Issuefic
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | DADT, AIDS fic |
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Issuefic may be used to describe several different genres of fan fiction:
1) Issuefic (or "issue!fic") may be used as a (usually derogatory) term for fanfic that has an obvious message or moral about a social problem or issue. Examples of common topics for issuefic are homophobia, child abuse, alcoholism or drug abuse, domestic violence, anorexia, abortion, and suicide. These can be combined with charity events or zines benefitting a cause, such as the AIDS/HIV-themed zine Battle of Hope.
While many fanworks touch on social issues, issuefic dramatizes them in such an unsubtle way, often involving Out of Character behavior from canon characters, that it is often difficult to read as fiction rather than as a soapbox for the author's message.
Much more rarely, there are also issue vids, such as Women's Work (Supernatural), Secret Asian Man and How Much Is That Geisha In the Window? (Firefly), and Complicit[1] (Sherlock).
2) Issuefic is also used when the reader or viewer can clearly see some of the author's or vidder's personal concerns underlying the work, even if the creator did not intend for those issues to be on display, in the same way that an original character that is transparent wish fulfillment may be termed a Mary Sue. This form of issuefic may also be called therapyfic, with the implication that the writer is working through personal issues in fiction as a kind of therapy.
3) Issuefic can be similar to responsefic -- stories where an author uses a story to respond to another author's story or argue a point of view in a fan debate, rather than responding with a review, or other metaconversation.