in defense of fixed shippers
so a while back i had the… ~*privilege*~ of witnessing some fixed vs. switch shipper discourse in a way that was up close and personal but still essentially behind a pane of glass. and it just baffled me to no end.
so now we have this.
written 5 april 2026.
okay. so i know this is probably going to sound rich coming from me, considering the backlog of my site, but i do understand where fixed dynamic shippers are coming from when they insist on no switch, and i sympathize with their issues.
"oooo but why does it matter who tops, whose dick goes inside whom? isn't that misogynistic? real gay men aren't that rigid; aren't you being homophobic?" like first of all. it's not always about top/bottom penetration/penetrated sex dynamics here. this can be difficult to communicate bc of the way things like dominance and penetration are conflated when they really don't have to be, but a lot of the time, "top/bottom" preferences tend to actually be a shorthand for a certain flavor of characterization.
this characterization is often informed by that unholy amalgamation of (often heteronormative) gender roles and in an ideal world, that would not be how things work. but either way, although things can get kind of extreme no matter which side you fall on, i don't think it's wrong to have a preference, even to the point of no switch.
it's not uncommon for someone to see an extremely opposite interp of one's beloved blorbos from a fixed dynamic shipper and end up leaning towards the opposite interpretation yourself, if not becoming a fixed ship of the opposite configuration altogether. especially as a fandom ages and time passes, the extreme ends of these opposite fanon interps diverge more and more, and some people on the more extreme ends crystallize a view of the characters in heteronormative roles, even people who are fine with switching can end up with character interpretations that just taste too different for someone on the other side of the top/bottom war to find believeable.
and sometimes people only say they think switch is okay bc they want to sin the online progressive performance wars.
…but that's neither here nor there.
anyway, this feels super fucking vague. and that's on purpose, bc god knows how many fucking situations this could apply to. time and fandom are both flat circles (god UNbless). all i can really hope is that people will at least argue with each other in good faith.