Gen vs. Ship: My opinion

[druidspell]

Okay, so because I'm a cultural anthropology geek, and because my main culture these days is that of the media-fandom reader/watcher/lurker, I've got metafandom on my friends list. Every so often, big debates get noticed on the community, they post links to them, and occasionally, I check it out on my own (or my friends' list explodes about the huge drama). Recently, they linked to a post about gen vs. ship, and what makes something gen and what makes it a ship story/vid/art, etc. My friends list hasn't exploded, per se (not like during the "warnings" debate--any one of like, six, that I've seen since listing metafandom, or the BNF thing), but there's still been enough discussion of it that I feel like making my own response.

Here are some things you may wish to understand before proceeding with your reading.
-I am a slasher. I like to read it, I like to see it, I like to think about it, I like to debate the relative merits and pitfalls of it, I like to occasionally try and write it.
-I've been known to read, write, and enjoy het, as well. This does not make me a bad slasher.
-I've also been known to read and love gen. This does not make me a bad shipper, any more than my enjoyment of slash and het makes me a bad genner.
-I read primarily in these three fandoms fandoms: Stargate:Atlantis, some Supernatural, some Smallville/JLA/DC universes. I've done some writing in Harry Potter and SGA, and I've also drifted through the Firefly, CSI, SG-1, House, Eureka, X-Men, and Macdonald Hall fandoms (mainly through exposure by people whose fic I read in SGA, SPN, and SV.)
-I have OTPs. Sometimes they are het. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes it's actually an OT4.
-I have anti-OTPs, and squicks, and things that make me twitch and want to spork the author's fingers off. Sometimes my reactions are unreasonable, and I can (and do) quickly utilize the back button when I encounter something I don't like. I may even make a note of the author's name and make a decision to not read anything else by them. It's nothing personal against them (I'm sure they don't smell bad, or kick babies and murder puppies for love and/or money). But if I don't like something they've written, and I browse through the rest of their work and see that they've written more of the things I don't like, I make a somewhat-educated guess that I won't like other things by them, and move on to authors I know write what I want to read.

I read an interesting post today that asserted that the gen purists who claim that het, slash, or any relationship beyond friendship aren't gen aren't petitioning for a purer genre, what they want is a warning.
Now, from a certain standpoint, I can see what the genners are going for: they want to know, when they see a story that claims to be gen, that they stand a good chance of enjoying the story if they read it--the same way that I want to know, when I browse a bookstore, that the fantasy novel I pick up isn't actually mislabeled by the publishers and is a romance novel instead. My fantasy can have some romance, but I prefer if the romance takes second (or third, or eighth) place to the fantastic content.
However, if, overall, the story is mostly fantasy with some romance, or science-fiction, or adventure, or whatever else, I'm still okay with that, and I'll still call it fantasy. The same way with me and gen; if the story is predominantly not focused on the romantic entanglements of its characters, I'm willing to classify it as gen. And since gen really only eliminates the category of romance, it doesn't matter what the rest of the elements are.

Now, would I like a warning for gen/het/slash? Maybe; I haven't really had enough time to process it. But I know that I do appreciate being told pairings and ratings--for instance, if it's John/Elizabeth (even J/E becomes John/Anyone Else, or Elizabeth/...Almost Anyone Else, I'm not going to read it. Why? Because I hate John/Elizabeth. I love John, and can be persuaded by certain people *coughmirielcough* to like Elizabeth, but I cannot see the John/Elizabeth romance. I don't even like the ship name. And I like to know up front that the author is portraying that particular ship. I've got a few other pairings in various fandoms that I just won't read, and there are certain plot elements and categories that I vehemently dislike or am just not interested in. I want to be warned away from them, and if I'm not, I'm left feeling vaguely disappointed.

Now, my definition of gen (to get back to the original topic) is a story or other medium that doesn't focus on the current romantic entanglements of the characters. That's it; that's my definition. You Can't Explain the Ocean is gen; so is Divination, so are the first several stories in the Retrograde-verse. (I don't have any gen Smallville stories--the ones I've linked to are SPN, HP, and SGA, respectively, by rageprufrock, inell, and ltlj.)

Can a story be gen and have slash and het elements? Yes, the same way that (to use alixtii's example) Firefly can be sci-fi, but still have Western elements. There would probably be some people out there who would classify Firefly as a Western, but it would still have sci-fi as a predominant and highly influential element.

Do I think it would be nice if authors warned for gen?
I don't think I would object to them doing so, but I'm hardly going to encourage the behavior. Because, much as we would like it to be, Fandom Is Not A Safe-Space Environment. You may be offended. You may be triggered. You may be disgusted. However, especially in online fandoms, you have the option to protect yourself by not clicking on something if you don't want to take the risk. It is not the author's responsibility to protect you. It is not their responsibility to babysit for you and your preferences. Unless they're writing a story particularly for you and your preferences, your likes and dislikes, kinks and squicks aren't important to why they're writing the story.
And I understand the desire for warning. Hell, I want to be warned for certain things--rape, incest, character death, spoilers, and certain sexual practices. But then again, I also want warnings for certain pairings, certain plot elements (character betrayal, humiliation, torture), and since those things aren't global squicks (and even a few of the ones I expect to be warned for aren't necessarily global squicks), I have no business demanding them. And if I happen to stumble across them in a fic that didn't warn me they'd be there? I will click the backbutton, no harm, no foul.



Now that my gen warnings thing is finished, I do have one thing I'd like to see more of: people using the LJ tags for their fan works! Because if I read one of your stories and I loved it, I want to be able to easily devour the rest of your entire body of work and leave you adoring comments about temples and love children and sending you cookies if only you'll write more. And if you use the tags, I can do so. (If you don't use the tags, I'm forced to resort to stalking you, and nobody really wants that.)

Comments

[duchesspariah.livejournal.com]

Greek. And, I don't speak Greek. Damienn does. But, I don't.

That was a lot of Greek.

[druidspell.livejournal.com]

I don't speek Greek either, sorella.
If I thought you were interested, I'd explain. Instead, I'll sit here and smile.