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"?