Taylor Swift is About to Tear One Direction's Slash Fiction-Obsessed Fan Base Apart

Like other mega boy bands that came before them, gang of twinks One Direction have a crazily devoted — and sometimes outright crazy — fanbase primarily made up of teenage girls. What makes 1D fandom fascinating is the underground community of slash fiction writers that has driven a wedge in what should be a monolithic force — a phenomenon detailed by Amanda Hess in Tomorrow magazine.

The central figures for most 1D slash writers (commonly called "shippers") are 1D stars Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles (pictured above), whose fictional romantic and sexual relationship is so popular that the duo are now just called "Larry." Larry shippers and Larry non-believers naturally despise each other, with the skeptics accusing the shippers of tearing the band apart and both sides often lobbing death threats at each other. The whole thing is equal parts bizarre, hilarious and terrifying.

But it also makes recent news that Harry is dating Taylor Swift very interesting. The two have been linked before — it's been speculated that Swift's recent song "I Knew You Were Trouble" was written about Harry — but gossip sites are now reporting ("reporting") that the duo are basically official. (Confirmation came to Perez Hilton from Mario Lopez, because of course.) It's an entirely plausible story, unless of course you're a fervent Larry shipper who believes with all your heart that 1D's record label is actively stifling the Larry relationship.

The anti-Larrys, on the other hand, are throwing this budding romance in the face of the shippers.

Not to be left out are the Swift and 1D fans who are just generally torn up, confused or angered regardless of their Larry affiliation. You can peruse those on Tumblr, under the tag Haylor.
