I think there is where the difference between canon and non-canon ships comes in though. There's simply not the same reasons to bash a non canon pairing, even if it is the slash OTP that ate fandom. It's not there in the show, so you can just ignore it.
When you object to a canon ship though, it's easy to feel that you have to point out what is wrong with it. Attacking the rival character is an easy, though obviously problematic, way of doing that. And as I said below, the rival character is far more likely to be female, so that means that you get more bashed female characters, even if misogyny didn't exist - which I'm not suggesting for a moment.
Re: From metafandom
When you object to a canon ship though, it's easy to feel that you have to point out what is wrong with it. Attacking the rival character is an easy, though obviously problematic, way of doing that. And as I said below, the rival character is far more likely to be female, so that means that you get more bashed female characters, even if misogyny didn't exist - which I'm not suggesting for a moment.