Pairing labels

[bluflamingo]

So, I'm sitting here, all ready to draw up a header for the fic I've just finished, and I've got a problem. My header for fic in my journal includes, amongst other things, the pairing, or the main character(s) in a gen piece, because I personally like to know who I'm going to be reading about in a story and so assume other people like to as well.

This is the problem, however: there's a very brief, non-explicit sex scene in this story. It's maybe a couple of hundred words out of a fic that's over 5 1/2 thousand, and while it's an important part of the story, the story isn't about the pairing, the relationship, or sex/romance in any way. Even the sex isn't about those things, it's about comfort between two friends. The story is about John's relationship with his father who's just died.

So, the answer is probably It's your journal, it's your story, label it however you damn well please (or a more polite version thereof) but I'm curious to know how you'd label this in terms of pairings. I want to label it John-centric gen, which it is, but I think if I saw that, I'd be kind of surprised to see a sex scene later on. That said, if I saw a story labelled with a pairing, I'd expect the other half of the pairing to be around more.

Help me - my brain is no longer up to these kinds of complex and vital decisions!

Comments

[thelana.livejournal.com]

In some ways it kinda is. Personally, I like stories that have a gay pairing or no pairing at all, so slash or gen. But I happen to think the *cannon* pairings in SGA and SGC are slash pairings. But that may be just me.

But that's the problem. This kind of assumption only works if you are in a group that shares this perception of canonicity. Yet there are plenty of people who think that John/Teyla and Sam/Jack are the canon pairings (and let's face it, there's canon reasons why some might think so).

Just like you probably wouldn't want to open a gen story and fit out that it is really John/Teyla some John/Teyla or ShepWeir wouldn't want to click on something that is advertised as gen only to find out that it's really a slash (or different ship) story masking as gen. It's a two way street.

So to me the fair solution is for both sides to realize that their story doesn't qualify as gen (which brings me back to different groups having hickhacks trying to prove that their pairing is more canon and therefore more "deserving" of the Gen label; something I find supremely annoying. If your story is shippy then it's not Gen, even if it's not explicit).

If the story doesn't have a romantic relationship as a central focus then it makes sense to label it: Genre: Character piece. Pairing: John/M(incidental)


That's how I would label it as well. If the focus is on something else then label it as that (action story, adventure story, character story), but that doesn't mean that you can't give tons of additional information (like a pairing that plays a minor role).

It's just that to me "Gen" not only implies absence of relationships for the most part it also gives little insight to what the story is about.

[dvorarose.livejournal.com]

*But that's the problem. This kind of assumption only works if you are in a group that shares this perception of canonicity....*

I think I was unclear, which is totally my fault for posting at this hour. I completely agree with you that gen should read as the absence of all pairings. I don't think any cannon pairings are 'gen' since they are ya know, *pairings.* I'm very careful when I write (or beta) to make sure that any sexual (or romantic) pairings gets a nod in the header. I really appreciate when some one takes the time to tell me of minor pairings too. We all have our squicks, and some times it's a person and not just an act. All I meant was that I would rather read a gen story, with no pairings, than a het story, regardless of the pairing, because I think the slash pairings are the cannon pairings.

On an unrelated (?) issue, I also like to see a line in the header telling me if a story is going to contain graphic violence. I hate it when I get half way through a story I'm enjoying and realise a main character is about to get beat near to death. I get enough violence in the real world, I don't always want to deal with it in my fic.

I hope that is more clear.