ratherastory: (George R. R. Martin)
ratherastory ([personal profile] ratherastory) wrote2011-03-02 06:20 pm

Fandom definitions: non-con and dub-con

Hola, flist!

Okay, I can no longer claim to be new to fandom (damn, has it really been almost a year and a half?), but there are still aspects that I find hard to define/quantify/whatever.

This has popped up lately because of a problematic fic (which I haven't read, I will hasten to point out), in which there is apparently an issue of consent. Without getting into the actual debate about posting warnings (for the record, in fandom my rule of thumb is "better safe than sorry" and "add warnings if your readers inform you that they found the material triggering"), I would like to clarify the whole notion of dub-con and non-con.



"Dub-con" is something I had never heard of before fandom. I used to be a pretty active member of a feminist group back when I was in university (yes, back in the dark ages), and so as far as I was concerned, until I got into fandom, the issue of consent was pretty cut-and-dried. No means no, is the catchphrase I live by. Being pressured into sex means no. Being drugged unconscious before sex means no. Feeling like you have no choice but to have sex means no. No means that any attempt to have sex with you is an attempted rape. A husband who has sex with his wife when she tells him she's not in the mood is, in fact, committing rape. In short, I err on the side of caution when it comes to that.

Okay, so rape is not a term I see often in the warnings for fic. Rape usually gets translated into "non-con." Which, okay, I can understand, because the term itself can be triggery.

So what, exactly, constitutes dub-con? I figure this HAS to be a grey area, so I'm curious to hear opinions on the matter. Readers, what do you consider dub-con? Writers, when do you decide to warn for dub-con?

Also, if you feel like staying anonymous, that's fine, just keep it civilized. :)

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] silverblaze85.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
Not to intrude, nor step on toes, but what is "grey-out" warnings? I haven't stumbled across this yet. *hopes for some enlightenment*

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] ratherastory.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
Some people, in order to avoid plot spoilers in their warnings, use html coding to put a grey bar over their warnings. That way you have to deliberately highlight the text to read it. It doesn't have to be grey, either, it just happens to be the most-often-used colour.

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] silverblaze85.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
AHHHH. gotcha gotcha. I always wondered what that was, and how someone did it. ^_^ Thanks!!

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
Even though [livejournal.com profile] ratherastory beat me to it, the visual aid example can be found here (http://community.livejournal.com/ohsam/148398.html?thread=1038766#t1038766). :)

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] silverblaze85.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
O.O

Holy. That's -alot- of greying-out. *blinks*

Thank you! ^_^ I've always been curious as to what that visual is and how they did it.

See, you learn something new every day!

Re: To gray-out warnings or to not gray-out warnings...

[identity profile] nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com 2011-03-03 12:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. That was kinda my *kink* prompt... and yeah, it's A LOT. *hides in shame* But it makes for a pretty Exhibit A,