You'll get disagreement on the origins of when "shipper" was coined, but generally speaking the term wasn't really used until the X-Files fandom really started making more common. The Mulder/Scully ship being the only major coupling of the series, the fandom fell into 2 groups: shippers who watched because they were waiting for Mulder and Scully to hook up and those wanted the focus to be on the story arcs and felt the M/S ship was overtaking the show. You of course, had people who identified with both, but there was a good period of time that the fandom was split and fought over what the balance between the freaky monsters and shippy moments should be in the show.
It wasn't until later (when shows started to show multiple pairings and/or unconventional couples (UC) that had equal popularity) that "shipping" as a verb started to be used as an identifier for a preference (e.g. "I ship Tony/Michelle because they're awesomecakes and Nina's a traitorous bitch").
So in a way, we can thank the X-Files for the Harry Potter Shipper Wars.
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Date: 2008-04-23 02:37 pm (UTC)It wasn't until later (when shows started to show multiple pairings and/or unconventional couples (UC) that had equal popularity) that "shipping" as a verb started to be used as an identifier for a preference (e.g. "I ship Tony/Michelle because they're awesomecakes and Nina's a traitorous bitch").
So in a way, we can thank the X-Files for the Harry Potter Shipper Wars.