In an “Unpopular Fandom Opinions” thread in Feb. 2012, one Gentlefailer wished that fans of plotty gen fics would either “stay in the their corner of fandom, or would keep quiet about how much they look down on stories with a sexual or romantic focus. Yes, yes, we know you don't like FEELINGS or YEARNING. No one is forcing you to read it, you know.”

A gen writer mentioned getting comments from slash fans along the lines of, “I usually don't read anti-white cock pairing, which I think yours is, but I really liked this because x and y. nice job!” A few subsequent nonnies posited that perhaps an antipathy to slash comes through in this writer's genfic.

In came another gen writer, who insisted, “Canonically, Dean is not fucking Sam. My depiction of that is NOT an endorsement of platonic friendship/fraternity over same-sex relationships. It's a depiction of canon.”

A new anon replied, “Gen writers' delusion that they are depicting canonical things, while slashers aren't, is part of the reason many people don't like gen writers.” The gen writer replied,

“Right. My depiction of Sam and Dean, brothers, fighting an Aztec Priest Zombie is totally the same as someone else's depiction of Sam and Dean, brothers who have sex with each other.



SEX CHANGES SHIT.



Characters having sex with people who they canonically do not have sex with (a relative, co-worker, enemy, etc)…



Different from fic where characters have the same relationship as in canon.



You sound virginal.”

Commence a wankstorm that began with slash nonnies demanding why sex or even a hug is more of a “change” than, say, an AU; and gen nonnies asking why sex has to be the motor of change in a fic. Slash nonny: “[W]hat I'm hearing is that if the characters do have sex at the end, they're participating in abnormal, OOC behaviour.” Gen nonny: “They are if the characters don't do each other on the show. Stop being so butthurt.”“

From that spun out a thread about the limitations of how much fic can change within the confines of canon. This included a discussion about about gen homophobia, slash misogyny, and “a breed of slashers who were so SJ before SJ was an internet thing, asspatting themselves about writing characters as queers was so transgressive and anti-heteronormative and so superior to icky icky het.”

The conversation rapidly devolved from there. A gen nonny argued that it would be "abnormal" for non-queer canon characters to have non-het sex. “It's also abnormal for these straight characters to have intercourse with their brothers, business partners, and/or mortal enemies.” The same nonny, or perhaps a different gen nonny, added, ”This is not how the world works. Most people are straight and most gays don't have elaborate hetero disguises. Just because you think slash is hot doesn't make every damn character in the world bisexual.“

It wasn't long before one of the gen nonnies asserted, “Being gay, like being heterosexual, is usually pretty obvious in grown adults.” When informed otherwise, they argued that “Sexuality has meaning beyond what people choose to identify as,” and a slash nonny opined that Gen Nonny couldn't possibly know what Random Person X does or does not do sexually without being a “creepy bedroom lurker.” There was also a discussion of the validity of non-verbal cues to sexuality, and several other nonnies told Gen Nonny, “Uh, yeah, I guess closets don't exist, and neither does discovering one's orientation late in life.”

And then, blessedly, came the freezing.