Proship Resources!!

Actual proship resources!This is a collection of (so many) links to studies, articles, papers, all things of that nature, all in one place!
Keep in mind, this collection is ever-growing and expanding, so if you have any more links, PLEASE share them!!!

If there's anything you think I left out, or missed, or got wrong, PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out on Tumblr!!
Also, please feel free to link this wherever you want!!

"What does proship mean?"

Being proship simply means you're anti-harassment and pro-shipping, meaning you don't believe in people being harassed over what they ship in fiction. This term is (generally) interchangeable with profic.

"What is the difference between pro/dark/comship?"

Let's just quickly go over ALL the terms!

  • Proship - Just means you're anti-harassment and pro-ship.

  • Comship - Means you ship/support complicated ships, i.e. crossover ships, selfcest, monster/human, mortal/immortal, etc. If it's a complicated relationship, it's a comship.

  • Darkship - Means you ship/support dark ships, i.e. grooming, pedophilia, incest, beastiality, rape, etc. If it's something that would be considered illegal/immoral in real life, it's a darkship. Also worth noting, all darkships are comships, however not all comships are darkships. When people refer to "proshipping", this is generally what they actually mean.

  • Selfship - Means you ship yourself, your self insert, or your persona with a fictional character.

  • Dead Dove: Do Not Eat: Means "heed the warnings". If you read the warning that says "dead dove: do not eat" on a bag, don't be shocked when you open the bag and find a dead dove.

  • Anti - Means you're anti-most/all of the above.

"Why would you support that stuff?"

It's not necessarily about supporting it, it's about not harassing anyone over it. What you like in fiction does not reflect what you like in real life, ergo, liking dark fiction does not make you a bad person, so you should not be harassed over it (though, in my opinion, no one deserves harassment). Sometimes, however, it IS about supporting it. Plenty of victims of abuse use that type of fiction to cope, and ESPECIALLY in those cases, it's important to support them and, more importantly, not harass them.

"Why would you use that stuff to cope?"

I (fortunately) have not experienced trauma, so I can't speak too much to that, but some victims have said it's a way to regain control and feel empowered. However, as someone with intrusive thoughts, it can also be used as a coping mechanism for those too. And no, that's not just "an excuse", as outlined in the 'Positive Impact on Mental Health' section.

"Isn't that just pedophilia/zoophilia/[insert paraphilia here]?"

No. Generally speaking (mostly in regards to necrophilia, zoophilia, pedophilia, and other paraphilias of that nature), paraphiles require you to be attracted to these things in real life. In the same way that lesbians may be attracted to fictional men, a person who is not a pedophile may be attracted to a character that is young, or in the same way people are attracted to Spirit (from Spirit) or Kovu/Scar/Mufasa/Simba (from The Lion King), but aren't zoophiles.

"Why do you use the terms CSEM/CSAM instead of CP? Are they proship terms?"

The reason these terms are preferred amongst most communities (note: these are NOT proship terms!) nowadays is because of the implication the words 'child pornography' carry. 'Porn' implies that the child is able to consent to being photographed or filmed at best, and trivializes and disrespects the abuse and exploitation of children at worst.CSEM/CSAM makes you confront that this isn't just some cutesy little term you can throw around, but something that results in a child actually being harmed. The reason why you'll see proshippers use these terms often is not only because these are the appropriate terms, but it serves to make people realize they're comparing fiction to Child Sexual Exploitation/Abuse Material.

Here are some nifty studies/articles/videos/etc., that I've compiled, now all in one place !!

"Does fiction affect reality?"

Things get a little dicey here. TL;DR: no, it doesn't.
The long version: fiction doesn't affect reality in the way antis typically say it does. Fiction can affect individual people, but on the whole, it is not a 1:1 comparison. We don't say "fiction doesn't affect reality" because we believe fiction cannot affect reality, but because we don't believe that the lack of media showing the "right" thing means that the "bad" thing will happen.Of course art can make you feel things, of course it has the ability to change your individual point of view, of course it has an affect in one way or another. However, that does not mean that when someone acts on things they see in media, it means that it's the fault of the media. That is not fiction having an effect on reality, that is an individual having a reaction to media they have consumed, for better or worse, which, again, should not be blamed on said media, but on the person reacting to it.

"What about propaganda?"

Propaganda is an entirely different ballpark. The main difference is that, unlike fiction, propaganda is reality pretending to be fiction. Fictional content isn't pretending to be anything BUT fiction. Furthermore, propaganda made/funded by any government will always be infinitely more concerning and more dangerous than what some random person decides to write about and post on AO3.

On the topic of violent media -

On the topic of being able to distinguish fiction from reality -

On the topic of loli/shota/kodocon -

"How does fiction help with mental health?"

For many people, it is used for coping with various types of trauma (sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, familial abuse, etc.), for others, it helps them cope with their OCD, their anxiety, and/or intrusive thoughts, and for even more people it is just a form of entertainment, which is good for the brain no matter who you are.

"If it's for coping, why don't you keep it private?"

Why should we be forced to be silent? Coping isn't a thing that should have to be kept private. Plenty of people have benefited from others coping in public, as it both encourages a healthy space for people to relate to one another, as well as shows that they're not weird for the way they cope. Besides, you wouldn't tell someone who copes using yoga or music to "only do that stuff in private", right?

Art therapy -

Writing therapy -

Misc -

This section aims to cover the reasons people may have these types of fantasies, as well as why and how they aren't harmful to anyone, as well as studies that show pornography as not being harmful (to viewers).

Sexual fantasies -

Pornography -

Other -

This section is just to debunk some common anti arguments, as well as provide sources.

(It is also very bare-bones right now, so if anyone has any ideas of what to put here that hasn’t already been covered, send a message or ask on Tumblr!!)

The Jaws Effect -

Jaws did not create a fear of sharks. Jaws capitalized on the fear of sharks. The movie was made after shark attacks had already happened. It didn't cause anyone who didn't already want to hunt sharks to hunt sharks.
Furthermore, the ACTUAL paper that coined the term "Jaws Effect"' (Neff, 2015) doesn't use it in a "fiction affects reality" way, it's used in a "politicians will use anything to justify their positions" way (in this case, Australian politicians used Jaws to debate policies on how to deal with deadly shark attacks off the coast). It just refers to politicians referencing pop culture.

The Slenderman Stabbings -

The Slenderman Stabbings are simply an example of deeply mentally ill people becoming engrossed with fictional stories, particularly Creepypastas. The two girls were not only FAR too young to be consuming that type of content, but one of them (Weier) was deemed mentally ill at the time of the attack, and the other (Geyser) was an undiagnosed, and therefore untreated, schizophrenic. The problem here isn't the fiction. Their parents/the system failed them. If it wasn't Slenderman, it's very likely it would have been something else.

Legality of lolicon -

[I will only be focusing on U.S. law because I just do not have the time to research each and every country's laws on this]
This subject is a little..Difficult to research. From what I can gleam, most of what the law would call "any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture" that "is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct" HAS to be indistinguishable from REAL children to be considered CSEM or CSAM, otherwise it falls under obscenity laws, and even then, ONLY if all three conditions of the Miller standard* apply.The only case to date to involve ONLY cartoon porn (specifically lolicon) was United States v. Handley, in which Christopher Handley was suspected of, and arrested for, importing "cartoon images of objectionable content" from Japan. He entered a guilty plea, which excluded him from being required to register as a sex offender. This case's ruling has since been called into question.In general, the most likely reason someone will be charged with "possession of pornography involving visual depictions of a child" is if that charge is being tacked onto a list of OTHER charges. Solely, it is generally not enough to prosecute.*The Miller test requires three different conditions to be met to be considered obscene. These conditions are as follows:
-Does the average person, applying contemporary community standards, find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest?
-Does the work depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by state law?
-Does the work, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value?Furthermore, the LAW (under U.S. Code § 2256, (11)) states, very specifically, that "the term "indistinguisable" used with respect to depiction, means virtually indistinguishable, in that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction would conclude that the depiction is of an actual minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults."Even ignoring all of this, it's still a very dangerous game to play when you start conflating legality with morality.

"Why are antis bad?"

The problem with antis is that their entire stance regarding fiction is just pro-censorship. At the end of the day, they firmly believe that one's disgust should outweigh the ability for something to simply exist. Being an anti relies heavily on puritanism, conservatism, control, and cruelty.If all they did was set boundaries, were personally uncomfortable with proshippers, and simply blocked us, there would be no issue. The reality, however, is they would rather get on their proverbial high-horse and enact harassment campaigns against us.

"But proshippers harass people too!"

I'm sure they do. There are bad people in every community, and the proship community is no different. There is a difference, however, in that the antiship community thrives on bullying and harassment, and they encourage others in their community to engage in it, whilst proshippers actively preach AGAINST harassment, and when told someone in our community is hurting others in some form or another, we call that behavior out.

"How is being an anti like being in a cult?"

I don't know if I would full-on say it is a cult, but being an anti does lend to cult-like behavior. The incessant harassment of anyone that disagrees with them, the shunning and name-calling when an anti changes their mind, the redefining of words like 'proship' to mean 'pedophilia', and redefining 'pedophilia' as a whole to fit their narratives, and the threats of doxxing, rape, and murder towards a proshipper simply existing, for just a few examples.

"How is being an anti like being a conservative?"

Again, most antis aren't ACTUALLY conservatives, but they exhibit conservative-like behavior. Again, as a few examples, being pro-censorship for things they deem immoral, they both agree that violent media breeds violent people, and they both rely on "moral compass" arguments to defend their harassment towards others.

The Bigger Problem

There's also a not insignificant amount of bad people who use the term 'anti' to "blend in", so to speak, so they don't get caught committing these acts because they're one of the "normal, moral ones".Take Kyle Carrozza for example. He singled out someone for making Invader Zim ship art on her private Twitter, got her blacklisted, and by calling her out publicly on this, allowed people to harass her over it.
All of this, meanwhile he was actively, knowingly, in possession of CSEM/CSAM, and when arrested had both more than 600 images, and 10 or more images involving a prepubescent minor under the age of 12.While Kyle Carrozza is one of the most extreme examples out there, there are also less terrible (but still awful) things antis have said/done to hurt people.Here is a link to an Imgur archive that compiles a bunch of antis that were outed as terrible people, and down below I will leave pictures of things antis have sent just to me and my sister (again, for being proship). Click the images for better quality.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, not only for me and my sister personally, but for the ENTIRETY of proshippers. Really all you need to do is go to ANY proshipper's blog/Twitter/Youtube/Tiktok, and immediately you'll be met with comments like "proshippers bite the curb", "kys", "check their hard drive", "proshippers are pedos", and it will almost never be a one-off, there'll be a slew of these comments.

Negative effects of online harassment -

Why this was made -

I made this Carrd because I was finding it increasingly hard to find sources on these topics, and figured having this stuff all in one spot would be a huge help to those who want or need it.I'm tired of the dogpiling, the harassment, the witch hunts, the death threats that this community gets. Even towards people who are proship-adjacent. I feel like the only way to truly counteract at least some of that is to educate. This is the only thing I know to do to enact some sort of positive change, even if it's so minimal it doesn't affect anything.This is a topic I'm truly, genuinely passionate about. I've spent many an hour agonizing over these things. I'm worried about the future of the fiction I love, and it's ability to be viewed freely. I'm worried about the increasing censorship both online and in real life. I only hope this changes someone's mind.I implore at least some of you guys to read these sources, these papers, these studies, and I hope you learn something.

Here's some other looks of the site for y'all !!