#AxB and BxA is very different

[oobbbear]

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

[sagegarnish]

Because the wank never ends and we are all in a samsara of discourse: fixed shipping is FINE AND COOL!

Only liking certain t/b dynamic = FINE! Enjoying when they have seme/uke personality changes = FINE! Harassing people who write/enjoy outside of that binary = BAD

Literally it's 100% normal and cool to only prefer one character being dominant or another taking it up the ass! It's just that people start demanding "top/bottom tags" on works that don't necessarily fit the tropes they're asking for, or getting mad when SFW art has "both tags".

Say I want to write BlorboSkrunkly. Blorbo is older & in a position of power. Skrunkly is younger. If I write a fic where Blorbo is topping, a lot of fixed shippers will assume Blorbo is being DOMINANT and even grooming/pressuring Skrunkly into it. EVEN IF THATS THE OPPOSITE THING I'M WRITING! They will be UPSET even if I "tag properly" because that is "not what they expect from a top Blorbo fic". However, I can't tag top Skrunkly, because he is NOT TOPPING!!!! The penis is going into his ass! But you can be harassed for tagging properly while not following the seme/uke OOCness that people expect from the tags. (This is not a strawman, this has literally happened to me and friends)

As well, often fixed shippers become hostile over TOTALLY SFW ART where the characters are together and not even drawn differently from canon. "Don't tag as AxB if you actually ship BxA!!!!" when the art has nothing to show one way or the other!!! How is this decided?? How do you even begin to choose the tag? Especially in a Western fandom where there isn't a AxBxA style tag that anyone uses, so it is not typically searched for OR muted?

I honestly do support fixed dynamic shippers, and most of them are normal about it. Like sometimes you just have a blorbo whose prostate needs to be jammed 24/7!!! I GET IT!!!! But when ppl get OBSESSED with it and try to enforce it on everyone, IT'S WEIRD!

Generally I tend to be very vers/switch when it comes to my ships, but I always do try to tag in my fics. Not in "ship name" (since AO3 doesn't support that) but in the other tags. But tags are a COURTESY!

I believe that if you feel so strongly about Skrunkly needing to be a weepy submissive bottom, it's on you to read only tagged fics or find a friend to taste test it for you. Even then, you NEED to accept that sometimes the top!Blorbo tag isn't going to mean the personality change and dynamic you expect/want. And you cannot get upset at the author for that.

Generally when this comes up I DO KNOW people are talking about the classic seme/uke idea of top/bottom, so the top is domineering (and even rapey), and the bottom is smaller and sweet/submissive

Hot Yaoi Base by K3nel1OS

But there's not a lot of grace given for works that DON'T FIT INTO THAT TROPE

[olderthannetfic]

Saw someone complaining that people need to learn the difference between tagging AxB and BxA, and I mean, I'm old school, I get the issue, but doesn't AO3 automatically wrangle those as the same tag anyway?

--

Yes.

Because while it was a fairly widespread behavior in English-speaking anime fandom, it wasn't universal, and it was rare in English-speaking Western fandoms. (Yes, we went out and surveyed older sites and such.)

From the beginning, AO3 has expected people to use additional tags to indicate what flavor of relationship it is and the ship section for the very basic tag.

[barkbarf]

do you or (if) your friends whos familiar or use the asians (mostly jp, kr, cn & thai)'s left right top bottom ship thing? idk how to explain but like, its very important to state whats ur ship's preference bc someone might have it as a notp and would like to avoid that 😭

its like, u like AxB and someone like BxA instead, and those people with BxA pref sometimes would like to avoid people who like AxB

i would like to know ur thoughts on this but if u dont have one thats alright i look all ur posts n u seem really nice to talk to ndbsbsb

Aahhh, I am familiar with this ship naming convention existing... But I don't intentionally use it when I talk about ships. I do tend to HAVE a top/bottom pref, but it's unlikely that a switcharoo would be a total deal breaker for me. I actually tend to enjoy characters being switches anyways because it's fun to imagine those two different sides of them ♡... So if you read my posts, and wonder, "who does she think would be the top?" it's better to ask hahaha

I am aware this is a thing most common in Asian fandom - and I think it's very neat! But I don't often think about this sort of thing either. I spend more time in western dominated fandom (I'm not usually much of an anime/etc. guy!) so I don't see it around much. I really only remember it when I see some mention of this exactly lol

(And awww haha thank you... I'm always happy to hear that people find me nice and like to send me messages :) ♡)

[takao-au-lait]

For the anon asking the difference between midotaka and takamido, yes the name that comes first is the one who tops/is more assertive/dominant. It doesn't matter much in english speaking fandom, and usually everything is tagged with one agreed on ship name or the tags are used interchangeably. But the japanese fandom is Very Particular about tagging and there are fans who may ship AxB but not BxA. The rigorous tagging keeps fanworks separate and makes blocking the unwanted dynamic easier

thank you!! here you gogoooo (๑´ㅂ`๑) sorry about my explanation ><