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silwritersguildA few months ago, our Yahoo! discussion list had quite a lengthy and intense discussion about slash and het and the labeling and avoidance of each in fandom. This conversation sparked us to reconsider how we label slash and het on our archive.
Currently, slash and het stories are identified on the archive using warnings. There are five warnings that concern sexual content that an author may choose for his or her story on the archive, and the author may choose as many warnings as apply. These warnings are:
Sexual Content--Graphic
Sexual Content--Heterosexual/Het
Sexual Content--Homosexual/Slash
Sexual Content--Mild
Sexual Content--Moderate
This system works fine when a story actually contains sexual content. However, the question arose about how best to handle stories that involve a pairing and do not contain sexual content. For example, does a story that looks at the experience of being homosexual in Gondolin (but that does not contain any sexual content) need to be labeled as slash? Does a story that looks at the marriage of Nerdanel and Feanor need to be labeled as het? Neither story is described well by the labels available on the archive (and, in fact, the labels may be terribly misleading), yet authors often feel pressured to label a story as slash or het, knowing that readers who wish to avoid any mention of homosexual or heterosexual pairings may criticize them if they do not. There are also authors who dislike the labels "slash" and "het," even for stories that involve sexual content, because the labels have picked up negative connotations in some parts of fandom.
Given these concerns, we asked our members to suggest a better way for us to label slash and het on the archive. We want readers to be able to find the stories that they want, but we also want authors to feel comfortable using our system to share their work. We have gathered the suggestions that we received and have put together a poll to see which our members and visitors think would work best. We appreciate if everyone could take a moment to look at the different options and vote in the poll. Please note that there is also a space for any comments or considerations that you'd like our moderators to keep in mind when making the final decision.
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/warning_poll.php
The poll will run 1-30 September unless it is generating a large response or discussion, in which case, we will extend the deadline.
We appreciate everyone's time, consideration, and input!
Currently, slash and het stories are identified on the archive using warnings. There are five warnings that concern sexual content that an author may choose for his or her story on the archive, and the author may choose as many warnings as apply. These warnings are:
Sexual Content--Graphic
Sexual Content--Heterosexual/Het
Sexual Content--Homosexual/Slash
Sexual Content--Mild
Sexual Content--Moderate
This system works fine when a story actually contains sexual content. However, the question arose about how best to handle stories that involve a pairing and do not contain sexual content. For example, does a story that looks at the experience of being homosexual in Gondolin (but that does not contain any sexual content) need to be labeled as slash? Does a story that looks at the marriage of Nerdanel and Feanor need to be labeled as het? Neither story is described well by the labels available on the archive (and, in fact, the labels may be terribly misleading), yet authors often feel pressured to label a story as slash or het, knowing that readers who wish to avoid any mention of homosexual or heterosexual pairings may criticize them if they do not. There are also authors who dislike the labels "slash" and "het," even for stories that involve sexual content, because the labels have picked up negative connotations in some parts of fandom.
Given these concerns, we asked our members to suggest a better way for us to label slash and het on the archive. We want readers to be able to find the stories that they want, but we also want authors to feel comfortable using our system to share their work. We have gathered the suggestions that we received and have put together a poll to see which our members and visitors think would work best. We appreciate if everyone could take a moment to look at the different options and vote in the poll. Please note that there is also a space for any comments or considerations that you'd like our moderators to keep in mind when making the final decision.
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/warning_poll.php
The poll will run 1-30 September unless it is generating a large response or discussion, in which case, we will extend the deadline.
We appreciate everyone's time, consideration, and input!
