all about comship!

as written by a former anti, current comship, and victim of c.s.a, c.o.c.s.a, and p.t.s.d-having system

what is comship?

comship (or com-ship) is short for "complex ship" or "complicated ship". comship refers to two things:

1) a person, known as a comship or a comshipper, who believes some or all of the following:
shipping discourse is stupidall ships are valid and reasonable to enjoyship and let shipfiction =/= real life and those who are heavily effected by fiction are those who break boundaries set in place for themdon't like, don't look
2) a ship that is considered complex, complicated, or otherwise frowned upon by societal standards. this includes, but is not limited to:
abusive shipsincestuous shipsunderage shipsships that break canonical sexualitiesships that contain or are based around graphic or heavy content
comships do not have to like, create or view any complex or complicated ships to be comship! all you have to do is agree with some or all of 1)'s criteria, aka, respect ships.

like proship?

yes and no.

proship and proshippers get a bad rep due to rampant misinformation, as well as the real pedophilic problem in the community and the issue of minors age-faking to get into adult spaces. most proship spaces are exclusively 18+.

while comship holds the same values as proship, comship is not an inherently 18+/nsfw space, but a mature space for those who can handle the content presented and separate fiction from reality, right from wrong.

comship is, in essence, proship rebranded, as well as more unknown/stealth, giving comshippers more ease of mind.

does comship endorse minors in 18+/nsfw spaces?

absolutely fucking not.

comships believe, at their most basic, that ships and fiction are just that- fiction- and people should enjoy whatever they want, so long as they're not actively hurting others. this is not inherently nsfw or 18+. ships that fall under the comship category are not inherently nsfw or 18+. comship is a mature space, not a nsfw/18+ one inherently.

are comships bigoted pedophiles?

once again, absolutely fucking not.

comships are able to identify the difference between fiction and reality, between right and wrong, and between make-believe and real, actual actions and effects.

comship is not an inherently bigoted term nor does it have inherently bigoted stances. comship is definetly not pedophilic, given it's obviously fictional content, which is not only legal, but therapist-endorsed and the shipping norm in basically every non-western country.

is comship exclusive to ships?

nope! comship can apply to ships but also headcanons, who may identify as comcan. comcans agree with some or all of the following:
headcanon discourse is stupidlet people draw, headcanon, create, etc. what they wantall headcanons are validdon't like, don't look
comcan headcanons are headcanons that are complex, complicated, or otherwise frowned upon by societal standards. these include, but are not limited to:
headcanoning a character as a different raceheadcanoning a character as a different sexualityheadcanoning characters as bad people, bigoted, having offensive ideologies, etc.headcanoning a background for a character or setting that breaks canon
comship is an umbrella term for comship and comcan, but identifying solely with one or the other is completely valid!

why are people comship?

people are comship for many reasons, such as:
enjoying something that isn't canonenjoying a ship's potential in an auenjoying a ship's complex values or what it represents or showscoping with intrusive thoughtscoping with past traumabetter understanding past trauma and becoming less afraid of the pasttaking back control of yourselfenjoying a wide range of possibilities in headcanons or shipsrespecting others who are comshipenjoyment

what are comship symbols?

some comships symbols include:
🕊⚠️🍋🌈the words comship/comcan/comficthe comship flag:

do i have to be or identify as comship, or interact with them?

nope! you do what makes you comfortable, and others will do what makes them comfortable. just please don't spread misinfo. comships have their own tags and tag their content so its easily filterable, so.

what are examples of comship misinformation?

examples of comship misinformation include, but are not limited to, the following incorrect ideas:
all comshippers are pedophilic / comship = mapall comshippers are bigotsall comshippers are predatory in any sensecomshippers condone and endorse what they ship and produce fictionally irlall comships ship the same content of the same degree (ex: all comships ship incest)

do you have any sources on why comship is okay?

legality & crime

the supreme court case of ashcroft v free speech coalition, a case that overturned the cppa of 1996 and deemed porn depicting fictional, non-hypperrealistic minors, so long as no minors were involved in production, as legal, and saying otherwise being a 1st ammendment violationthe miller test, a three-prong obscenity test of free speech, under which comship art and literature is protected under literary, artistic, and scientific valuethe child pornography prevention act of 1996 (cppa) which was declined & overturned for unreasonable violation of the first amendmentlaws defining u.s child porn as real life photographs/video/etc of children in sexually explicit manners or situations as well as hyperrealistic art depicting real life identifiable minorsstudy showing available porn depicting fictional minors and cp decreased current & future child sexual abuse rates due to lack of financial gain, pre-handling, content availability making victimizing children unnecessary for online and some in person offenders, etcstudy showing "barely legal" both legal and perceived illegal porn decreasing sexual crimestudy showing non-incarcerated pedophiles consuming vcp (virtual child porn) having barely any offenses and not nearly enough to be considered significantgovernment definition of sex offender typologies; all non-internet cases are majorly known-victim based and internet based offenders are only actively preying on children in half of the types of offenders. types/levels including distributing child porn for money, sexual contact with a minor unknowingly and possible continuing after gaining awareness, developing a legitimate relationship with a minor knowing or unknowingly without using grooming, and systemic grooming of minors online (in cynic levels, usually only one victim, less experience, and a precursor to real life contact, and in expert levels, systematic  serial grooming of unknown victims online, think chatrooms, experts are most likely to distribute or produce child porn through photos of interactions and real life explicit images). this study also found most offenders had pre existing fantasies or offenses before online usagegovernment definition and study showing majority of online offenders are previous offenders and are  unvictimized, married, college graduated white men with low impulse control who possess and seek out legitimate child porn, not fictional content ; plus, most people in fandom spaces are lgbtq+ women and people of color
coping & reality's relationship with fiction

this piece on coping with mental illness through fictionthis study showing little to know emotional differences in consumers of violent video games ; why would it be any different for literature and art?this article showing true and fictional crime being healthy to indulge in, especially for former kr potential victims, so long as there is no obsession or addiction to the mediaa study showing fictional violence does not correlate to real violence and pushing blame onto fictional violence lets actual offenders get awaystudy showing bibiliotherapy (book and literature therapy) improves mental health and increases empathy, especially fiction and especially for the mentally illstudy showing children, specifically around age 8, were shown to be more aggressive when exposed to violent media extensively, as well as showing the main two studies & theories for fictional violence has been faulty due to unaccounted family lives, mental health, and other circumstantial evidencestudy showing that violent media causing violent responses is mainly observed in those with predispositions and real-life violent experiences, i.e traumatized & untreated mentally ill children
sex, bdsm, fetishes & kink

study showing fetishes and kinks are healthy and normal"immoral" roleplay and kinks shown to be healthybdsm shown to be healthy and positive copingstudy showing bdsm is normal & healthy kink to a predominantly queer minority ; this can also correlate anti-kink to anti-queerstudy showing bdsm and kink predominantly improving mental health and happinessstudy showing those who read romance, erotica, thriller, etc are more interpersonally sensitive and in tunestudy showing most kinks are practiced by healthy couples in consensual power exchangearticle defining the differences between zoophilia (sexual attraction to non-human animals) and beastiality (sexual acts with animals) and studies within said article showing its undiscussed commonnessdebunked misconceptions about animal roleplay and its relation to both zoophilia and beastialityan introductory and slightly historical guide to animal roleplay and petplayanother guide to petplaystatement from a petplay website that petplay does not involve legitimate beastialityarticle showing no link to zoophilia from petplay
misc

framing theory showing that all content is not inherently promoting something, it depends on how the content is framed/portrayed. this would mean fictional abuse could be portrayed as negative and still consumed without inciting violence due to the negative framepiece on purity culture in fandom spacesanother piece on puritarianism in fandom spaces & debunking of a misinformative article
takeaway

comship is legal and protected under federal u.s law, the supreme court case of ashcroft v free speech coalition, and the miller testcomship reduces sexual offenses towards children and othersthere are tons of studies showing healthiness in comshippingbeing anti-kink, fetish, and bdsm exploration is not only harmful to health (its a positive healthy coping mechanism) and the communities, but historically anti-queer, and the adult side of comshipping is intrinsically tied into kinkpetplay has no links to zoophilia (which is not the same as beastiality and is not as uncommon as thought to be) and is just a kink, see abovefictional violence and immoral acts cause little to no permanent damage to society's psyche as well as minimal temporary damage, the most commonly negatively effected group is untreated ill children under 13, meaning recovered teens and adults have no substantial negative effects by comshippingpuritarianism is alive in fandom spaces and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, false statistics and traumatizes those who cope differently than them, this is seen in antis predominantlycomship does not normalize abuse, bigotry, etc. nor does it inherently fetishize it. the adult nsfw sides of comship are practices in bdsm and kink community and the sfw all inclusive sides are shown to be coping and catharticframing is important
totals

sources in this section: 32images below: 54

a statement from an actual child abuse organization saying to stop submitting fictional & comship content

MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING: ANTISEMITISM, RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, DEATH THREATS, VICTIM BLAMIMG, TRAUMA INVALIDATION, MEDICAL ABUSE, SUIBAITING, SLURS, IN DEPTH GORE DESCRIPTION, EUGENICS, ADMISSION TO RAPE, DOXXING, THE WHOLE 9 YARDS

two galleries of vile things anti-comships have said to comships over legal, healthy fiction