See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268449054

If fandom jumped off a bridge, it would be onto a

ship An examination of conflict that occurs
though shipping in fandom.
Conference Paper July 2014

READS

542

1 author:
Gemma Bothe
University of Western Australia
4 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE

Available from: Gemma Bothe

Retrieved on: 19 April 2016

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |1

Gemma Bothe
PhD Candidate Anthropology and Sociology,
The University of Western Australia
20160768@student.uwa.edu.au
PRIMARY KEYWORD:
SUPPLIMENTARY KEYWORKS:

Community Media
Creativity/creative Industries; Cultural Studies; Media Studies

If fandom jumped off a bridge, it would be onto a ship: An examination of

conflict that occurs though shipping in fandom.
Abstract:
Online technology is often purported as a great equaliser amongst users. Unable to physically see, or
hear users in a text based forum gives the assumption that individuals will default to an open and
socially inclusive mind-set. At a superficial level participation, fandom and fan fiction appears to be a
completely socially inclusive forum. Individuals are unable to tell the age, race, gender or demographic
of other users. Membership of forums such as Fanfiction.net (ff.net), Archive of Our Own (AO3), and
Tumblr is essentially unrestricted, with any individual able to create an account. However, social
exclusion is not always based upon physical identifiers. Identification with a specific ship (a romantic
paring of two or more characters within a story) within a fandom can result in exclusion and intolerance
if the ship is not one predominately supported by the fandom. This can result in individuals feeling
unwelcome and discriminated against. This paper examines two ships which exist within the Arrow
fandom; Olicity (Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak) and Lauriver (Laurel Lance and Oliver Queen) on
Tumblr, ff.net, and AO3. Despite not being the relationship that is reflected in the television series, a
significant proportion of Arrow fans ship Olicity (941 stories on AO3), while those that ship Lauriver are
the minority (42 stories on AO3). Through an examination of these two ships I seek to show that fans
discriminate through their posts and commenting, and become socially exclusive based upon these fan
preferences.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |2

Online technology is often purported as a great equaliser amongst users. Unable to physically see, or
hear individuals in a text based forum results in the assumption that people will default to an open and
socially inclusive mind-set. At a superficial level of participation, online fandom and online fan fiction
appears to be a socially inclusive forum. Individuals are unable to tell the age, race, gender or socioeconomic demographic of other users. Membership and participation in forums such as Fanfiction.net
(ff.net), Archive of Our Own (AO3), and Tumblr are essentially unrestricted, with any individual able to
create an account. However, conflict is not always based upon physical identifiers. Identification with a
specific ship (a romantic paring of two or more characters) within a fandom can result in exclusion and
intolerance between groups within the fandom. This can result in individuals feeling unwelcome and
discriminated against. This paper examines two ships which exist within the Arrow fandom; Olicity
(Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak) and Lauriver (Laurel Lance and Oliver Queen) on Tumblr, ff.net, and
AO3. Despite not being the relationship that is reflected in the television series, a significant proportion
of Arrow fans ship Olicity (1290 stories on AO3), while those that ship Lauriver are the minority (64
stories on AO3). Through an examination of these two ships I seek to show that fans discriminate
through their posts and commenting, and become socially exclusive based upon these fan preferences.
This results in a fan community that is not homogenous and conflict free, but one that is fragmented
with competing interpretations of the source text.
The data for this paper has been collected over the last 6 months during the fieldwork for my PhD. This
data has been collected through interviews and conversations with both canon (original work) authors,
and fan authors, as well as through the observation and examination of fan fiction on ff.net, AO3 and
Tumblr.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |3

There are varied definitions of fan fiction that exist (Black, 2009; Busse, 2009; Derecho, 2006; Young,
2007; Jenkins, 1992; Jenkins, 2004); however, at its most basic fan fiction can be described as a written
story based on a pre-existing work, generally known as the canon. According to Schaffner (Schaffner,
2009: 614) [a]t its core, fanfiction is simply the practice of writing fiction based on other peoples
work. Many definitions of fan fiction can get caught up in dichotomies such as; professional vs.
unprofessional, commercial vs. non-commercial and quality writing vs. amateur writing. To fully explore
these issues would be an entire paper in itself; therefore, for the purpose of simplicity, I will only be
using the term fan fiction to refer to written texts, produced for a non-commercial purpose, that have
been posted on an online fan fiction site that is, or is similar to, sites such as archiveofourown.org, and
fanfiction.net.
Fan fiction is generally distributed online through a variety of websites. There are community sites such
as AO3, and fanfic.net, which are dedicated to a fan fiction from numerous canons. There are also other
web forums such as LiveJournal or Tumblr, which are micro blogging website, where people create
personal pages and then use them to post fan fiction, as well as general fan commentary. LiveJournal is
no longer particularly popular, while use of Tumblr is rapidly growing. Tumblr permits individuals to
engage more widely with a fandom as it allows individuals to post images and YouTube clips, in addition
to written text. Fans often use a combination of these sites at the same time in order to engage with
one or more fandoms. Participants site preferences can change over time with readers and writers
moving between sites.
Academic works on media fandom and fan fiction alike have generally painted a cohesive picture of fan
culture. Henry Jenkins (1992) seminal work on fandoms Textual Poachers: Television Fans &
Participatory Culture describes a relatively homogenous group of fans and their participation at fan
conventions. This text by Jenkins as well as the work of; Jonathon Gray (2007), Matt Hills (2007), and

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |4

Camille Bacon-Smith (2000; 1992), position fandoms as a united, cohesive socially inclusive forum. This
idea is also perpetuated by fans, and content creators themselves. Anne Bishop, a renowned fantasy
and science author, recently commented at SwanCon 2014, a Perth Science Fiction Convention, that
fans are basically the same everywhere. These portrayals of fandom result in reducing the visible
difference and conflict that exists in media fandom in general and within specific media fandoms.
The cohesiveness of fan culture appears to have eventuated, to some extent, due to the us and them
dichotomy that has been created in highlighting and exploring fan culture. This dichotomy, in part, could
have been fostered on fandom externally, as fandom is generally considered a low value activity and
one that is generally stigmatized by the general public (Lopes, 2006). Jonathon Grays work Why Study
Fans differentiates, to some extent, between media fans and fans of sports in order to demonstrate that
the social stigma and bias that exists towards media fans (Gray et al. 2007). However, despite
differentiating at a macro level between media fans, sports fans, and general society Gray (2007, pp. 47) inadvertently glossed over any difference within the fandoms. Gray focuses on fans interaction with
general society, and discusses fan hierarchy in holistic terms rather than examining differentiation
within particular fandoms.
The general cohesiveness in fandom is also assumed in discussions and examinations of fan fiction
practices. Works such as those in Hellekson and Busses edited collection New Essays: Fan Fiction and
Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, put forward alternative academic perspectives on the
history of fan fiction (Coppa, 2006), definitions of fan fiction (Derecho, 2006), and whether or not fan
fiction should be free (De Kosnik, 2009). However, within all of these works is an assumption of unity
and cohesiveness within the community that they are discussing. Rebecca Black in her work Adolescents
and Online Fan Fiction (2008) also neglects to examine conflict within fan fiction participants. In Blacks
examination of adolescents learning English as a second language, through reading and writing fan
fiction, she presents the adolescents as engaging in a cohesive anime fan fiction community. This is most

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |5

obvious in her characterisation of the kinds of reviews and comments that fan fiction participants leave
for each other. Black (2008: 107) identifies four main types of reader responses; the OMG Standard,
which is simple positive feedback; gentle critique that incorporates positive feedback with gentle
suggestions for improvement; focused critique that incorporates positive feedback with specific
suggestions for improvement; and editorialised gossip which focuses on the characters as if they were
real life people. None of these types of reviews incorporate the possibility for a purely negative, or an
argumentative comment. All of the works outlined above paint a picture of a complicated, yet a
cohesive and conflict free community of fans.
Media fandoms, have also been constructed as sites of active consumption (Gray et al. 2007: 7; Ford et
al. 2006). The consumption of media products is something that has received a large amount of
examination, and is not a subject I wish to engage with in depth here. However I do wish to highlight
Stuart Halls theoretical approach of encoding and decoding communication (Hall, 1980). Hall suggests
that media audiences play an active role in decoding media, and constructing meaning from the content
that they are presented with. Therefore, all individuals will not interpret the same source text in the
same way (Hall, 1980: 120-122). Halls theory allows media to be interpreted in a variety of ways
resulting in individuals consuming the same media, but gaining different meaning from the text. The
holistic, cohesive view of fandoms, and fan fiction, previously described, does not appear to take into
account differing interpretations of the source text, and the resulting potential conflict within the
fandom.
A way in which different interpretations of a source text manifests in media fandom is through
shipping. Shipping, is a term in fandom that is derived from the word relationship. A ship refers to a
romantic relationship between two or more characters. An individual can ship characters whose
relationship is canon compliant, or in many cases the ship can be not represented or only marginally
represented within the canon. The characters, although often from the same fandom, do not necessarily

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |6

need to be. For example, an individual may ship Elsa, from the Disney movie Frozen, and Jack Frost from
the Dreamworks movie Rise of the Guardians. Fans can ship several combinations of characters within a
specific fandom, but they may have an OTP; which stands for One True Pairing (or OT3; one true pairing
involving three characters). An individuals OTP is the ship that that they are most committed to.
Shipping is a fairly common occurrence within fandoms. In interviews with fan fiction readers and
writers, many have stated that they have shipping preferences, or ship particular couples. Some
participants have also commented that they will not read a story if the ship within the fan fiction is not
one that they enjoy. Two participants, J and M, during an interview jokingly commented that if fandom
jumped off a bridge it would be onto a ship. This is a play on a saying intended to highlight that actions
resulting from peer pressure and mass opinion are not necessary logical. In this case the rhetorical
question is altered to demonstrate there are illogical actions and opinions taken by a majority within a
fandom, however the motivation for these actions is often a particular ship.
Shipping is also evident at a structural level within fan fiction storage and organisation. Works in both
AO3 and on fanfiction.net are organised so that there is an option to sort and filter stories based on
romantic pairings. On AO3 there is a separate tagging section for writers to tag a relationship in order
for readers to be able to search for their preferred ship more easily. Tagging couples on AO3 and on
Tumblr can appear in two ways. One way to tag is fairly standard, as it is the couples first and last name
separated by a forward slash; for example Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak. Ships can also be tagged
through the creation of a portmanteau name. This is done by either combining the couple names, alias
or descriptor associated with the individuals in the ship. For example Olicity is the combining of Oliver
and Felicity, or Smoaking Canarrow, is the combination of Felicity Smoak, the Black Canary (alias of Sara
Lance), and Arrow (alias of Oliver Queen). These couple names appear in most, if not all fandoms, for
instance Outlaw Queen is the combination of the Evil Queen (alias of Regina), and Robin Hood from the
television series Once Upon a Time. The ship BioSpecialist is the combination of two characters job titles

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |7

from the television series Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Couple names are also regularly tagged on
Tumblr, with tags such as #Olicity and #Lauriver making a regular appearance in posts that feature
Arrow.
The two main ships which exist within the television show Arrow are those between the main character,
Oliver Queen, and either Laurel Lance, or Felicity Smoak. The television series is based upon and inspired
by the comic book hero Green Arrow created in the DC Comic universe. The television series features
reimagined storylines, villains and characters from the original comic book series. Arrow has just finished
its second series, and it has been reported to be renewed for a third season (Byrne, 2014).
The pairing between Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance is canon compliant, as within the television show
Arrow Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance have had an on again, off again relationship. This is consistent
with the DC comic series Green Arrow in which Oliver Queen eventually marries, Dinah Laurel Lance.
Alternatively the pairing between Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak is not canon compliant. The character
of Felicity Smoak in the television series has little resemblance to the character of the same name in the
comic series Green Arrow. Although the scenes and writing in the television series hint at potential
romantic pairing between the two characters, there have been no explicit romantic interactions. Despite
the lack of romantic interactions between Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak there is an increasingly large
fan following that ships these two characters.
Despite being non-canon compliant the Olicity ship appears to be the more popular one amongst Arrow
fans. On AO3 there are 1290 Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak stories, compared to 64 Oliver Queen/Laurel
Lance stories. In addition on fanfiction.net there are 1.6 thousand stories that feature Oliver Queen and
Felicity Smoak compared to 135 stories that feature Oliver Queen and Laurel Lance, as of the 28th of
April 2014. Fan fiction participants engagement with ships goes beyond the stories written on both AO3
and fanfiction.net, with fan fiction readers and writers posting about their favourite ships on Tumblr.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |8

After each episode of Arrow a stream of text posts, drawings, YouTube videos and gifs appear. This
content highlights and dissects what happened during the episode, as well as positing ideas for future
episodes, and posting some fan fiction. Many of the posts relate directly to what the individuals ships, or
shows an appreciation for a particular character.
Within the Arrow fandom there is a level of animosity between these two ships. This animosity can be
clearly seen through examining several posts on Tumblr. Posts which are aggressive, or negative towards
the character that is not part of the fans ship are not uncommon. Below are several examples of
Lauriver fans, and Olicity fans demonstrating their allegiance to their respective ships.

Wow, I just lost 4 followers for shipping Laurel/Oliver. Everyone who doesnt like Laurel can unfollow me
st

rn [right now] #lauriver, #arrow, #laurel lance #laurel x oliver (A Green Rider, 31 of March 2014)

Laurel haters can seriously gtfo [get the fuck out] after this episodes ending. Shes [Laurels] gonna be
part of Team Arrow and nothing you can say or do can change that. And shes [Laurels] gonna be more
nd

important than felicity, just like she always has been. (My Name is Oliver Queen, 2 of April 2014).

Is it just me or it Laurel getting bitchier and bitchier. Calm it lady. #anti laurel #anti lauriver #cant stand
nd

laurel #anti ship #arrow #arrow season 2 (starling arrow, 2 of April 2014).

My entire dash is Olicity.then theres that one Lauriver fan #olicity #anti lauriver (youaremysafeplace,
nd

2 of April 2014).

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

Page |9

This animosity can also be seen in the tags used by individuals; for example, nolicity is a tag that is commonly
used to post anti-olicity sentiments, while anti-lauriver is used to post comments against the Oliver Queen/Laurel
Lance ship. The animosity expressed through these tags is not just expressed towards the fictional characters, but
also towards the actresses who play the characters, the writers of the television series and the fans that are
invested in each ship. Katie Cassidy, the actress who plays Laurel Lance has received angry, and at times hateful,
th

messages on social media from Olicity fans resulting in her tweeting on April 28 2014 that Haters are just jealous,
insecure, sad lonely people. While Lauriver fans have often told Olicity fans to grow up, or implied that show
writers are pandering to Olicity fans.
As each new episode of Arrow is aired in the United States new evidence is gathered from the scenes and dialogue
of the episode to lend credence to the legitimacy of one ship over another. Select images from the episodes are
turned into gif sets with accompanying text. The audio of the images is removed and any speech is

replicated by text that appears on the image. However, additional interpretative text is generally added by the
Tumblr user as a heading or an addition underneath the gif set. This additional text breaks down the scene to
interpret it within the frame of a specific ship. For example, in the episode Time of Death Oliver confronts Laurel
Lance and has an argument with her stating, I have loved you for half my life, but Im done running after you.
Laurivier fans interpreted this scene as evidence for Olivers continuing love and affection for Laurel Lance; while
Olicity fans saw this scene as Oliver standing up to Laurel, and beginning to let go of their past relationship.
The interpretation of scenes and interactions through a particular ship also occurs through fan fiction stories
written using particular scenes of episodes as a launching point. This was done extensively for the episode Keep
Your Enemies Closer, as during this episode Oliver tells Felicity that he just think[s] its better to not be with
someone I could really care about. Lauriver fans did not interpret this scene as Oliver referring to Felicity as the
someone he could really care about. While Olicity fans assumed that Oliver was referring to Felicity. Olicity fans
have written numerous fan fictions based on this scene to explore the inner thoughts of the characters, their
motivations, and in some cases re-write the scene so that it was more explicitly Olicity.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

P a g e | 10

Both the Olicity and Lauriver fans are watching the same scenes of the television show, but interpret the
scenes and dialogue in different ways to suit their ships. This can be linked explicitly to Halls conception of
encoding and decoding media. Olicity and Lauriver fans are decoding the media of Arrow in order to suit their own
fannish frames resulting in the fans seeing different relationships between the on screen characters. These
differences in interpretation have the effect of creating different and in the case of Arrow, competing, subfandoms within the television series.

As demonstrated by the competing ships within the Arrow fandom, fan fiction, and fandoms are not homogenous
places. As Halls (1980) theory of encoding and decoding media shows, media can be interpreted in a variety of
ways. These differences in interpretation result in groups and subcultures within fandom and fan fiction whose
interpretations of texts compete with each other. Previous studies of fans have sought to show the larger picture
of fandom. However, focusing on the bigger picture has neglected the divisions and subcultures that exist within
fandom. One of the most visual ways in which these competing interpretations and interests in fandom is
demonstrated is through fans posting fan fictions, comments and gifs dedicated to particular ships. Fans of a
particular ship interpret scenes and dialogue as evidence for their ship of interest. Interpreting texts in different
ways, amongst people who are passionate about the source text, can and does, result in conflicts, arguments, and
in some cases intolerance of fandom subgroups. These conflicts result in a picture of fans that is in contrast with
the homogenous identity of fandom that is often painted by scholars.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

P a g e | 11

Bibliography:

Bacon-Smith, C 1992, Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Bacon-Smith, C 2000, Science Fiction Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Black, RW 2008, Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction, Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York.
Black, RW 2009, 'Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination', Research in the Teaching of
English, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 397-425. Available from: ProQuest. [02/03/2012].
Busse, K 2009, 'Introduction', Cinema Journal, vol. 4, no. 48, pp. 104-108. Available from: Academic
Search Premier. [02/03/2012].
Byrne, C 13/02/2014, Arrow Renewed for Season 3. Available from:
<http://www.greenarrowtv.com/arrow-renewed-for-season-3/16404>. [29/04/2014].
Coppa, F 2006, 'A Brief History of Media Fandom', in New Essays: Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in
the Age of the Internet, eds K Busse & K Hellekson, McFarland & Company, Jefferson, pp. 41-60.
De Kosnik, A 2009, 'Should Fan Fiction Be Free?', Cinema Journal, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 118-124. Available
from: Academic Search Premier. [02/03/2012].
Derecho, A 2006, 'Archontic Literature: A Definition, a History, and Several Theories of Fan Fiction', in
Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, eds K Hellekson & K Busse,
McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, pp. 61-78.
Ford, S, Jenkins, H, McCracken, G, Shahani, P, Askwith, I, Long, G & Vedrashko, I 2006, Fanning the
Audience's Flames: Ten Ways to Embrace and Cultivate Fan Communities in MIT Convergence
Culture Consortium, MIT.

ANZCA 2014- Melbourne

P a g e | 12

Gray, J, Sandvoss, C & Harrington, CL 2007, 'Introduction: Why Study Fans?', in Fandom: Identities and
Communities in a Mediated World, eds J Gray, C Sandvoss & CL Harrington, New York University
Press, New York, pp. 1-16.
Hall, S 1980, 'Encoding/decoding', in Culture, Media, Language, eds SH Hall, Dorothy
Lowe, Andrew & P Willis, Unwin Hyman Publichers, London, pp. 117-127.
Hills, M 2007, 'Media Academics as Media Audiences: Aesthetic Judgements in Media and Cultural
Studies. ', in Fandom: Identities and communities in a Mediated World, eds J Gray, C Sandvoss &
CL Harrington, New York University Press, New York pp. 33-47.
Jenkins, H 1992, Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, Routledge, New York.
Jenkins, H 2004, 'The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence', International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol.
7, no. 1, pp. 33-43. Available from: Sage Publications. [23/05/2012].
Lopes, P 2006, 'Culture and Stigma: Popular Culture and the Case of Comic Books', Sociological Forum,
vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 387-414. Available from: Jstor. [14/06/2012].
Schaffner, B 2009, 'In Defense of Fanfiction', The Horn Book Magazine, vol. November/December, pp.
614-618. Available from: EBSCOhost. [06/08/2012].
Young, C 2007, 'The Fan Fiction Phenomena: What Faust, Hamlet, and Xena the Warrior Princess have in
common. ', Reason, vol. 38, pp. 14-15. Available from: EBSCOhost. [06/03/2012].