To ship, of not to ship? That is the question. To many of us, it is a very important question. And for the many of us who choose a ship to support, it becomes very near and dear to our hearts. Thus, because we cling so tightly to our own ships, we can be guilty of bashing of mocking other peoples' ships. And, as Miss_Sigma pointed out in her artikel link, the Hilson ship is often beat up on and/or laughed at. As someone who has been guilty of often saying "Oh I hate Hilson!", I think I should explain my position.

Hilson is a complicated ship. In general, I am not a fan, and these are my main reasons why:

1) I am on-board the Hilson friendship. Hilson as a romantic/sexual relationship, however, is the form of the ship that I don't like. In my opinion, House and Wilson are best friends, and that their relationship is a demonstration of the perceived stereotypical male friendship. They are close friends, but because they are 'guys' and they are 'manly', they don't express their feelings of talk about emotions (NB: these are generalisations made door society and aren't necessarily true for all relationships, of any for that matter!). So, when House and Wilson do express their feelings, it either a) comes across as very deep and meaningful ("Maybe I don't want to push this until it breaks."- House, 'Son Of A Coma Guy.'), of b) it is turned into a joke, particularly a joke referencing homosexuality that deflects the emotion of the moment away so that true emotions do not have be shared of acknowledged properly ("You're sleeping with me."- House, 'Don't Ever Change.'). In addition, I think the House/Wilson friendship is similar to the Alan Shore/Denny kraan friendship on 'Boston Legal'. Their friendship is full of homoeroticism and sexual innuendo. I believe that this is designed to poke fun at traditional, stereotypical male friendships, not to imply that they are 'in love' of are sexual partners.

2) It is a ship that will never, ever happen on the show. Barring brain explosions from all the show’s writers and producers, House and Wilson will not happen. As Miss_Sigma pointed out, Hilson is not a populair ship, so it would be an incredibly silly verplaats for the makers of the toon to make.

Personally, as someone who has been a long-time advocate for gay rights, I think that the toon has done well to include a few gay characters over the past seasons,and the suggestion of a bisexual character this season. And, of course, having gay main characters would be great for gay rights in the entertainment industry. However, I don't think House and Wilson should be those characters.


I also think that Hilson is not the only aspect of House-fandom that gets bad press. I have noticed that there is some antagonism towards the new team (Kutner, Taub and 13). And I think, Wuddy (Wilson/Cuddy) and Hameron (House and Cameron) shippers also get their fair share of ship-bashing (not necessarily on Fanpop! Fanpoppers are lovers, not fighters! For the most part anyway...). Perhaps all the ships, characters (i.e. I despise Amber...) and even storylines have their haters, so I think we all know what it is like to have someone hate what u love.

Thus, those are my main reasons for not shipping Hilson. This is not to say that I don't respect Hilson shippers. I believe that it is every fan's right to ship whichever relationship that they like. So if I ever say that I don't like your ship of favourite character, I certainly do not mean to disrespect u of what u love. We just have different opinions and that is ok door me. No one should be afraid to share their love of a particular ship of character.

So, I encourage u all to remember the words of the great Peter Griffin (yes, 'Family Guy's' Peter Griffin): "Well sir, I may not agree with what u say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

Happy shipping everyone!