On Labeling Slash Fiction

[slumber]

Just, randomly, and I guess this issue's been run to the ground before, but is it dishonest and offensive to place a slash and drama fic under a Drama category if a Slash category is available, even if the fic is mostly Drama?

How many people find it offensive, exactly, considering I never even thought of it before? I mean, I think that generally, the HP fandom has a to-each-his-own philosophy when it comes to things we don't like (except ships, but dude, I thought we've transcended the het-versus-slash debate AGES ago, or is that just because of the people I'm friends with?), but apparently there are people who think differently.

It might just be me, but I think I find it offensive that people think any sort of fic needs to be labeled slash at all, or even just when it isn't the main classification for the fic, or rated higher than PG, especially if it isn't.

Or, I don't know. When there are Slash categories in archive sites, does this automatically mean that everything else is Non-slash? Isn't that a little, I don't know, unfair? If I'd known the archive was Mostly Leaning to Het, I wouldn't have joined because I don't usually write het--why do some people feel the need to be warned for Mostly Slash sites, but then never warn for Mostly Het sites?

Comments

[spinadrift.livejournal.com]

Generally, I label things as slash or saffic just because I don't want to get the "eww ur gross" type of responses. That way, if somebody thinks homosexuality is an abberation or whatever (though my experiences in fandom have shown that 95% of people are pretty open-minded), they have an ideaof what's involved and they can either steer clear or get a "you read the warning, now piss off".

I think the main reason for labelling things for anything is that it lets sensitive readers know if there's "questionable" material inside -- and to some people, slash and saffic are definitely questionable, or they just don't enjoy reading it. That doesn't really bother me, mostly, because as long as they stick to their narrow-minded little worlds I'm happy to be completely ghey in mine.

(And you know, I was just thinking last night of all the weird double-standards there are for het and slash -- namely, how people get rabid and weird if you say you don't like reading saffic or slash and accuse you of being a homophobe, whereas if you say you dislike het, there are legions of people just waiting to leap in and agree with you. And, like you said, the way that slash needs to be labelled but het doesn't. Little things like that irritate me to no end, because everything in fandom is down to personal taste so all bases should ideally be covered.)