Omg finally someone else knows about the Charmie ship, I was starting to think it was a fever dream that I dreamt up lol. People always bring up Taekook and Larry as examples of bad shipping practices but Charmies were delusional too. It’s interesting how these problematic ships have specific terminology associated with them/their industry. Larry had a ‘beard’, Taekook had an opposing ‘fanservice’ ship and Charmie had a ‘PR relationships’. Observing the ships of especially higher profile celebs/idols is so interesting to witness because it highlights the patriarch society we live in. Like you mentioned, these ships really display how women consciously/subconsciously hate on other women they perceive to be threats to their ship or fantasy. The enemy of these ships are usually women (Harry+Louis+Timothee+Armie’s girlfriends/wives) or men that they feminize (Jimin). Interesting topic.
You made an interesting observation at the end regarding Jimin. The taekook narrative is different in comparison to other big slash ships because the so called "enemy" has a different gender. For larry or charmie, the woman is the intruder so hating her it's like an automatic response. She's there to disrupt the fantasy and also expose the fantasy at the same time.
Because the result is that the shippers are more interested in actively fetishizing a gay relationship and gay men. They are fascinated with it, although at the same time they apply heteronormative definitions to it. One is the woman with any particular gender stereotypes, the other one is the man, with its own set of gender stereotypes. This is then transposed into the way they write fanfiction, how they draw the couple. They have the obsession with coming out, of praying for their eternal love. Once you see such vocabulary, it makes it all more clear. And then something happens, a woman comes into play and that's a problem. They already have the woman, the feminized version of one of the men in the ship, which is acceptable because it's a product of their imagination and a self insert at the same time.
Now, taekookers are having to deal with a bigger problem. Their biggest threat in their view is in this case a man. That disrupts the fantasy even more. So in order to make it all work, they have to change how they view that man. They need to reduce him, to strip him of his masculinity because his masculinity puts him as equal as those other two men. And him being an equal makes it a threat. Because in the case of taekook where the shippers believe that Tae and JK are in love with each other and that makes them automatically attracted to the same gender, hence gay (I'm just telling how their fantasy works), it means that there is the possibility of Jungkook (never Tae) to be attracted to Jimin. Because he is a man. That's why ships involving Tae/JK and a woman do not pose a "real" threat in the eyes of the shippers. They laugh at it because they truly believe JK and Tae are together. But by believing that, they are also aware, deep down, that Jungkook as a presumably gay man, could also be attracted to another man - Jimin.
So because this is such an unacceptable scenario, they have to femininize Jimin. He cannot be seen at the same level of a gay man as JK and Tae. Hating Jimin in that position would reveal that they can be homophobic and how they mostly fetishize a gay relationship. In turn, Jimin is portrayed as a woman. A woman that can be hated, the type that through the patriarchal conditioning, is seen as a threat to other women. For example, the femme fatale, the seductress, the slut, the whore. All words used by taekookers. Sometimes they latch onto made up rumors in which they return Jimin his masculinity if it involves some woman, or him supposedly becoming a father. But that doesn't happen often. Jimin is also seen as a man who could be gay only when once again, they find another man to ship him with. Be it Yoongi, or his friends in his private life. In both these scenarios, Jimin can be a man and attracted to other men. But the minute he is next to Jungkook, he cannot be that anymore. He is no longer potentially a man with whom Jungkook may cheat, but a home wrecker, which is usually a term used for women. Jimin's feminine qualities which show up in his behavior in a positive sense (he is more nurturing, he is in tune with his emotions, etc) are completely dismissed. He is patriarchaly feminized.
*Jimin and gender identity/sexuality discussion.
