Gen

Trope · Genre
Synonyms:	Bob
Related:	femslash, slash, het, adult,
See Also:	ratings
Tropes · Slash Tropes · Tropes by Fandom
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(n., adj.) A fanwork that contains no romantic or sexual content, either het (heterosexual) or slash (homosexual). (Before the 1990s, the word General was more frequently used, as for example, in the Surak Awards.)

In the 60s and 70s, gen referred to content based on a particular series, film, etc. but without any of the canon characters or settings. The Nu Ormenel series about the Klingon Empire was considered a genzine.

In practical terms, mild heterosexual content is often considered acceptable in a gen story (with the "het" label reserved for more adult stories, or those that specifically focus on romantic elements). Many gen stories do involve characters that are romantically involved in canon, but there are few slash stories of this type, because there are relatively few fannish shows or films with homosexual relationships in canon. Some backlash to this idea has appeared in meta discussions. Liberal fans often see the definition of gen as having 'no slash [male or female] relationships' as homophobic. In general, however, "gen" fanworks may acknowledge the existence of a romantic relationship (usually, though not always, canon), but this should not be the primary focus of the tale.

Although gen is probably short for "general audience", it shouldn't automatically be considered G-rated (suitable for young children). It can -- and often does -- deal with mature subjects, including graphic violence and other potentially upsetting themes.

Some fans have a wider definition for gen. The LJ community comics_genfic states on their community info (accessed 3 October 2008) as:

"General interest fic -- genfic -- for this forum, does not preclude either sex or relationships (homosexual or heterosexual). It can have sex, violence, adult language, adult situations. It can be rated G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17. (Why NC-17? Because the real NC-17 is for adult themes and not for pornography.) [...] So Genfic can be anything that the MPAA would accept as a movie to be rated -- anything short of porn."

There is a recent term used among some gen writers/readers called 'bob'. According to Livejournal blogger Musesfool in her meta essay about gen, "Bob" is "stories where there is a sexual element but it is not the point of the story", "Bob" was first used by Livejournal blogger Cofax: "I just don't know that segregating fic by just this one criteria is the best way to solve it. Eh. I may just do as Vee suggests, and label all my stories "Bob" in future."

Is Shipping the Default for Fanfic Fandoms?

Some fans on LJ have remarked upon the apparent lack of gen in fandom (especially non-sf fandoms). Many fans believe that, when averaged across time and multiple fandoms, gen only accounts for about 20% of fan stories. The other 80% is thought to comprise works of a romantic and/or sexual nature. Anecdotally, a gen work posted to online communities or archives will typically receive less feedback than a work containing romance or sex of similar (or even lesser) quality, or by the same author. Few gen authors, no matter how good, receive any wide acclaim within their fandom. Unsurprisingly, this is a situation many gen authors find frustrating, if not outright disheartening.

According to Nicole V, this perception existed on mailing lists as well; Nicole reported that a constant argument on the primary Blake's 7 email list was that slash 'drove out' gen. Sometime in 1994:

I remember combing thru [sic] several GAZs—the old zine listing zine—and totalling up the number of slash zines versus gen zines currently available at that time, and there were far more gen than slash (facts! I had data!).

Joan Verba mentions a similar "all Star Trek fanzines nowadays are K/S" complaint happening back as far as 1980. She counted Trek and K/S zines listed in adzines throughout that time period and showed that, at least at that time, K/S never reached even half of Trek zine output. (Though she was comparing K/S to all other Trek, not K/S and het stories to all other Trek.)

The reasons put forth for this perceived imbalance are varied:

• Fans want to play "what if". When the source material is largely gen, slash is one of the easiest ways of pushing the boundaries.
• Similarly, fandom is about subverting canon, not conforming to it.
• Women (and a lot of men) like romance.
• The majority of media content produced by mainstream American culture is gen—why add more?
• Shipping is the entire reason a fandom for (showname) even exists.
• Gen is boring.
• With pairings, you generally know exactly what you're going to get, while fics labelled gen are a grab-bag.
• Romance or smut is easier to plot than gen, or make it easier to 'raise the stakes' of a story.
• It's easier to generate conflict between characters when they're romantically involved.
• Humans like sex.
• Sex is an easy metaphor for emotional intimacy and vulnerability.

The difficulty of finding gen works is often remarked upon by gen aficionados. The relative scarcity of material is compounded by the tendency of archives and communities to classify works by pairing, or to simply not accept works that do not contain a pairing. Most major fan communities, including rec and commentary sites, also have a strong pairing—typically slash—focus. Needs Citation

Fandom Exceptions

SF fandoms tend to have a larger gen community than non-SF fandoms, possibly because SF sources tend to include a larger community of male fans to whom gen stories appeal and who may be contributing to the fan fiction. Bi-fictional fans in SF fandoms often say that more of the interesting universe-building and universe extrapolation comes from the gen fans, that the pairing fans are too busy getting characters into bed to do the fictional heavy lifting the fandom needs and which is generally expected of more serious writing attempts.^{citation needed}

RPF fandoms are nearly always heavily focused on pairing fic.

Genre Boundaries

Fans can, and often do, debate applying the label of "gen" to a story. Below is a list of types of stories that may be labeled gen, het or slash, but over which there has been controversy.

Pre-slash/UST

Some stories labelled gen by their authors may be perceived as pre-slash by readers if they contain slashy subtext or apparent UST, or may even be argued to be slash by readers who feel that any sexual interest—explicit or implicit, intended or not—makes it slash. Some authors may object to this reading, arguing that any perceived slashy subtext was not intentional and that the author's intention is what determines the genre, and that the label of 'pre-slash' creates the expectation that any subsequent works will contain true slash elements.

Readers often express frustration if stories labeled pre-slash have no slashy subtext apparent to them. They may feel cheated, or that they've wasted their time on a story that wasn't what they were looking for.

There are also those who are bothered by what they see as fandom's increasing inability to accept deep friendships or other close relationships between characters without sexualising them. (Mind you, fans who refer to "increasing inability" don't realize that these battles and accusations were common from the very beginning of K/S in the mid-70s.)

Such debate also occurs in het circles, but to a lesser extent.

Stories with slash pairings but without sex or romance

Some authors or readers may label stories that involve a slash pairing as "gen" if the focus of the story is not on romance or sex, but instead has a plot that is unrelated to any sexual interest between the characters -- the slashed characters are clearly a couple, but the story is about how they fight crime or explore an alien planet, not about their relationship. Some authors (and reccers, and people who tag stories on Delicious) label such stories both slash and gen, or slashy gen, labels that can completely confuse other fans. Labeling a story both het and gen is more rare.

There is a perception by many fans that readers expect fanworks that contain slashy subtext, but no actual slash content to be labeled in a way that similar het content is not. Some fans may label their stories with pre-slash to stave off any complaints from readers who do not wish to see even a hint of slash in the fanfiction they read. (See also Warnings - Controvery for warning for slash.)

Stories with canonical same-sex couples

The slow increase in canon sources with same-sex pairings has led to fandoms where every story that contains a pair of characters could be labeled m/m or f/f under the stricter definitions of gen. Fandoms have rarely thought canon het couples as a background element made a story het. Those fandoms may have different common practices for labelling of stories with background pairings.

Intense Friendship or Smarm

Smarm is a genre of fanwork which focuses on the emotional connection or intense friendship between two characters. In its most extreme form, smarm may include declarations of love and commitment to one another, physical displays of affection, or soulbonding between the two, (e.g. in The Sentinel,) but no sexual relationship is depicted or referred to, and so it is considered gen by most readers. See Smarm for details.

Readers may debate whether stories involving intense but not explicitly sexual relationships are slash or gen, or possibly pre-slash. Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose is one example of a story that was labeled slash by its author, but was considered gen by several readers and in fact won a gen award. Meanwhile Beach was labeled gen by its authors, but was considered slash by many readers.

In American popular culture of the later 1990s/early 2000s, the non-fannish term for this type of relationship may be Bromance.

Domestic Discipline

Sometimes Domestic Discipline is written as part of a non-sexual relationship, and some authors classify those stories as gen. However, some gen archives find such content unsuitable. For example, the DD policy of the gen Sentinel archive Cascade Library excludes DD, whereas Guide Posts, the first Sentinel archive, accepted gen DD. (See The Sentinel for details)

Rape

See Rapefic for details

Some fans label stories including rape as gen if the rape is the only sexual content in the story; and the story is depicting a sexual assault, not ravishment (rough but consensual, depicted erotically) or a rape fantasy; and the focus of the story is on a character's recovery or on non-sexual hurt-comfort. These fans may feel that labeling a story in which a character is raped "slash" or "het" implies that the story is about a sexual relationship rather than about an act of violence. Other fans argue that any story involving sexual content cannot be gen, even if it contains no consensual sex.

Gen Slash or Gen Het?

Many fans feel gen stories are ones without major slash or het elements, but a quick search or two at Delicious will show that other fans happily give both, or even all three labels to a single fanwork. A search for stories with both "gen" + "slash" tags receives 4506 hits; "gen" + "het" gives a still large 3358 hits. (Accessed 3 December 2008.)

External Links

• Why so little genfic?. Posted 21 June 2007. Accessed 2 December 2008.
• Shipping as the Default?. Posted 26 February 2008. Accessed 2 December 2008.
• Musings on fanfic and the minority of gen. Posted 6 September 2008. Accessed 2 December 2008.