Pre-slash, slash-friendly gen, and other non-marginalizing gen fic is awesome!

[noracharles]

"Gen fic" can mean many different things. Some people use it to mean G-rated fic, that is, fic suitable for general audiences, but most people use it to mean fic which is not about a romantic or sexual relationship.

A gen fic can be very relationship focused, and some friendshippy or smarmy fic is easily confused with het or slash. A gen fic can be about plots other than relationships, and it can be plot free. Often gen fics mention relationships and sex, and the possibility of them, sexual and emotional attraction, and there can even be explicit sexual and romantic content. What makes it gen is that the sex and romance is not the point or focus of the fic. Sometimes gen fics even erase any trace of sexuality.

Very often gen fics take heterosexuality for granted, sometimes to such a degree that I would call it het rather than gen. Even if the flirtation between Mulder and Scully is very much canon, if that flirtation and how it influences their behavior while they investigate the monster of the week is an important plot point, then your story is no longer gen in my opinion. I understand that people use the term in different ways, of course.

And sometimes gen fics acknowledge homosexuality, and the possibility of same sex attraction and flirting. These gen fics are like rare and precious jewels. Relentless heteronormativity can get very wearing in the long run, and it's just so relaxing to read an interesting fic with interesting characters which doesn't constantly subtly imply that I don't exist or am invisible.

I usually prefer shippy fic, and when I'm in the mood for gen I turn to pro novels. I love well-written and plotty gen fic, I've just learned that it's a gamble, and usually I'm not in the mood to take the risk of being squicked or feeling alienated by the rampant hettery.

That's where pre-slash comes in. Pre-slash is gen fic with character interaction on an emotional level and/or UST which admits of the possibility of queers existing. Sometimes it's well-written (yay!) and/or plotty (yay!) and it portrays queers doing activities other than having sex/thinking about having sex, hurray!

It's kind of amazing; every day, I do things which would be extremely boring for other people to watch: I water my plants, while being queer! I go for long walks in the woods and look for squirrels, while being queer! I sit by the computer and read, while being queer! I grocery shop, while being queer! It's almost like being queer isn't something I do exclusively while having sex and for the purpose of entertaining straight people not of my gender.

It would be nice if the very hetty gen fic were labeled pre-het, but I can certainly live with it just being called gen. I am grateful to everyone who labels their pre-slash as "pre-slash" or "slash-friendly gen" or otherwise indicates that it is not marginalizing queers. Thank you!

And to my acquaintance who complained about pre-slash because it was a tease, unfulfilling and misleading labeling; who repeatedly "forgot" that I am queer to the point of replying to "I can write a femslash sex scene" with "gah, I couldn't either, I'd be scared to! O_o"; who had fun discussing my sex life with men in graphic detail but always quickly found another subject when I so much as mentioned women; who expressed disgust and disinterest in reading about gay men who were not sexually appealing to her; who expressed disgust and horror at the idea of reading a fic with an f/f pairing when the fic was not even about the relationship - this rant's for you. I am completely weirded out that I never realized what a homophobe you are, just kept making mental excuses for when you "accidentally worded something poorly"; I'm even more weirded out that you probably don't even know you're homophobic yourself.

Here's a link for you, which explains how you can be a phobe and not know it: Color Blind or Just Plain Blind?

Comments

[lakrids404]

I am rather reverse in my taste in fic, in that I mostly reads gen. With gen I consider stories that are mostly plot related. Pure shipper fic normally bores me to death.
The word pre-slash label would indicate to me, if I saw in a description of a fic. That it would be a story, where some of the characters would begin to consider them self as gay. Yours definition sounds more like; here be gay characters, who are also well written, like "normal" het character, if I read you right.
I am rather monocultured when it comes to fanfic, as I mostly read BtVS fanfic, and I remember when I more actively looked out after fanfic, I found it rather strange, that most of the good writer, that I liked, did write mostly slash. It did feel a little strange, as gay charecter was not something, that I had not fallen over in normal litterature.

[noracharles]

I don't think I've ever seen pre-slash used to mean fic about discovering a same sex attraction, though that's certainly often an element in both pre-slash and slash fics. I dislike the idea of adult characters suddenly, out of the blue, discovering someone of their own sex or gender can turn them on, but I know some people really are very late bloomers.

Whether writers label their plotty gen fic as pre-slash differs from fandom to fandom. It some fandoms it used to be common to write both a gen and a (pre)slash version of the same fic, and often I would prefer the gen version, since it was the plot I liked to read, and the sex scenes were repetitive and irrelevant. But I would still definitely go for the gen fics with a slash version rather than gen fics with a het version or no alternate version, because there could be a world of difference in the atmosphere.

In some fandoms there's a single pairing which dominates, with the two main characters being paired in slash or smarm, or het writers being forced to bring in OCs or write cross-overs. In those fandoms, many fans consider the flirtation and emotional attraction between the main characters practically canon, even if they dislike shippy fics and write only plotty gen, and they often use the label pre-slash.

And finally, there's the kind you must have come across: shippy fic about the initial flirtation and build-up, maybe with a bit of dawning awareness of same-sex/gender attraction. I consider those fics slash, not pre-slash, but there's an unfortunate tendency to equate queerness and slash with sex.

It's funny you should say that slash writers write better fic. As it happens, I think there are some excellent het and gen writers in BtVS fandom, but my over-all, very subjective impression has been the same, that slash writers seem more concerned with logical plot progression and psychological plausibility. I've always assumed I had that impression because I read more slash, and know how to find the good writers, where with het fic it's more of a crap shoot, since I'm less familiar with it.

But maybe slash fans who are not very confident in their literary ability don't dare write, since slash is generally so disapproved of. There aren't the same barriers of taboo surrounding het fic.

I can enjoy character exploration and pwp fic, but I tend to agree, plot is definitely better. Especially high concept plot. But a convoluted romantic drama, with angst and misunderstandings and rivals and set-backs satisfies my plot craving, where I guess it bores you.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

while the trope "of adult characters suddenly, out of the blue, discovering" likely is the result of heteronormativity being uncontested, by the same token could it be that the characters are "discovering" because their own cultural homophobia had kept them from acknowledging earlier?

And, then there are character's like Benton Fraser.

[noracharles]

I prefer it to be the cultural homophobia of the character, not the author, but it's not always easy to tell the difference.

I like Fraser. I've seen John Sheppard from SGA written the same way, and a few characters from bandom, I think.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Well, I write some very repressed men. Benton actually is the youngest, and heaven knows sometimes one has to wonder if it was the 1960s or the 1860s he was born in.

Well, heteronormativity bias can be difficult to realize. I've probably got it in my fic. I think All the Queen's Men manages not to use the victims and their friends just for titilation. That's Ray's job (I know, body horror)

Seriously, I will get an openID... xD

[(Anonymous)]

Quite interesting (and yes, I am trawling through your dreamwidth journal ;D), and the definitions of gen fic aside, this:

"every day, I do things which would be extremely boring for other people to watch: I water my plants, while being queer! I go for long walks in the woods and look for squirrels, while being queer! I sit by the computer and read, while being queer! I grocery shop, while being queer! It's almost like being queer isn't something I do exclusively while having sex and for the purpose of entertaining straight people not of my gender."

Made me lol. Hard. xD It continually boggles my mind how so many people seem to assume that us queer people wander around going 'I am queer! I am queer!'. Or that we have buttloads of sex. (Egad. Bad pun not intended. x.x) I just love how you phrased that point. ^_^

-Pearlsie

Re: Seriously, I will get an openID... xD

[noracharles]

LOL, good one ^_~
I enjoy a Pune, or Play on Words.

I don't really know what you mean by "getting" an open-ID, though. As a registered LJ user, you have one. (Here, I'm showing you mine.)