slashgen or preslash

[jmtorres]

I wish people didn't feel like everything needed a pairing label. Also, just because you're slashing them in your own head, it doesn't necessarily come out that way in fic: Cas being a stalker is kind of canon, it's not necessarily a pairing thing. I say this because I am getting sort of frustrated at reading things that are supposedly a particular pairing and then nothing pairing-like happens. I've started getting excited at seeing NC-17 in the labels not because I'm particularly interested in reading about them having sex but because it means I can fairly reliably expect them to be having an actual relationship and not just burgers. Not that I'm not up for cute burger-eating fluff, but it's gen and it's misleading to claim it's not.

*sigh*

Comments

From metafandom

[lynndyre]

I'm writing friend-shippy stuff at the moment- a lot of it is more h/c and snuggling than explicit relationship, but I'm of two minds as to whether it should be labelled friendship or pairing. A lot of this is the lingering squick I got from reading really wonderful deep-and-meaningful h/c friendship fic and then being told in the author's notes that 'of course it's not slash, because I'm X sort of Christian and that sort of relationship is wrong'.

So perhaps I should label things for friendship or gen rather than pairing, but I want the potential to be allowed to be there.

Re: From metafandom

[elspethdixon]

As someone who has the same squick -- I'd go for a "gen" label as opposed to a pairing label but avoid using the term "friendship," because "gen" just means "no overtly sexual/romantic relationship happens in this fic," but leaves the interpretation of whether or not such a relationship *could* happen up to the reader, while "friendship" as a label is so often used to explicitly shut slashy readings that it often carries that vibe even when the author doesn't intend it to.

echan, above, explains her dislike or preslash labels with "my enjoyment of the fic is diminished by the subtext that's apparently there, whether I want it or not", and I often feel much the same way in inverse about "friendship fic" -- my enjoyment of the story can be diminished by the author's insistance that there *is* no subtext, whether I want there to be any or not.

I think maybe it's an issue of the way different people see gen? Some people want it to provide an explicit absence of subtext/romance, whereas I prefer to see it as a blank slate that I can either project my own shipping preferences onto or not, whichever I feel like when i'm reading.

Re: From metafandom

[sally_maria]

That is interesting, because from my perspective and the fandoms I've been in, I've never got that vibe from the term "friendship fic". In SG-1, at least, the Jack&Daniel friendship writers were often slashers as well, or at least hung out in the same spaces as them. The focus on their relationship as the core of the show over-rode whether you thought their feelings were platonic or romantic. I've seen the same thing in SGA, though the nature of LJ meant that I simply didn't see as much gen.

What friendship fic on a gen story tells me is that it going to be about the relationship I'm interested in, rather than disguised het, or some alternative interpretation where the characters don't like each other very much.

But then, as much as I love slash, I'd much rather read a story where my OTP are the close friends I see in canon even if those feelings aren't romantic, than a slash story that messes with that dynamic.

Re: From metafandom

[lynndyre]

It seems to depend on the fandom - I haven't gotten that vibe much in most of the anime/game fandoms I'm in, but friends vs slash is a really big contention point in certain Sherlock Holmes circles.

Re: From metafandom

[sally_maria]

I think you might be right.

I wonder whether it's the difference between the kind of fandom that does only have two many characters, whether it's Sherlock Holmes or Sentinel, and the kind that has other focuses of attention.

If everyone in the fandom is assuming the relationship, the nature of that relationship is probably the most important line to split along, whereas in a fandom like SG-1, where there are other characters and other possible pairings, the division is more likely to come between people who are interested in various different relationships.