Is shipping as controversial as politics, sports or religion?

This isn't about giving your views on any of those topics - it's just an honest question about whether you believe that shipping is as controversial as politics, sports or religion

Until someone gets killed over shipping, no, I don't think so (and yes, people have been killed over sports).

I view shipping as being as important as sports. Which is to say "Not at all". Religion and politics sit in another area of "ULTRA IMPORTANT CRAP".

As for controversial...Well we haven't had mass murderings and fancy televised debates about shipping so...

This is a travesty. I demand fancy televised debates about shipping.

I would SO watch this!

You'd think the Twilight people would at least try to do something like that...

No.

No, not really.

And tbh, if there was a show debating various ships, I would watch it. As long as people on there are actually intelligent.

TBQH, shipping isn't that controversial. Just normal Fan Dumb.

No.

Next question!

No. srs bsns, yes. Controversal? Not really.

In the real world, Heck No

On the internet, Heck Yes

I'm not a militant shipper, I just find it very interesting.

This question made my day.

Stupid, not controversial.

Spending time dreaming up romance for characters that canonically do not wub each other is stupid.

Lots of dumb people make it controversial. I can hardly show any distaste for a particular shipping, for whatever reasons I may have, without offending, and I mean offending, a lot of people.

Just... Tumblr. Tumblr is... a shipping mess.

Also I don't see why this is in the Anime & Manga section, as if no other genre ships.

Controversial? As far as I know, most people are just playing along with the Serious Business for the sake of lulz. There is nothing controversial about it.

No! Only the internet cares about shipping. The other stuff is real-world stuff.

While shiping is not as controversial as those the ratio of seriousness to actual importance is even higher.

Well, on one hand, shipping mostly exists on the Internet. On the other hand, the Internet is becoming the modern pop-culture's center, so yeah, I would say even if it isn' as popular right now, it is slowly getting to be at least as controversial as sports.

I couldn't care less about shipping. This goes for any media.

Spending time dreaming up any sort of activities that never have or will happen, done by people who hasn't ever existed or will exist, is stupid.

Congratulations, we have rendered fiction useless.

And by extention, TV Tropes. We're all stupid!

edited 24th Jun '12 12:02:28 PM by Feather7603

Hyuk hyuk!

My father once told me never to discuss politics, religion or sports in public as that was cause only trouble. Having been on the Net for a while, I can safely add shipping to the list, at least in certain places.

However, this brings up an interesting question. Just what is shipping? Mostly we think of it as Internet fandom stuff, but it can exist in real life too. If you look at it like that, then yes, it is very controversial. I have seen people come to blows over that kind of thing.

Politics is controversial because it affects everyone, willy-nilly.

Religion is controversial because it is tied up in systems of belief and reverence (not just entertainment) and sometimes actual power structures.

The peculiar problem with sports is that probably people don't take it more seriously than shipping, but unlike shipping it groups (and divides) people up by geography, and fans physically travel to stadiums together, so it has a potential for trouble that does not exist when rival teams are geographically dispersed and only brought together by the internet.

Really, I'm more puzzled by why sports matters at all. With shipping, it's a matter of individual taste and there is clear value in it if you care for the characters. With sports, the choice is made for you by where you live and the results of matches is both formally meaningless (unlike stories) and unaffected by the fans (unlike politics).