What to do with stories that fit multiple categories?

[kitmarlowe]

I’m currently working on a story for @HeyAll's ‘On The Job’ event. It’s about a hotel cleaner who finds a bunch of sex toys in a room, starts to play with them, and is then interrupted by the guest coming back, who essentially extorts sex out of him.

This could easily fit into Gay Male, Anal, and Non-Con/Reluctance, and I’m not really sure where to put it. My instinct is to go NC/R, since that’s the main focus of the story, and stick a content warning up front that says “hey, this story contains men doing butt stuff” for the people who don’t want to see either of those things.

I’m sure I’m massively overthinking this, but I figured I’d ask for advice anyway and see what people have to say. Any advice?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I’m currently working on a story for @HeyAll's ‘On The Job’ event. It’s about a hotel cleaner who finds a bunch of sex toys in a room, starts to play with them, and is then interrupted by the guest coming back, who essentially extorts sex out of him.

This could easily fit into Gay Male, Anal, and Non-Con/Reluctance, and I’m not really sure where to put it. My instinct is to go NC/R, since that’s the main focus of the story, and stick a content warning up front that says “hey, this story contains men doing butt stuff” for the people who don’t want to see either of those things.

I’m sure I’m massively overthinking this, but I figured I’d ask for advice anyway and see what people have to say. Any advice?

There's your answer.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Honestly depending on exactly how strong 'essentially extorts' actually is, I'd just say put it in 'Gay.' Theres probably more people checking that category who wouldnt mind a bit or reluctance than who visit NC/R and are up for man-on-man.If you're way out of bounds, Laurel will move it back, but I'd expect scores and views to be higher in Gay.

 

[Bamagan]

I’m currently working on a story for @HeyAll's ‘On The Job’ event. It’s about a hotel cleaner who finds a bunch of sex toys in a room, starts to play with them, and is then interrupted by the guest coming back, who essentially extorts sex out of him.

This could easily fit into Gay Male, Anal, and Non-Con/Reluctance, and I’m not really sure where to put it. My instinct is to go NC/R, since that’s the main focus of the story, and stick a content warning up front that says “hey, this story contains men doing butt stuff” for the people who don’t want to see either of those things.

I’m sure I’m massively overthinking this, but I figured I’d ask for advice anyway and see what people have to say. Any advice?

I second your instinct. Non-consent usually overrides the other possible options.

 

[kitmarlowe]

Honestly depending on exactly how strong 'essentially extorts' actually is, I'd just say put it in 'Gay.' Theres probably more people checking that category who wouldnt mind a bit or reluctance than who visit NC/R and are up for man-on-man.If you're way out of bounds, Laurel will move it back, but I'd expect scores and views to be higher in Gay.

I'm not hugely worried about scores and views if I'm being honest. It's good to know that Laurel will re-categorise it if I pick wrong, though I'd obviously like to avoid anything that gets me on her bad side (assuming she has one, which being human I'm sure she does).

I second your instinct. Non-consent usually overrides the other possible options.

This was, indeed, my instinct. Interesting that you and @TheRedChamber have basically opposite views on this, though! I'm glad I asked the question now, and it'll be good to see if any sort of consensus develops from other replies while I'm writing the story.

Thanks for your input, both of you.

 

[kitmarlowe]

There's your answer.

Thanks. Sometimes the obvious solution is the best one I suppose!

 

[TheLobster]

I do believe that NC/R by default overrides GM, but it kinda depends on the framing.

Was the cleaner at least bi-curious before?
Does the experience change his outlook on sexuality? (Lit rules say that the "victim" must like it at least a little bit, so it's not a huge leap).
Does the sex portrayed feature power dynamics that are significantly outside typical GM relationships?

If answers to those and similar questions hint that the non-consent aspect is somewhat muted, then GM may be a better choice.

 

[Bamagan]

I'm not hugely worried about scores and views if I'm being honest. It's good to know that Laurel will re-categorise it if I pick wrong, though I'd obviously like to avoid anything that gets me on her bad side (assuming she has one, which being human I'm sure she does).

This was, indeed, my instinct. Interesting that you and @TheRedChamber have basically opposite views on this, though! I'm glad I asked the question now, and it'll be good to see if any sort of consensus develops from other replies while I'm writing the story.

Thanks for your input, both of you.

I honestly don't disagree with his reasoning. There are some readers for whom male-male sex is the ultimate squick. I still think the coercive aspects of the encounter should be the defining element for categorization, but the specifics might suggest otherwise than my initial impression. If the extorted cleaner is gay or bi then it becomes an easier fit for GM or Anal, for example, compared to if he's straight and compelled to act contrarily.

 

[RejectReality]

The GM readership is used to some pretty far-ranging subject matter because M/M gets so much hatred everywhere else. So, they might not be bothered, depending on how far it leans toward the non-con side of non-con/reluctance. Assuming the cleaner is gay, bi, or curious to begin with — which it sounds like — that takes some edge off the blackmail. Doing the same thing to a straight guy pushes that a notch or two up the taboo scale.

A synopsis isn't really sufficient to make a call for Gay Male vs. Non-Con here. That comes down to more nuance. I would absolutely rule out anal, though. Even a whiff of reluctance got me some nasty comments there, and that was M/F where she found the guy attractive anyway. The reluctance was because he wanted anal and was hung like a horse, but a good time was had by all. I can't imagine how much hate you'll get for something stronger and M/M.

 

[kitmarlowe]

The GM readership is used to some pretty far-ranging subject matter because M/M gets so much hatred everywhere else. So, they might not be bothered, depending on how far it leans toward the non-con side of non-con/reluctance. Assuming the cleaner is gay, bi, or curious to begin with — which it sounds like — that takes some edge off the blackmail. Doing the same thing to a straight guy pushes that a notch or two up the taboo scale.

A synopsis isn't really sufficient to make a call for Gay Male vs. Non-Con here. That comes down to more nuance. I would absolutely rule out anal, though. Even a whiff of reluctance got me some nasty comments there, and that was M/F where she found the guy attractive anyway. The reluctance was because he wanted anal and was hung like a horse, but a good time was had by all. I can't imagine how much hate you'll get for something stronger and M/M.

This is incredibly helpful, thank you. To be honest I had sort of already ruled out Anal as a category when I made this post since it's very obvious that this is better suited to either GM or NC/R.

The MC here is a straight guy (at least initially) so based on all this feedback I think NC/R might be the way to go with it. If I get people being shitty to me about M/M then that's just the way it shakes out. I deal with enough homophobia in my day to day life that some anonymous idiots on the internet who read a story that wasn't to their tastes aren't going to upset me!

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

 

[kitmarlowe]

I do believe that NC/R by default overrides GM, but it kinda depends on the framing.

Was the cleaner at least bi-curious before?
Does the experience change his outlook on sexuality? (Lit rules say that the "victim" must like it at least a little bit, so it's not a huge leap).
Does the sex portrayed feature power dynamics that are significantly outside typical GM relationships?

If answers to those and similar questions hint that the non-consent aspect is somewhat muted, then GM may be a better choice.

My instinct was that NC/R should override GM as well, but I think that's because I personally don't see anything unusual about M/M stuff whereas I would prefer to know ahead of time that I'm going to be reading NC. If I opened an Erotic Couplings story and it turned out to be gay it probably wouldn't even register with me that it was in the "wrong" category, but an unflagged NC story there would be quite jarring.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I know that the things that I might need content warnings etc. for are not the same as the things everyone else needs them for, so this discussion has been very helpful in terms of getting an idea of the way the wider readership of Lit approaches these categories. Based on this I think I'm pretty firmly decided that this story lives in NC/R with a warning up top about it being focused on two men.