Talks with Aunt Coffeebuddha: I'm too tired and pissed to try to be funny.

[coffeebuddha]

It's late, I'm tired, and I've seen this way too many times today to not want to hit something with a tuba.

Guys. Warning for slash in your headers? Is fucking repugnant.

Let's take a look at some things that are typically warned for and see if you can't figure out why that is without my spelling it out for you.

• Rape/noncon/dubcon/sexual assault
• graphic violence
• character death
• child abuse
• emotional/mental abuse

Basically, these are all things that are generally acknowledged to be potentially triggering for readers. Can we all parse out why lumping a same sex relationship into the category of 'things that need to be warned for' with things like that might possibly be offensive as all get out?

If you want to say that your story contains slash, then have at it. Include it in your summary, in your notes, or in an actual 'Contains' line. But don't fucking warn for it like it's something offensive and triggering.

Comments

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

Also, it's stupid and annoying.

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

There's definitely that too. I just don't get why people do it. If it isn't clear from your header what the pairing is, then you're probably doing it wrong. And if some delicate snowflake somehow misses the signs and is all butthurt that my story is slash, well, I really can't work up any sympathy for them over that.

[dlasta.livejournal.com]

Ah, morons.


(One of the only things I miss before lj explosion is the way people had to learn the rules of fandom/fanfic. :)

[pixiequeen10thk.livejournal.com]

Guilty as charged :(. Of course you're completely right. My warnings do tend to contain more info than just triggers e.g. crack, spoilers etc, but you're right that I should have put it in an info section rather than warnings *facepalm*.

EDIT: Yay, as I thought I'd only done it on a few posts, so it was easily fixed.

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

As a general rule, I just do a Contains line instead of a Warnings one in my headers when it's needed. *hugs* Welcome to my flist. Here, let me yell at you. ;)

Seriously, though, I promise I'm not always this angry or shouty.

[pixiequeen10thk.livejournal.com]

LOL, no it's fine, you're totally right. I'm actually glad I saw your post as it just wasn't something I'd thought about as I've always used the warnings section pretty freely. I never thought about how that section was usually for triggers... probably since so many others misuse it too... not that that's an excuse of course. I only tended to do it in new fandoms when posting in gen communities, just to say "here I am in your fandom, doing teh slash, if you don't like that sort of thing don't look/read/complain". Sometimes I feel like calling homophobes up on their shit, but if I'm very honest I'd usually avoid the conflict as I've enough to deal with my sister's evangelical church induced prejudices. So yes in short, I'll be putting it in the contains line or not at all :). Given my flist I should probably be warning for het more XD /end{ramble}

[guilshad.livejournal.com]

You know the worst for me? When people warn for it while posting it in a comm dedicated to a slash pairing. It's like...I would hope there'd be slash.

The only time I would understand doing that is in larger comms where there's a chance of being flamed for not 'warning' for slash, but I avoid those and so am not sure how common that kind of reaction from readers is.

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

YES. FUCK THAT NOISE.

Ahem.

I mean, I agree.

Even in the larger comms I wouldn't put it in my header. Most comms have a tag for slash, so even if it isn't obvious from your pairing, there's no reason you need to include it. Plus, the way I see it, if someone wants to yell at me because they accidentally read slash, then that's their damage and I can't really bring myself to give a damn anymore.

[magical-mia.livejournal.com]

God, I cannot explain how much this bugs me. I don't even really like it in the summary to be honest; I think they should just put the pairing and be done. No one puts "het" in their summaries after all.

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

Definitely agreed, but for people who just need to shove it in so that people will ~know~, I'm less likely to start twitching and foaming at the mouth if they include it somewhere other than the warnings line.

I have seen people warn for het before just as a way to point out how ridiculous warning for slash is. It freaking makes my day every single time.

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

I hate the word pre-slash. Drives me up a wall. What does that even mean? Gay but not dating each other? Wanting to? Why is that a word? That's what UST is for. Nobody says pre-het!

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

I'm guilty of that one, but then I've also used pre-het before... >.>

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

At least you said pre-het too? :)

[cedara]

Trufax.

*watches the gif - mesmerized*

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

I freaking love that gif. The look on her face is perfection.

[lizibabes.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever warned for slash, the pairing has two men's names people should be able to tell its slash, right?. I warn for sex because I've seen people be seriously flamed when they don't.
So yeah I make it clear that there will be M/M sex to avoid being yelled at but I'd prefer to be able to put it in a contains line.
I've seen Het warned for as well as if that's also offensive?
clear pairings should be enough.

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

the pairing has two men's names people should be able to tell its slash, right?

Exactly. As far as warning for sexual content of any kind goes, it doesn't bother me, but it always sort of makes me raise an eyebrow when I see people do that. I would assume that the NC-17 rating would be enough. *headdesk*

The only times I've seen het warned for, it was being done by people who were doing it ironically to poke fun at how stupid it is to warn for slash, but I suppose there are people out there who could be doing it seriously. =/

[lizibabes.livejournal.com]

I've seen seriouse warnings for het some that went way over the top, which made it look like people who read slash are against het sex which annoyed me.
I think the only reason I warn that my NC-17 does mean sex(who'd have though sex in a slash fic?lol) Is that people flame as they insist it could have been to cover violence,swearing, drug use ect
which annoys me as well if my ratting's for those things I warn for them.
I'm sure some people just want to pick fault lol
I've never read one of your fic's and thought it lacked a warning it needed :)

[mildly-neurotic.livejournal.com]

It never even occurred to me before but I see your point. I've never done it was a warning, though I have written things in my rating line like:

Rating: NC17 (for hot boy sex)

My lame attempt at humor. :-)

Have you tried a nudge in their comments explaining their misstep?

[coffeebuddha.livejournal.com]

See, that doesn't bother me, because that reads to me like you're just clarifying that the rating's for sex and not violence or something. :)

I've said something about it to a few people, but it happens too often to realistically say something every time I see it.

[mildly-neurotic.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. I think because it wasn't on my radar before I didn't notice. I probably will now! LOL