#m/f ships

[echodrops]

Why do m/f ships are often regarded as boring and plain in comparison to m/m and f/f ships?

I think it's a combination of things:

1) Over-saturation. M/F romances have been the bread and butter of mainstream media for literally thousands of years. (Although the world's first known work of literature was pretty gay, so there's that lol!) Anyway, because of this, it's easy for M/F stories to repeat old plots, or for audiences to feel as if "there are no new stories to tell." After consuming M/F romance media for a while, people can start to feel like "I've seen this before." When the market is saturated, it becomes harder to find new twists on old tropes, fresh voices, etc., and there's no longer as much sensation of mystery or the unexpected--if you see a hot main female character and a hot main male character in a movie, chances are they're guaranteed to get together. When things become "given" in media, the stakes vanish, and it's much harder to generate interest from readers or viewers. ("This ship is going to be endgame anyway, so why bother worrying about whether they'll get together?")

Conversely, when the romance is M/M or F/F, it still has an element of "newness." Perhaps we haven't seen this particular romantic comedy plot with a queer couple before. Maybe adding the extra element of societal response to being gay changes up how an old trope will play out. Because queer romances haven't been grafted on to seemingly every possible trope and scenario in media (yet), there's still chances for surprises and intrigue. Basically, M/M and F/F have the benefit of newness.

I think it's worth pointing out, though, that this will likely not last. An inevitable side effect of queer romances becoming normalized in mainstream media is that, over time, all those tropes and cliched plots will get played out with both M/M and F/F ships, and we'll one day reach over-saturation on queer romances as well, making many of them feel just as bland as the stock of M/F romances in media too.

2) A lot of M/F writing is just really bad. I've discussed at length many reasons why M/F romances tend to be more poorly written in a lot of mainstream media, and the many reasons are too varied to go over again (misogyny, inexperienced male writers, sexual fixation on the other gender resulting in objectification, etc. etc.), but I think it's key to remember that a lot of stories which contain romantic plots weren't actually intended to be romances at all. They just have a romance because society treats romance as obligatory. Writing a horror story? Wait, you mean the hot male protagonist and the hot female protagonist aren't going to bond over their life-threatening situations and end up together? Writing a movie about the horrific tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic? What do you mean it won't center around a forbidden romance between people of different economic classes? Your high fantasy epic doesn't have a princess for your knight to save?! Huh?

The problem is that a lot of people who can write well in one genre cannot write well in other genres. You can have the best horror writer in history... and that person may be completely incapable of writing a romantic plotline to save their life. You can have the most accurate historical political intrigue researcher ever--and then that person has zero experience trying to build effective romantic tension. Unlike other genres which don't have to cross over with each other--your crime drama doesn't have to become a historical drama; your YA fantasy novel doesn't have to become a comedy--writers of practically every genre are expected to be able to throw romance plots into their works and sell them.

When romance is so ubiquitous, it's inevitable that a lot of it is going to be written by people who aren't skilled at writing it, and thus a whole lot of it is going to just be kind of poorly written.

Conversely, we're still at a moment in time when queer romances are regarded as somewhat controversial in mainstream media. It's growing less so over time, but we're still at the point where, if there's a queer romance in a piece of mainstream media, it's because the authors really wanted to put it there. It's not there because of a sense of obligation or viewer expectations, but because someone producing that work really wanted to tell a queer romance story. When you're adding a romance plotline because you really want to write a romance, that plot is (usually) better simply because that plot is more important to the writers.

Furthermore, because queer romance plots are still scrutinized much, much more than M/F romances by editing boards, shareholders, etc., it is likely that these stories are held to a higher writing standard that M/F romances currently. They will be subject to greater editing and require greater "justification" in order to sell decision-makers on the necessity of including the pair. Therefore, across the board, queer romances in mainstream media are likely to receive more of the writers' time and effort than M/F romances.

Once again though, this is a product of media's current situation and not something that will last. Give it a few more years in an LGBT+ friendly administration and M/M and F/F romance plots in shows, books, etc. will become normalized to the point that including one won't be remotely controversial. The level of scrutiny and focus on such ships will fall, and eventually they'll become just about as obligatory as M/F ships, complete with the matching drop in quality. 😂

[tournamentpollsinc]

M/F SHIPS WINNER!!!

Zelink!

[prorobi]

Anyone who hates straight ships because they're straight,.. I fear they fetishize queer ships (not all but most)

[nathaniacolver]

arcane ships be like

i love a show that teaches equality (😭😭😭)

[hprambles-blog]

Het ships are the best. There's no competition. Mlm ships are the worst. They're disgusting and always written by unintelligent straight girls. I'd like them more if they were written by cis gay men.

I say this as a lesbian.

🐌

[sixofclovers]

theyre fighting a god in the morning

[potato-on-your-head]

And disability rep!! We need more m/f ships where one or both characters are disabled.

m/f ships are fun actually you guys just think m/f means cishet white and misogynistic

[caffstrink]

My 2 favorites

[owlpero]

I know the district spelling bee hated to see her coming

[cervinae-canine]

whatever you do, do NOT think about your normally stoic and temperamental F/O softening upon seeing you!!! do NOT imagine your normally grumpy and jaded F/O having a small smile when thinking of you!!! do NOT imagine warming your cold F/O's heart and being able to see a calmer, more peaceful side of them!! DO NOT-

[tournamentpollsinc]

Round Four

[freckledbastard]

post 4.2 furina finds out neuvillette said she was 'prone to hysterics' and is like 'hahaha.... yeah, yeah i was wasn't i? it must have been awful, having to deal with me for all those centuries...'

and you know neuvillette is standing there wracked with guilt like

(it starts to storm and furina thinks its because he's remembering how annoying and frustrating it was working with her, and meanwhile neuvillette is three seconds away from throwing himself on the ground and begging for forgiveness)

[mebssann]

still not over them ;-;

[firyfox]

"Guys stooooopp the queer coded relationship shouldn't be romantic it would be REDUCTIVE of the significance of their bonnddd" I actually DON'T think making a relationship definitive romantic queer love would ruin or degrade their closeness at all, that seems like a you problem ..

Notice how it's only ever 'they transcend platonic & romantic feelings ! stop putting a restrictive label on it' when it's a queer pairing ..

[d4rk-x-w0lf-17]

"m/f ships are so boring compared to m/m and w/w ships"

BOO! INCORRECT!

[ag-shers]

i cannot escape the vision