Mae's guide to the self ship community
an incomplete compendium of terms and etiquette
(please note I am a humble soot sprite and this is all written within the limits of my own research)
Common terms
self-insert:
1. verb the act of inserting oneself or a stand-in original character meant to represent the self into a piece of established media, often but not exclusively with the intent to pursue a relationship with one (or several) characters within said media.
2. noun the drawn or written representation of the self inserter (whether meant to represent their true self, a mildly-altered version, or an OC). A 'sona'. In Japanese circles, this is typically referred to as a 夢主 (yumeshu/yumenushi, 'dream master'). The male term for this is 男主 (male master) or 夢ヒーロー (dream hero). The female term is 女主 (female master) or 夢ヒロイン.self-ship:
1. verb the act of shipping oneself with a fictional character, similar to a canon x canon pairing. may be romantic, platonic, familial, or otherwise in nature.
2. noun a neutral term for a ship one might have.self-shipper:
1. noun someone who engages in shipping themselves (or a self-representing OC) with a fictional character, whether romantic, platonic, familial or otherwise in nature.double(s):
1. noun a term for a person (or people) who has the same romantic f/o as another.sharing NG:
"sharing no good". a phrase that, when paired together, is used to denote not wanting to associate with doubles whatsoever.
夢女子/yumejoshi (dream girl):
1. noun a Japanese-originated term for a female or fem-aligned person who ships herself in a dedicated, romantic relationship with a fictional character. The male/masc-aligned term is 'yumedanshi' (dream boy). Note: Western-based communities have also developed the neutral term 'yumejin,' although a more accurate pronunciation is 'yumebito' or 'yumehito' (dream person). A neutral catchall for anyone who engages in the practice is 夢/'yume'. Other terms include 'ドリーマー’ (dreamer) and 夢者 (musha).comfort character:
1. noun a term for a character that brings a person comfort without the use of a self-insert. as such, this is not always exclusive to self-shipping, nor is it inherently romantic in nature. many outside of the self-insert/self-shipping community have comfort characters, and many within the community have comfort characters that they do not form a ship of any kind with.fictional other (f/o):
1. noun a term for the fictional character a self-shipper ships with. while 'f/o' is often used for romantic or romantic-adjacent ships, this isn't always the case as many use the term for platonic, familial, and other dynamics as well.
JP-Specific Sharing (doutan/同担) Terms:
同担歓迎 (doutan kangei):
"sharing welcome". the yume will happily interact with others who pursue the same character!同担拒否 (doutan kyohi):
"refusal to share". this applies to fans as well as yume. in this case, the account owner has no wish to interact with others who pursue the same character, even among friends.親輪外同担拒否 (shinringai doutan kyohi):
"refusal to share outside of friends". similar to the conditional type, this yume has conditional rules for sharing among close friends, but does not wish to share outside of their own circle.
条件発動型同担拒否 (jouken hatsudou-gata doutan kyohi):
"conditional-type refusal to share". a complex and individual type of boundary; the yume may feel comfortable interacting with those who pursue the same character under most circumstances but then dislike it under others, or they were once comfortable sharing and aren't any longer.