By Aruni Deraniyagala

I was around 11 and well into my Harry Potter phase when I discovered shipping and fanfiction. There was even a time when I dabbled in attempts to write  fanfiction myself, but I just didn’t have the patience to finish anything I started. I pretty much devoured stories shipping Draco and Hermione, Draco and Harry, and Ginny and Pansy. So looking back as someone who was very  much into shipping characters who weren’t canon, here’s what I’ve realised; reading fanfiction that shipped different characters together taught me so much about sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationships. 

I have always known that I was attracted to more than one gender, but the first time I ever heard the term bisexual was whilst reading a Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter fanfiction. Reading about characters that I loved being in loving relationships that weren’t heteronormative helped normalise queer relationships for me. Outside of fanfiction, I was never taught about the queer community and discussing the stories we read helped facilitate conversations between my group of friends about sexuality. Whilst fanfiction is definitely not the best place to be getting your sex education, it’s probably the only reason that non-heterosexual relationships were so normalised in my head and why I was so comfortable with who I was. 

Shipping characters also allowed me to learn about different family structures. I come from a very traditional family and most of my friends do too. Reading stories that shipped different characters together introduced me to same-sex families, polyamorous families, co-parenting and showed me the importance of found family. I’ve mentioned the  Harry Potter fandom a lot just because I’ve read a lot of fanfiction shipping various characters from that franchise. Quite a few of these stories involved Harry divorcing Ginny, Draco divorcing Pansy and Harry and Draco dating each other. This generally ended with all the parents taking it in turns to look after the children and drop them off at school or take them for all their different activities. I learnt that families don’t always have to look the same way my family did; all that mattered was that everyone felt safe and loved.

I understand why some people might feel as if shipping is ruining the way we read; afterall, the author wrote things in a certain way and surely that’s how we must read them. However, I believe that once an author publishes their story, it is up to the reader to decide how they interpret different characters and relationships. And if, as I’ve already explained, shipping various characters gives us a better understanding of how relationships work in real life, then I think it can only enhance the way we read.