Fanfic question
In a recent, small kerfuffle on the Stargate Story Search Yahoo group, posters commented on badly-labeled fic, including het labeled as gen (though it started with someone who didn't want slash and eventually complained angrily that she didn't even want to read DESCRIPTIONS of slash, at which point at least two people told her that if she was THAT sensitive, she had to take responsibility for herself). But anyway, today the listmom stepped in and told everyone to take the discussion offlist. She also made very clear "Both GEN and SLASH are welcome here and neither is better than the other" (emphasis hers). Several more times she mentioned gen and slash, and at no point mentioned het.
I've seen het labeled as gen several times, and just figured it was a mistake. Now, though, I'm wondering, and I'm almost positive now of the answer but I want to be sure: Are there really people who feel that stories with heterosexual sexual or romantic content are correctly labelled as gen? Is that the case for all het or just canon? If "all," is the motivation simple heterosexism, as I automatically assumed, or is there possibly something else going on? And if "just canon," how on Earth did the standards for canon get so whacked that Jack/Sam is considered canon but not Jack/Daniel? (I do acknowledge het when I see it, for instance I think House/Cuddy was a more believable, though less hot, pairing than House/Wilson. But I seriously think anyone who sees Jack/Sam but not Jack/Daniel is missing something. Look at the body language, people!! And were these people simply too busy squeeing over the wedding sequence in "200" to notice that, back in reality, Sam looked eager but Jack looked dyspeptic? I think peoples' ignorance of bisexuality, or perhaps of what it can entail, is often part of the problem, but surely that's not all of it.)
I suspect this question in a fandom community would be the equivalent of "If you allow even the tiniest chance that there might be a god, why don't you call yourselves agnostic?" in atheist--immediate flood of posts, at least one meticulously-constructed and passionately-argued deep-nested exchange between two philosophy majors, etc. So I figured at least some of you have already fought on this battlefield. (Speaking of slash, SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!) So, lemme have it.
I've seen het labeled as gen several times, and just figured it was a mistake. Now, though, I'm wondering, and I'm almost positive now of the answer but I want to be sure: Are there really people who feel that stories with heterosexual sexual or romantic content are correctly labelled as gen? Is that the case for all het or just canon? If "all," is the motivation simple heterosexism, as I automatically assumed, or is there possibly something else going on? And if "just canon," how on Earth did the standards for canon get so whacked that Jack/Sam is considered canon but not Jack/Daniel? (I do acknowledge het when I see it, for instance I think House/Cuddy was a more believable, though less hot, pairing than House/Wilson. But I seriously think anyone who sees Jack/Sam but not Jack/Daniel is missing something. Look at the body language, people!! And were these people simply too busy squeeing over the wedding sequence in "200" to notice that, back in reality, Sam looked eager but Jack looked dyspeptic? I think peoples' ignorance of bisexuality, or perhaps of what it can entail, is often part of the problem, but surely that's not all of it.)
I suspect this question in a fandom community would be the equivalent of "If you allow even the tiniest chance that there might be a god, why don't you call yourselves agnostic?" in atheist--immediate flood of posts, at least one meticulously-constructed and passionately-argued deep-nested exchange between two philosophy majors, etc. So I figured at least some of you have already fought on this battlefield. (Speaking of slash, SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!) So, lemme have it.