Forum: Author Hangout

Legal considerations and story tags

The Horse With No Name 🚫

Browsing the main page I came across a recently updated story tagged as incest between cousins.

That got me thinking. Over here in Germany, marriage is permitted between first cousins, so it wouldn't fit the legal definition of incest.

That leads to the next question: What is the guideline for selecting tags? If I write a story that takes place in Europe, where such a relationship is not unlawful, do I still need to apply the tag?

There are even more serious considerations coming from that. For instance the age of consent varies from country to country. For instance in most European countries sexual contact between an 18 year old and a 14 year old would be perfectly legal as long as there is no abuse or coercion involved, while in other countries it is considered statutory rape.

So what exactly is the 'guiding light' here? Do we all have to consult American law or do we go by what the law is where the story takes place?

Replies: Dominions Son LupusDei awnlee jawking Joe_Bondi_Beach

Dominions Son 🚫

@The Horse With No Name

That got me thinking. Over here in Germany, marriage is permitted between first cousins, so it wouldn't fit the legal definition of incest.

None of the tags are based on legal definitions of what is unlawful conduct.

Take the rape tag as an example. The SOL tag is defined in a way that is limited to rape by use of violence. In most US jurisdictions, the legal definition of rape is much broader.

LupusDei 🚫

@The Horse With No Name

Tags have nothing to do with legality and such. What they are for is information for prospective readers who:

a) want to avoid certain kinds of content;
b) want to find certain kinds of content.

While a) b) goals do overlap to a large extent there's border cases where there's a conflict: how not enrage squicked people while not under-promising niche fans?

Like, if you center your whole story on sexual relationships between cousins and not tag for it you will get one-bommbed from orbit not only by people offended by cousin relationships but possibly by people with strict expectations of tag usage in general too.

Contrary, if you have some support cast cousins fucking off-screen as mentioned in passing once in a dialogue somewhere, as an allegation, but still include the tag just in case, or out of perverse need to tag every sexuality even adjacently related, or some other misconception about tags (such as linking them to legal matters), you will get disappointed readers who had read the whole thing just in hopes on hot cousin porn.

But perhaps worse, people who has relevant category exclusions in place would never even see your story eventhough most likely majority would probably be perfectly okay to disregard that little bit. In addition, some people disregard stories for having too many tags as that's often sign of "everything and a kitchen sink" porn they're not interested in.

Replies: The Horse With No Name

The Horse With No Name 🚫

@LupusDei

That sounds like a veritable mine field, especially if you have different stories in a shared universe, but not of the same tag-configuration.

Replies: LupusDei

LupusDei 🚫
Updated:

@The Horse With No Name

If you read forum discussions about tag use going back years (there's uncountably many) that indeed *is* the overarching conclusion.

Replies: LupusDei

LupusDei 🚫

@LupusDei

Cousin incest is unlikely to be of such controversial energy, but look for discussions on use of tags such as "rape".

There's genuinely people who may get re-traumatised just by reading about it.

So, tag every mention? Local consensus is apparently, no, you should not. You only should if it has certain level of prominence... in your own judgment and relatively to the story as a whole, unless the passage has the aforementioned risk on it's own.

People apparently do agonize upon tag selection at length, weighing multiple pro- and con- manifolds and sometimes even resort to per-capter warning disclaimers instead.

Replies: tendertouch

tendertouch 🚫

@LupusDei

Cousin incest is unlikely to be of such controversial energy, but look for discussions on use of tags such as "rape".

Right. I went through this for Charley and Claire. I originally tagged it for rape, but it never felt quite right as the rape in question isn't described in much detail and only covers one paragraph. But it can be traumatizing, so what to do? In the end, I used a generic caution tag with a note in the description to see the forward. There I mention that the reader can skip that one paragraph, knowing what happens, but I didn't feel right not having it.

No one has complained since. I think if they did I'd change it back, though. I can appreciate triggers.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@The Horse With No Name

Over here in Germany, marriage is permitted between first cousins, so it wouldn't fit the legal definition of incest.

In the UK too, but it's still incest in the consanguinity meaning. Despite the extra danger of genetically-derived damage to offspring, some NHS activists actively promote it as a way of preserving family legacies.

AJ

Joe_Bondi_Beach 🚫
Updated:

@The Horse With No Name

That got me thinking. Over here in Germany, marriage is permitted between first cousins, so it wouldn't fit the legal definition of incest.

In California incest is defined as penis in vagina between persons with whatever family degree is prohibited. (Can't remember if anal intercourse is covered.)

This is apart from coercion, rape, abuse or any other crime that the action may involve.

So, short of vaginal intercourse your happy cousins or anyone else can go wild and, in legal terms in this state, it's not incest.

Which only proves the value of what others have pointed out here: tags are not legal definitions. If most people consider it incest, it's incest.

~ JBB

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Forum: Author Hangout

Legal considerations and story tags

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