What do you think of when you see the term ‘nfic’? Stories with sexual content? Or do you see it more broadly, as stories which go beyond PG13 for a variety of reasons, which may include more detailed descriptions of sex but also degrees of violence, language, darker themes and so on - the same sort of thing which would give a film an R/NC17 (15/18) rating?
We’ve been having a discussion over in the nfic folder on the nature of nfic, and it’s been suggested that this is really a subject which non-nfic readers might have an input into. The problem, as it’s arisen is this: because the traditional understanding of nfic is stories which have a sexual content - after all, ‘nfic’ is actually short for ‘naughty fanfiction’ - authors who write non-PG13 stories which
aren’t particularly sexual in content find themselves wondering where they should be posted. We’ve had a few examples lately - a couple of authors posting to ask whether their beyond-PG13 story actually should be posted in the nfic folder given its lack of ‘sex’ content, other authors posting stories with very little ‘sex’ content feeling uncomfortable at reader comments asking when the ‘action’ is going to occur, since there has to be a reason why the story was posted in that folder. One author even withdrew her story from consideration at the nKerths because, in her view, since it had very little sexual content, it shouldn’t be eligible.
Some authors have even posted what were almost apologetic disclaimers explaining that, although their story was being posted in the nfic folder, this was because of other content issues and not particularly because of sex scenes. One such author commented, in the debate in the nfic folder, that what she would like is a situation where that’s no longer needed.
So there’s been a discussion as to exactly what our understanding of nfic should be - how do we broaden the perception of nfic so that readers are aware that stories won’t necessarily have more or less explicit lovemaking? I’m summarising the discussion here, but if anyone who’s already contributed wants to repost their comments here that would be great.
One suggestion for broadening the understanding of what nfic is all about is simply a statement across the top of the folder making this clear. However, a more radical suggestion is for a change of name for ‘beyond-PG13’ fanfic - a rebranding to encourage a change of perception.
One suggested name-change is to 'Mature Audience Fanfic' - this comes from the US designation for television content which is beyond the TV14 rating - ie what gets shown in prime-time. Another suggestion is simply 'Beyond PG-13 Fanfic'. There has been debate both for and against such a change - a couple of people, myself included, commented that as we were never very fond of ‘nfic’ as a label anyway we’d be happy to see a change. Others are less persuaded of the need for a name-change and would prefer to try to change perceptions in other ways.
So why post this topic here? Well, we did want to know what non-nfic readers think - the question I posed at the beginning is part of it. There are some over-18s who choose not to read nfic because - as a couple explained in the recent polls topic - they aren’t interested in stories including sex. So would some of you read other ‘mature audience’ stories if you knew they weren’t focused on more-or-less explicit sex? Or not? Do you care what we call beyond-PG13 stories? Is this all irrelevant to you?
Oh, and this thread isn’t only for non-nfic readers - we want a wide discussion so that if any change is contemplated it’s accepted by as many people as possible. Equally, it’s possible that simply by airing the issues the problem will be resolved anyway as people’s perceptions will have been challenged and altered.
Thoughts?
Wendy
