#and he's allowed because critisizing him is homophobic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

experiment-000 · 3 years

Note

zuko-is-straight has some pretty good zukka critisism/anti zukka stuff on her blog!

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't really want zukka hate or even criticism. I don't hate zukka as a ship it's just not my cup of tea. I'm just annoyed at how anti zutara the zukka side of the fandom seems to be. And frankly even if I did hate zukka as a ship I know it wouldn't be productive to seek out zukka hate because that would just validate my hatred and likely lead to me resenting people just for shipping it.

We need to be able to separate our feelings about ships from our feelings about the shipper. I know it's difficult there are certain ships that if someone says they ship it I immediately recoil, and even though I think it's because I really dislike the ship, I know in reality it's because of how much fans of that ship have hated on fans of my ship, and therefore how much anti their ship stuff I've seen. Arguments for why that ship is a terrible ship and why my ship us so much better.

But the thing is this is shipping fictional characters. It doesn't really matter which ship has more chemistry or which ship makes more canon sense or which ship is the least problematic because they're not real. People in one fandom likely have so many things in common because they're all in that fandom, yet we divide ourselves by shipping different things. I see so many posts saying don't interact if you ship this, this, this or this. Yet these blogs don't just post ship stuff. Shipping doesn't have to have anything to do with it. Heck I was told not to interact with a blog because I'm neutral to some ships. And this blog didn't even post shipping content generally. And yes these ships are arguably "problematic". And as a result I'm not a big fan of them. However, they're some of the most popular ships in the fandom, so much of the fanfiction features those ships. So if I see a fanfic that happens to have that ship in, but also has a very appealing plot to me, then I'll read it.

To bring it back round to zukka. Yeah I've read some zukka fanfic. If I see cute zukka art I'll like it. Same with kataang or maiko or any other atla ship. And yes I would avoid any incest or large age gaps or pedophilia or abusive relationships, and I'm still conflicted on whether or not people should be condemned for shipping these things. It's not hurting anyone because it's all fictional. But pedophilia especially is very wrong. But I do think we need to think about its definition. Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. "Prepubescent" being a key word.

Shipping a 16 year old and an 18 year old is something I find perfectly ok. They likely have similar levels of maturity, both having reached puberty most likely, and it's perfectly legal in the country I live, where the age of consent is 16. However if someone was shipping a 16 year old with a 40 year old I would avoid it like the plagye because of the power difference, even though it's perfectly legal where I'm from.

So what about shipping those who are underage? This is where we talk about avatar and its ships. Personally I don't have any issues with shipping teenagers. They're growing up, date in real life, and are often portrayed as having romantic relationships in canon. However, I do think we should keep it sfw as a general rule. But guess what, a lot of people in fandom are teenagers. We can say under 18s don't interact with smut or nsfw content but it won't stop them. Certainly didn't stop me. Growing up I wanted smut of these teenage ships because I was their age. Should we really deny teenage shippers the chance to learn about their sexuality through nsfw fandom?

But then what about adults in these fandoms? I'm 18. I'm still learning how to be an adult in fandom. I grew up shipping these teenage ships and yeah reading smut about them. I was their age was that really so wrong? I don't have the answers to this question. Right now I'm still of an age where I feel I'm allowed to find Zuko attractive. But I won't be in a few years, and I don't feel allowed to find the younger characters attractive anymore, even though I did when I was their age. And frankly I'm starting to find them less attractive anyway probably because I'm now considering them young.

But what about shipping? I'm not gonna stop shipping zutara because it's such a nostalgic ship for me. Shipping a 14 year old and a 16 year old I see no moral issues with that according to the law of my country, as even though a 14 year old is below the age of consent, it's generally considered anyone age 13-15 may be in a sexual relationship with someone within two years age of them (but over 13) and the elder will face no legal retribution as long as it's consensual. And of course teenagers often date chastely anyway.

I have no issues with continuing to ship zutara, the question is should I be allowed to consume nsfw zutara content set when they're the canon ages. And I think the answer to that for me is I'm no longer interested in it. I find them too young and in canon they had too much other stuff to think about to be thinking about sex. Would I read aged up zutara smut? Sure why not? Would I read a fic with fade to black sex at the canon ages? Sure I guess as it'd likely have a larger plot of the smut was fade to black. If I encountered a fic that I wanted to read that had some smut scenes at canon ages I would likely skim or skip over it now. And I think that's the answer. Most adults wouldn't want to read smut about teenagers. Smut about teenagers exists for teenagers. Don't condemn them for it.

I don't ship zukka cos I just prefer their dynamic as friends and never really saw the chemistry. That doesn't make me homophobic. I ship zutara because it's what I started shipping when I first watched avatar when I was 13. I think they have a lot of chemistry and are great foils to each other and have similar levels of maturity. Momtara and dadko but as in they're the mom friend and the dad friend is one of my favourite things because he actually helps around camp and frankly parents the younger members of the group just like katara has from the start. That's why I don't ship kataang too. I think aang is too young to be shipped really. Especially not with Katara who mothers him and is much more emotionally mature than him. That doesn't mean I hate aang as a character - I don't. These are just my personal opinions on ships, and they're no more valid than anyone else's.

The fact that I don't ship these ships doesn't mean I hate them. And definitely doesn't mean I hate their shippers. I wish we could all just be friends. We all love avatar yet we've been divided by the fictional relationships. That's why I don't want to see hate for any ship on my blog. Even criticism leads to hatred. I don't think there's anything wrong with hating a ship. The issue lies in letting your hate for a ship become hate for the shippers. That's why I try not to post any hate for ships - it perpetuates an environment of hate.

So thank you for the blog suggestion, but it's just not what I look for in fandom anymore.

#maybe i shouldn't have even mentioned why i dislike other avatar ships #the ships i hate bits were not about atla ships but im not gonna mention what ships they are because i dont want to be attacked by antis #fandom #atla #ask #anon #avatar the last airbender #zukka #zutara #kataang #yeah im tagging them #i think we as shippers need to talk about shipping regardless of what we ship #shipping #i hope i dont get obliterated for this

11 notes · View notes