I keep trying to point out that the point of my entire essay was story construction
If I interpreted you correctly, you were essentially asking people to be aware of what they're writing which seems totally reasonable to me. I didn't even have an issue with anything you said until I saw the other essay; the combo kinda pushed a button for me because that dub-con label is a real pet peeve for me. It really is a kink of mine and when the label is (as I see it) misused it's sorta like someone's promising candy but serving beans.
I think it's not just an argument over dub-con as a possible trigger point vs. dub-con as a kink - it's the interpretation of the whole warnings system. Are warnings listing contents that might be triggers? Or are they possible kinks?
The trouble is they are both. It's easier with rape/non-con because fandom broadly agrees on what that means (poor writing and occasional lack of thought aside). So whether the reader is looking to read or to avoid rape fic, the warning or label serves the same purpose. Most of the other things we warn about are similar: whether trigger or kink they mean the same thing.
What your essay did for me is highlight something I hadn't really processed before - that this isn't true for dub-con as a warning. That maybe the reason so many fics are incorrectly (to me) labelled dub-con is because the term as a trigger warning has a very different threshold for consent than when it describes a kink. And I don't really have a solution to that conflict. I don't think there is a solution, because the former is based on reality (there's no such thing as dubious consent in RL) and the latter on a fantasy that is, for some of us, super-hot.
no subject
If I interpreted you correctly, you were essentially asking people to be aware of what they're writing which seems totally reasonable to me. I didn't even have an issue with anything you said until I saw the other essay; the combo kinda pushed a button for me because that dub-con label is a real pet peeve for me. It really is a kink of mine and when the label is (as I see it) misused it's sorta like someone's promising candy but serving beans.
I think it's not just an argument over dub-con as a possible trigger point vs. dub-con as a kink - it's the interpretation of the whole warnings system. Are warnings listing contents that might be triggers? Or are they possible kinks?
The trouble is they are both. It's easier with rape/non-con because fandom broadly agrees on what that means (poor writing and occasional lack of thought aside). So whether the reader is looking to read or to avoid rape fic, the warning or label serves the same purpose. Most of the other things we warn about are similar: whether trigger or kink they mean the same thing.
What your essay did for me is highlight something I hadn't really processed before - that this isn't true for dub-con as a warning. That maybe the reason so many fics are incorrectly (to me) labelled dub-con is because the term as a trigger warning has a very different threshold for consent than when it describes a kink. And I don't really have a solution to that conflict. I don't think there is a solution, because the former is based on reality (there's no such thing as dubious consent in RL) and the latter on a fantasy that is, for some of us, super-hot.