Now that's a use of the term (shipper) that I'd not heard before. (As I'm a newbie to fandom that's hardly surprising.) I've only seen it used previously as a shortened version of "relationship", not "fan of an individual character." I assume that's what you mean here (and not that you "ship" Willow/Spike? Or perhaps you do?)
No, I'd have put Willow/Spike if I meant that, as opposed to Willow and Spike.
Apparently everyone has their own lexicon. In my corner of fandom, people used "ship" to refer to shipping characters. It was their relationship with the character. A lot of the character specific boards had - which characters do you ship? Or Character Shipping Meme, as opposed to Character/Character shipping meme.
Some people use fangurl or fanboy instead. So get confused. It's sort of like ETA - means Estimated Time of Arrival in one context and Edited to Add in another. Always pay attention to context.
I do think that oftentimes there is a gendered aspect to it - culturally we are trained to identify the protagonist as "male", to excuse male characters (anti-heros) for their darkness, their flaws and fuck-ups; women aren't supposed to have any and are judged more harshly both in fiction and IRL.
Except that people equally disliked Angel in his series for the same reasons. So the theory doesn't hold water. For some maybe, but most fans just don't like the hero (anti or otherwise), they identify more with the supporting characters or the one's you see less of. The reason, again, for this - is often the supporting characters are better developed, and you get less of them. Heroes tend to be less layered, less complex, and often fall too neatly into archetypal tropes. Buffy = the popular cheerleader, who has to save the world...and is self-involved, yet selfless - she's in every episode and all the time. Viewers are like, damn, I can't identify with that character...that's not me, but I can identify with the nerdy witch who wants to be the hero or the nerdy sidekick who loves her. Same deal with male shows. A lot of Smallville fans preferred Lex and Chloe to Clark. It really has nothing to do with gender. I used to think so, but I've done enough polls and read enough posts on enough forums to state...eh, no...it has to do with hero trope.
There are exceptions. I actually like Emma on OUAT - she's my favorite character and she's the hero. But she's written older, and more reluctant and snarkier than Buffy was. So that may be it. And I adore the lead in The Good Wife. Veronica was my favorite in Veronica Mars. Gellar just didn't do it for me. Neither did Angel for that matter. My favorite characters in Angel were Fred, Wes, and Darla.
no subject
No, I'd have put Willow/Spike if I meant that, as opposed to Willow and Spike.
Apparently everyone has their own lexicon. In my corner of fandom, people used "ship" to refer to shipping characters. It was their relationship with the character. A lot of the character specific boards had - which characters do you ship? Or Character Shipping Meme, as opposed to Character/Character shipping meme.
Some people use fangurl or fanboy instead. So get confused. It's sort of like ETA - means Estimated Time of Arrival in one context and Edited to Add in another. Always pay attention to context.
I do think that oftentimes there is a gendered aspect to it - culturally we are trained to identify the protagonist as "male", to excuse male characters (anti-heros) for their darkness, their flaws and fuck-ups; women aren't supposed to have any and are judged more harshly both in fiction and IRL.
Except that people equally disliked Angel in his series for the same reasons. So the theory doesn't hold water. For some maybe, but most fans just don't like the hero (anti or otherwise), they identify more with the supporting characters or the one's you see less of. The reason, again, for this - is often the supporting characters are better developed, and you get less of them. Heroes tend to be less layered, less complex, and often fall too neatly into archetypal tropes. Buffy = the popular cheerleader, who has to save the world...and is self-involved, yet selfless - she's in every episode and all the time. Viewers are like, damn, I can't identify with that character...that's not me, but I can identify with the nerdy witch who wants to be the hero or the nerdy sidekick who loves her. Same deal with male shows. A lot of Smallville fans preferred Lex and Chloe to Clark. It really has nothing to do with gender. I used to think so, but I've done enough polls and read enough posts on enough forums to state...eh, no...it has to do with hero trope.
There are exceptions. I actually like Emma on OUAT - she's my favorite character and she's the hero. But she's written older, and more reluctant and snarkier than Buffy was. So that may be it. And I adore the lead in The Good Wife. Veronica was my favorite in Veronica Mars.
Gellar just didn't do it for me. Neither did Angel for that matter.
My favorite characters in Angel were Fred, Wes, and Darla.