What's another word for Warnings?

[browngirl]

So! More contemplation of how I tell people what's in my stories.

I read a rant recently about the practice of listing 'slash' and 'het' among the Warnings, which rant I agreed with, then realized with a shock I was a subject of. I list 'slash' and 'het' because I've been flamed before for not explicitly listing them and I tend to treat the "Warnings" line as a Major Ingredients list, not least because when I'm looking for stories to read I treat it that way. "Hmm, this story lists slash, het, nonmonogamy, and threesomes in its warnings! I'm going to love it!"

However, listing 'slash' and 'het' in warnings may cast a pejorative pall on those genres, or at least seem as if that's what I mean to do. I don't want anyone to think that I think slash is the entertaining description of something fundamentally evil, or that het means "icky unavoidable girl content in here, but we'll return to the slash soon" (not least because I write a lot of stories that have both slash and het in them). Out here, I have only my words to define me, so I should use them as carefully as possible.

Maybe I should rename my "Warnings" line, but what one word would clearly convey "content you should be aware of whether you seek it out or seek to avoid it"?

Comments

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

hmm...maybe I'm silly but I would think that just listing a pairing would imply that it was slash or het. I always list the pairing or I say no pairings if it's gen...

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Only to a reader familiar with the fictional universe/s involved. Exception if the names are obviously gendered (John, Mary); exception to the exception if the named person's gender is not the obvious one.

[capra-maritimus.livejournal.com]

That's a point I had thought of, and keep in the back of my mind whenever I list pairings. But, yeah, when you have names like Barriss/Luminala or Anakin/Threepio (Star Wars fandom) and you're not familiar with the fandom, it can get confusing. Hmm....

Yes, I did write those pairings. :D

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

ah, yes! Good point! I hadn't thought of that!

[brownbetty]

In fandoms of mine, though, you can have pairings like Robin/Robin (which, I would argue ought to be Robin II/RobinIV for clarity, but not everyone does) which obviously do not convey gender very well.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Fair enough! I definitely wasn't considering the fandoms where the gender isn't self-evident in the name (considering my fandoms are so very limited and can be counted on less than one hand, lol)! :)