A Discourse on Shipping, Slash and Fanfic in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter

It begins simply by stumbling over a few mildly erotic pieces of art depicting in detail the much loved characters from movies or literature that have found their way into the vaults of fan fiction and fan art.

At first, one may be slightly uneasy. Perhaps downright disturbed. Unsuspecting, our reaction reflects on our values. Some say homosexuality is loathsome, despicable, an abomination. Some say it’s perfectly acceptable. Some will say one thing while thinking another. I never knew as much about my own values until I read my first ship.

With one's interest piqued, a quick google search serves up thousands of different entries, images, archives, pairings, and artwork.

Intrigued, one begins to read. First, a small ficlet, a droplet of pwp, maybe fluff, perhaps humor. Or perhaps one steps headlong into the swirling abyss of the novel-length angst-driven world of the Potterverse. Free to explore the characters, their motives and histories, we are drawn into a universe left untouched by the original authors. (Dear Ms. Rowling, we love the foundations you've laid, but we need to take it a step further where you have failed us).

Obsession may grow slowly or rapidly. If it doesn’t make sense immediately, if two characters don’t fit perfectly together at a first go, then we are allowed to peruse further, we are granted a hall pass and a note of permission from the professor to delve into the restricted section of the library.

Best Enemies. Irresistible Poison. The perfect clash of opposites; light and dark, good and evil. Finally, we can break out of the classical hero archetype, parent’s dead, origins unknown, fearsome enemy to defeat so there can be peace once again. We are exposed to the blond’s lineage, his values, his temptations and failings. The tousled black haired boy with the scar on his forehead, we know him to as the champion – but we are free to witness his decline, his angst, his self-loathing. We watch as they love each other, hate each other, bring the walls down around each other, destroy themselves and kill each other off with a few well-placed curses. We watch them come back to life, fall to pieces in the clutches of a love potion, be bound together, ripped apart and face worse things than the Dark Lord himself – Hogwart’s gossip. We learn to respect and appreciate the lengths others have gone to while meticulously filling in Rowling’s large character gaps. We learn that there is more to being a Slytherin that simply “being evil”, more to their ambitions and fears. We learn that love and hate are such passionate emotions that sometimes the lines can blur. We learn that we can lose ourselves to our imaginations.

I’ve lost myself to the world that is drawn up beneath invisibility cloaks, lost to the squashy armchair of the astronomy tower, lost to abandoned and disused classrooms and lost to the silencing charms cast on bed hangings.

I am a slash shipper.

And I sail the S.S. Malfoy/Potter with pride.

http://glassesreflect.net/psa.html
http://www.restrictedsection.org/