When it comes to my personal preferences, I prefer more positive/healthy shipping dynamics, but I'm not going to go after someone who likes otherwise. I've seen horrible cases of harassment directed towards people who like "bad" ships, and I can't understand trying to actually hurt someone over fictional characters. As it's been said, what people like in fiction isn't necessarily what they'd like or approve of in reality.
I'll say that I do think people should tag ships (in general, not necessarily just controversial ones) as well as potentially triggering subject matter where possible, so that people can more easily avoid it if they choose to, but that's about it. And when it comes to more mainstream fiction, as long as the work isn't trying to pass things off as "this is what a normal/healthy relationship looks like!!", then I'm not terribly bothered about it, I just won't engage with it myself. If something's not my cup of tea, I'll just go look at something else.
My stance on this hasn't changed much in the past two years. There's plenty of things that give me
major ick, and things that I absolutely
hate, but I do not think media censorship is a good idea, ever. It's a very slippery slope that we've been down before (Hays Code, Comics Code, etc.) and it did
a lot of harm to art, media, and creative expression. Like Drawdler said above, there's the
very important question of
where do we draw the line, and even if my tastes are pretty light/vanilla/within the norm, I'm not about to pretend I'm some sort of saint who doesn't like anything that could be even remotely construed as problematic.
Editing to add: I've seen some talk about applying Mature/R-ratings to works with "darker" romances/uneven dynamics/etc. and I'm generally for this idea. I think keeping this stuff to the adult realm solves the issue of potentially skewing younger audiences' views/expectations without going into the territory of media censorship, which I don't believe in.
(I think an age-rating system for books in general would be very helpful actually. I know I was scared of accidentally buying a ~steamy~ book without realizing it when I was younger ahaha)
This is my general stance on what I remember the subject matter of these debates to be, but I've been off most social media for a while
(and I do not regret it one bit). But I agree with the idea that the labels of "pro/anti ship" seem very reductive/silly and I'd really rather not be slapped with either. When I in my teens
(pre-dating these debates, I believe), I tried to play some sort of weird, morally-superior "here's why none of what I like is at all problematic" game online and it was miserable and deeply worsened my anxiety, and I'll have no part in it again.
It was at a point where I was actually
terrified that some favorite character of mine in an ongoing work was going to do something bad or questionable, and that I would
have to stop liking them.
And then, I don't know, tearfully delete the art of them I'd saved, I guess? Throw out any merch I bought...? When I finally decided what I was doing was ridiculous, and that instead I was going to keep liking the things and characters I liked because they brought me joy and solace and that was that, it did absolute
wonders for my mental health. Now I don't care if some beloved character of mine commits a murder or whatever, because they're a fictional character and have committed zero actual real-life murders. Obviously, I do not condone real-life murder. But I kind of hate that I have to clarify that.
