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cimoreneIn Social Network RPF fandom, people have started using the term "Girlfriend-What-Girlfriend" to refer to the common crossfandom story type in which canon remains completely the same except that the BSOs (that's Beloved Slash Objects if anyone was confused) in focus no longer have real-life romantic attachments.
I've seen this abbreviated both GWG and GfWGf (I prefer the former).
My kneejerk reaction is "Of course!". We need a term for this, because this is a really common story type, on a par with PWP or UST. I'd love to see a world where this was a universal tag at AO3 and something that almost everyone in fandom tagged their bookmarks with on Delicious (or at least as much as they tagged them PWP or "preslash", which is sadly more common than "UST" even though they should really be using the latter).
And I've definitely never come across a quick and pithy term for this before. On the other hand, the SOs in question aren't always girlfriends. Off the top of my head, in fact, I'd be more likely to think of fandoms where it's used on wives (SPN RPS, for example). And the only reason it's not used more often on boyfriends/husbands is that I don't read a lot of het and there's a shocking dearth of canon gay characters to choose from. I've definitely seen it used for both Adam Lambert and Jack Harkness - Ianto-What-Ianto? - so it's obvious that in principle, the term should be gender-neutral.
A couple of things:
I've seen this abbreviated both GWG and GfWGf (I prefer the former).
My kneejerk reaction is "Of course!". We need a term for this, because this is a really common story type, on a par with PWP or UST. I'd love to see a world where this was a universal tag at AO3 and something that almost everyone in fandom tagged their bookmarks with on Delicious (or at least as much as they tagged them PWP or "preslash", which is sadly more common than "UST" even though they should really be using the latter).
And I've definitely never come across a quick and pithy term for this before. On the other hand, the SOs in question aren't always girlfriends. Off the top of my head, in fact, I'd be more likely to think of fandoms where it's used on wives (SPN RPS, for example). And the only reason it's not used more often on boyfriends/husbands is that I don't read a lot of het and there's a shocking dearth of canon gay characters to choose from. I've definitely seen it used for both Adam Lambert and Jack Harkness - Ianto-What-Ianto? - so it's obvious that in principle, the term should be gender-neutral.
A couple of things:
- Does anyone know the actual fandom origin of the term "Girlfriend-What-Girlfriend"? Or when it came about?
- Has anyone heard it before, or heard another concise term for the same thing in use elsewhere in fandom before?
- Can anyone think of something better to call it? ETA: cesare suggests NOSO (NoSO) for No Significant Others. Not as catchy, perhaps, but has an obvious advantage in clarity. Thoughts?
