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

[sarken]

I think, sometimes, people aren't aware that a slash indicates romantic or sexual pairings, and they just label the story X/Y because all of the other stories are labeled X/Y. There don't seem to be as many easy-to-find guides to fic headers and other fandom etiquette as there used to be, so a lot of newer fans end up guessing at protocol, and, when no one corrects their mistake, they continue to use it.

On the other hand, some people intentionally...over-label, I'll call it. I know I do from time to time, because I know some people in my fandom are bothered by the pairing I write. If there's anything in the story I think could be construed as 'shippy, I slap the pairing label on it. In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather disappoint the people looking for the pairing than squick or annoy the people who want to avoid it.

Edit: I see the conversation upthread, and I should say that the pairing I over-label for is het, not slash, so it's not a case of protecting the delicate sensibilities of straight people.

[elspethdixon]

I think, sometimes, people aren't aware that a slash indicates romantic or sexual pairings, and they just label the story X/Y because all of the other stories are labeled X/Y

I've run into this in numerous fandoms, most recently in Full Metal Alchemist, and it's invariably O.o inducing. I always have this urge to leave a review telling the author that "parental Roy/Ed" in their summary reeaally doesn't send the impression they think it does. Unless they want people to click on their fic in hopeful expectation of Roy/Ed slash with daddykink.

[sarken]

Eek. I've never seen that, although I have seen "X/Y friendship," which makes my head hurt. It's like telling an artificial intelligence, "This statement is true. The previous statement is false."

[elspethdixon]

Something similar happens with Yuletide requests, where people specify which characters they want to read about, and said characters' names are all displayed with "/" between them, so you can get "characterA/characterB/characterC/characterD" as if someone's asking for an orgy fic, followed by, "requester prefers gen."