the difference between 'g' and 'gen'

[cimorene]

at the moment, owing to a lot of time spent del.icio.us- and rec-surfing, i'm seriously distressed that fandom is full of people who can't tell the difference

"g" is a rating according to the mpaa standards, you know, the ones that a lot of people are too afraid of lawsuits to use anymore. it means "appropriate for general audiences", or in other words, "containing no material that would be objectionable for showing to small children". romances can be rated 'g' if they don't have any violence, any dirty words, or any innuendo that people wouldn't generally show to children. slash can be rated g, although i realise some people disagree with that on the grounds that the mere existence of teh gay is shocking and inappropriate (but fuck that is what i say).

"gen" is a categorisation and it means "general" as opposed to slash or het or femslash. romances cannot be gen. slash cannot be gen. het cannot be gen. gen is basically like "other", or "no significant sexual/romantic content". it's a mystery, or a thriller, or an adventure story. it's probably like a missing-episode kind of deal. if it's a mystery story with a subplot of gay sex or a subplot of non-canonical het relationships, it's not gen anymore.

Comments

[copracat]

In general, people who fuck this up will write something like category:"gen" and warning:"slash" on their headers, or "gen" and put something in the pairing field so you know they are a. merely befuddled or b. actually really truly believe that gen = g and that's how they are genuinely using it and fuck you and your old-fashioned, jurassic fandom domination of the jargon, bitch.

Or, you know, not.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

it's kind of ante-diluvian, in a way, trying to insist that words keep meaning what they actually mean instead of whatever someone's personal interpretation ascribed them...