You act as if this is all a big gray area, but both readers and authors alike know when they're treading on shaky ground: deathfics, on-screen sex, rape, and other emotional issue.
This comment makes me stop and take pause, too. I think "shaky ground" is something open to interpretation for both reader and author, especially in the gfic folder. If the mandate is PG-13 or below, you're only going to get so much leeway to begin with (for the author) and you're going to have a certain amount of safety (for the reader) in knowing it's not going to be overtly violent/sexual, etc. There is a separate folder for stories of more graphic nature. If you pare down the gfic folder, at a certain point, it becomes nothing more than Disney tales.
One of the most beloved and debated stories on here is "Faustian Bargain," which was written both as gfic and nfic. The story contains more than one of what is being considered "shaky" perimeters, but that is what makes it such an intricate piece of writing. I can say the same about "For the Greater Good," which is a beautiful, emotional story, and yet somehow falls into "shaky ground."
People have asked me if I am going to turn my story, "Inside Out," into gfic. The thing is, the sex between Lois and Clark -- and yes, it is premarital -- is a key factor in the story, and I don't see how I can keep the integrity of the story if I take out certain elements. But that doesn't make my story -- or anyone else's containing similar content --immoral. Besides, what some may find as completely reprehensible may be a huge draw to others. After all, the nfic folder certainly gets a lot of traffic.
I think any time that someone is brave enough to pick up a pen or a keyboard and try writing a story based on a legacy as storied as Superman and/or Lois and Clark, they're to be commended.
And furthermore, as someone who writes "George and Lynn" stories, which I am fully aware are not allowed here, and who knows, may not even be allowed to be mentioned here, I know what it is like to have your story labeled, and it's not a good feeling. If you open some of these stories, it will take all of two seconds to figure out that it's not about Lois and Clark and/or what you were looking for and you can close it and move on. As far as I am concerned, labeling stories serves one purpose and one purpose alone: to mark someone's work as something that someone may feel is undesirable and therefore serve a warning to people. It casts judgment on a story before it is even read.
Imagine if every book at Barnes & Noble came with color-coded dots that indicated whether the book would have sex, violence, emotional angst or anything else. I daresay a lot more people would just wait for the movie version.
