point to someone. Cassidyspite (talk) 01:28, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Ok. I would say it generally does mean romantic, so I don't see a reason to change it. Historyday01 (talk) 13:15, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Friendships are a type of relationship, but "shipping" specifically refers to romantic relationships. It was originally coined specifically about a romantic relationship, and the sources cited in this article specifically say that it refers to romantic relationships. Possibly some people use the word more broadly but that would be a definite minority position and without sources discussing such a use we should not put it in the article. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 13:46, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Right, exactly. Historyday01 (talk) 20:58, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Real person shipping

Possibly this article should include something on real person shipping, and the problems with that. It doesn't seem to be mentioned outside the WP:LEAD. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:16, 1 February 2025 (UTC)

Could we change the main image?

We don't even have to remove the image from the article but I think we should pick an image that is better suited as the current one is the first thing you see when you hover over a link for this article. The image makes shipping in general to be way more lewd than it is and frankly kind of problematic as Mickey and Oswald are commonly considered brothers. DepressedChickenNugget (talk) 21:50, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

Do you have an alternative suitably licensed image that you think would be better? Frankly I'm struggling to think of a less lewd image which would be appropriate – they aren't even kissing! Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 22:06, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

File:Happy_Public_Domain_Day,_by_UnevenPrankster.png is a good contender i think, given it has both mickey mouse, who is in the current image and wikipe-tan, who is considered the unofficial mascot of wikipedia

i also want to add the current infobox image has highly incestuous undertones as they were confirmed to be brothers in the epic mickey series, and has aspects of oswalds design (namely, the blue shorts) that likely arent freely licensed Zeebeethedog (talk) 18:33, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

I'm tied between whether to use that one or... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipe-tan_and_Adult_Commons-tan_Yuri.png and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Can_I_have_you_as_my_wife%3F_by_vananhtrieu.jpg. Which one do you think is better? Historyday01 (talk) 19:39, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

Frankly I don't think any of those are improvements. I don't have any particular attachment to the current image, but of the proposed alternatives, all three read as less obviously depicting shipping to me. Wikipedia-Tan is not really the subject of any fandom and art with her in seems to take the image further away from the subject of this article. Of the three images, this at least depicts an actual ship. On the other hand, it's neither a big fandom nor a notable ship (about 700 works for the fandom and 169 for the ship on AO3 at time of writing) and if we are going to depict a completely non-notable ship there's at least an argument that it should be an M/M one as the relative prevalence of M/M is arguably the most distinctive thing about fanfiction shipping culture. And for a general audience the existing Mickey/Oswald is much more recognisably depicting known characters, which is another key feature of shipping worth conveying. (As for the idea that Oswald and Mickey are brothers in Epic Mickey and therefore we shouldn't show shipping art of them: nonsense. They aren't the world's most popular ship, but people do ship Mickey/Oswald – along with plenty of things which make people more uncomfortable than that! WP:NOTCENSORED applies here: "I find fictional incest icky" is not a compelling reason to change the image.)

My ideal replacement image would recognisably show a popular ship (probably but not necessarily an M/M one) in a clearly shippy manner – Holmes/Watson would be a good candidate as the original stories and the iconic Sidney Paget illustrations are all out of copyright, but Kirk/Spock, Xena/Gabrielle (as an example of an influential F/F ship) or Mulder/Scully (the source of the word) are other obvious options. Ideally the article would also discuss that ship. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 22:00, 22 April 2025 (UTC)