Shipping: Part Deux

To give credit where credit is due, Hedorah suggested I take my shipping post "One Beard, Tree Ring and Bearding" one step further and analyse a real shipping community. Just a note before we begin: I am not making fun of these rabid fangirls, I myself am a Sydney and Vaughn shipper (I wish Michael Vartan and Jennifer Garner stayed together in real life. Alias fans will get this). So think of this like a semi-detached, semi-connected observer having a laugh.An Example of Syd and Vaughn Fan Art, a Staple of Shipping. Don't you love the name?

Two common and well supported shipping pairings include Draco and Harry from Harry Potter and Will and Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean. I love the first POTC movie, but Hedorah is right, Draco and Harry will make for a more entertaining pairing examination. They're like a classic in the genre.

To begin, a simple google search produces links to many different fansites of the Harry and Draco pairing. I tried to find a name for the Harry and Draco pairing, but further research indicates that the name Harry/Draco or Draco/Harry (depending on who is the dominate partner in the relationship) is the accepted shipper name, the slash obviously indicating the sexual nature of the relationship. From Wikipedia, I found a hilarious reaction of JK Rowling's when she first heard of the shipping community and Harry Potter:

"Well, you see, I'm a relative newcomer to the world of shipping, because for a long time, I didn't go on the net and look up Harry Potter. A long time. Occasionally I had to, because there were weird news stories or something that I would have to go and check, because I was supposed to have said something I hadn’t said. I had never gone and looked at fan sites, and then one day I did and oh - my - god. Five hours later or something, I get up from the computer shaking slightly [all laugh]. ‘What is going on?’ And it was during that first mammoth session that I met the shippers, and it was a most extraordinary thing. I had no idea there was this huge underworld seething beneath me."

Seems like Rowling herself doesn't entirely approve, or in the first least find funny, the shipping HP community. That she calls the community an "underworld" and uses a negative connotation word "seething," indicates her disapproval.

Complex Love, the Draco/Harry slashfic fanlisting, is an easy way to understand the motivation behind D/H shippers. As the webmaster writes: "They're just so perfect for each other <3.">

Doesn't the perverse look on Draco's face, and the passive/sated expression on Harry's just give you the creeps?! I inferred that Draco was the dominate partner in this pairing, given that he is the one clutching Harry, and his aggressive expression contrasts with the feminine one of Harry's. Looking into the matter further, the webmaster states that it is the Draco/Harry pairing the listing is dedicated to. Going by the rules of shipping names, Draco is the dominate partner.

On the Hex Files, a massive listing of slash fic for the Harry/Draco pairing, there is a gallery of fanart. I love fanart, in a sense that while some of it is of dubious quality, I find the artists' determination and admiration for their inspiration, well, oddly endearing. The H/D and D/H pairing is rife with what is termed "photo manipulations," an offshoot of traditional hand drawn fanart that consists of photos doctored together in suggestive poses. I braved entering the gallery, and was horrified by the porn that had been manipulated with the faces of the principles superimposed over those of the "adult actors." However, there were some downright humorous images, but the artists seem to have made these in earnest without the intent of humor. For example:

This was obviously a Draco/Harry shipper, why else would Harry be wearing the wedding gown a la Dennis Rodman? What troubles me most is that Harry Potter has breasts.

Harry/Draco slash shippers also have a perverted sense of humor. I found such lines as "do you want to ride my broomstick, Potter?" and "wanna touch wands?" on fanarts and in stories. While these puns aren't the most original, they bring a smirk to the face of the reader.

At The Silver Snitch (warning: the banner image is NSFW), a listing of slashfic, the most read story is a Harry/Draco pairing. This is indicative of the massiveness of the pairing's following. I mustered up the courage and clicked on a random chapter of the story "Secrets" by Vorabiza, and found the following excerpt to post:

But although he’d thought about Draco a lot, he hadn’t really thought about him in any romantic or sexual way. He couldn’t deny to himself, though, that he’d checked Draco out more than once recently. His cheeks flushed as he remembered stripping Draco down and washing him when he was injured. He’d been tired and concerned at the time, and it hadn’t been a time geared towards sexual perusal, but it didn’t stop Harry from picturing Draco’s body again now.He remembered holding Draco two nights before. Again, it hadn’t been a sexual moment in any way, but . . . it had felt good. It had felt comfortable and warm. And seeing Draco wandering around in just a pair of low-riding pyjama pants?

I didn't want, nor could I, read any further, lest the story get racier, if you catch my drift. What amazed me of this site is that a vast majority of the yaoi writers are female. You think it would be men who would write these, but people can surprise you.

Is it fair of Jo Rowling to call the HP shipping community a seething underworld? I'm not going to make a judgement in that regard, lest I appear to be judging. Rather, I think one should venture into the world and see for themselves, as I did for this post. Maybe 5 hours was enough for her but I only scratched the surface.

Some parting words: This post, and the previous one, are not meant to be offensive at all. They are merely finding humor in the fandom worlds. I realized while typing this that I myself have written fanfic (not of the sexual sort) about Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Alias, and Twilight. I even wrote some Real Life Person Fanfic, about Madonna and Coldplay among others. I'm not embarrassed to admit that. What I realized while perusing through the world of Harry/Draco slash shipping, that what these people lack in talent and restraint, they make up in dedication and creativity. And that is admirable, or in the least, touching. So keep on shipping!