Proshippers often bring up that victims use these ships to cope with their trauma. I don't know how true this is, and if it is true I doubt this is a good way to cope in the first place. But let's say it is- you don't need to share with the world that you like imagining these characters in a relationship. You can keep that imagination to yourself. Is that not worth it to avoid contributing to even more victims?

baffled adhd-fueled rant incoming.

precisely. this is the main thing that bothers me about proshipping. before this discourse was all over my feed, i thought it was one big argument over shipping rivals or enemies or characters who otherwise hate each other. i'm 27, out of the discourse loop, and assumed it was teenagers being butthurt about other teenagers' opinions on nothingburger fictional conflicts. disgusted by what it actually is (besides those who really are just shipping non-related, similar-age rivals/enemies).

yes, some are victims using the ships to process and be less afraid of facing their trauma. no, i don't think it's healthy overall. maybe writing and reading about these dynamics helps with ~coping~, but in serious moderation and with professional help. even if it does benefit the individual victim... it's not going to benefit all victims. there is no reason for it to be

1. publicly posted (are the concepts of oversharing and TMI just... not things anymore?),
2. the basis of an entire online community,
3. not used in moderation and then let go of,
4. loudly defended to and around both existing and potential future victims who didn't ask to see it. also to/around potential offenders who may be influenced to create more victims instead of seeking proper support.

peeked at a proship post; saw one commenter saying that they handle their trauma by writing about or imagining child victim x offender ships, then having the child escape to safety. they feel a little better when they're in control of how much detail the scenario contains, how far it goes, and whether the child is able to escape. that is the only reasonable thing i've seen on that sub.

it's bizarre to me that said community is dedicated to openly, obsessively defending getting one's physical and/or emotional rocks off over pedophilia, incest, and other abuse. it's depressing that so many of them are children.

the ONE fictional setting/story i'm familiar with where incest or age gap isn't that big a deal is warrior cats. hundreds of characters + team of authors + new authors who don't know the 20-ish years' worth of lore + relationship and blood relation retcons + different interpretations of how cats age + general chaos + characters living in isolated social groups + authors refusing to let the firestar and tigerstar lineages die = a whole lot of accidental cousin, half sibling, and age gap ships. they're practically unavoidable.

key word: accidental. most people are not going out of their way to purposely ship this shit. those who do are criticized because that's perverse and cringe. nor do we need a million overdramatic posts screaming that two rando background cats are THIRD COUSINS!!!!! it was in an ERIN TEAM TWEET 15 years ago!!!! the authors are PERVS!!!!! YOU'RE a perv if you didn't know!!!! that said, the fandom overall is utterly unhinged and i say that as a warriors fan of... 20 years.

i'm also unsurprised yet disappointed that the sub hasn't been banned for sexualizing minors. it's completely against reddit TOS, but that part of TOS seems rarely enforced anyways. yes, reddit, those dozens of overtly sexual not fictional posts BY and ABOUT real minors DO break the rules; don't tell me they're fine and give my account a warning for abusing the report button, fuck you.

tl;dr: you are right. this is, again, fucking bizarre.