Hurt/Comfort

Hurt/comfort is a fanwork genre that involves the physical pain or emotional distress of one character, who is cared for by another character. The injury, sickness or other kind of hurt allows an exploration of the characters and their relationship.
A fan in 1994 wrote: 
In an essay examining the body in horrifying hurt/comfort fanfiction, published in Transformative Works and Cultures no. 25, Rachel Linn describes the genre as follows:
==Variations==
Hurt/comfort may be abbreviated as H/C. If the emphasis is on the hurt aspect of the story, then H/c may be used instead. If there is absolutely no comfort and a lot of hurt, then the term Hurt/Hurt has been used. The amount of hurt portrayed may edge into Torture, another sub-genre of Hurt/comfort. Rosa's Hurtin' For Comfort rec page circa April 2002 (via Wayback Machine) Accessed October 12, 2008 However, not all character torture fans think of it as a h/c subgenre, as the "comfort" part may not be important at all in some torture fic, and the aim is not to hurt the character for an equal (or surpassing) comfort "pay off" as is the case with much h/c fic. (See the Talk page for discussion of the subgenre question)
Depending on the fandom and/or the author, H/C stories may also encompass BDSM elements to varying degrees.
The term "whumping" (or whump) refers to a form of H/C that is heavy on the hurt and often focuses on gen stories; it is similar to Muldertorture in X-Files fandom.
== Brief History: Began as a "Get'em" ==
Hurt/comfort is one of the earliest genres of fan fiction. Originally, they were called "get" stories -- "get Spock", "get Kirk". The first "get" stories had no sexual content and were often light on the comfort.The outrageous "Revenge", written by Dee L. Meuser (Warp 9 1), and the early stories of Jennifer Guttridge (published in Tricorder Readings) are prime examples of the type. 
The Star Trek zine Contact contained both 'Get-' style and 'Hurt/comfort' style stories, as well as friendship stories between Kirk and Spock. An early example of the intermixed relationship between the 'Get-' style story and the 'Hurt/comfort' style is in the editorial for Contact #4 (1977), which used both of the terms interchangeably: "CONTACT seems to have become known as the 'get-em' zine of fandom. It abounds with pain and the hurt/comfort syndrome. This was never our original intention. Granted, we all have that masochistic streak that loves to see our heroes suffer…but four issues of ONLY this may have run its course."
By 1979 when "This Deadly Innocence (The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome)"The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome by Leslie Fish on the K/S Archive, originally in Naked Times #3 by Leslie Fish was produced, the term 'Get-' had fallen out of use and the term Hurt/Comfort was primarily being used. As one of the first Kirk/Spock stories ever published to make the leap from Gen to Slashepic recs on This Deadly Innocence, the tropes of Hurt/Comfort were well recognized.
'Get' still showed up occasionally in Star Trek fandom for years, for example in these definitions from The Fanzine FAQ, version 0.9, which was written by Alara Rogers September 10, 1994 for alt.startrek.creative:Fanzine FAQ (version 0.9) alt.startrek.creative post, Alara Rogers, September 10, 1994.
==Appeal==
The popularity and appeal of hurt/comfort is oft-discussed. 
A fan in 1981 speculated on the popularity of H/C: 
A fan wrote of how media had, in the past, let her down: 
A Doctor Who fan was drawn to the genre because of the potential for positive exploration of relationships: 
===The Eroticization of Nurturance: H/C as a Trope Played Out in Slash Stories ===
Hurt/comfort often plays a specific role in the plot of slash. Hurt in first time slash stories generally exists to make one the caretaker of the other (often isolating the two of them together), which breaks down both physical and mental boundaries between them, which leads to realizations about each other, which leads to slash. (See Magical Healing Cock).
In her examination of "intimatopic slash" in Busse and Hellekson's Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet, Elizabeth Woledge writes that:
Joanna Russ had said about these types of stories that:
Another fan saw the trope as disturbing: 
One fan asked other fans why hurt/comfort was "acceptable" but sadomasochism was taboo: 
To the dismay of fans who feel it is poor characterization, over time in many slash pairings the 'smaller guy' (usually the more popular character in a pairing) becomes more and more likely to be the one hurt, to the point that he actually seems to be shrinking in the descriptions used for him in fanfic.Rana Eros, Travel Size for Your Convenience. Hosted at the Fanfic Symposium, 21 January 2002, accessed 20 October 2008. H/C written in a well-established slash fandom often goes to one of two extremes: either the littler character is routinely getting hurt over and over in ways that would kill normal people, or perhaps worse, he overreacts to the application of paper cuts, and must be saved/cured by his all powerful partner.Lorelei Jones, The Damsel in Distress Syndrome. Hosted at the Fanfic Symposium, 17 November 1999, accessed 20 October 2008. This dynamic is larger than hurt/comfort, but is definitely related to it.
===H/C as a Trope Played Out in Gen Stories ===
Close body contact tropes that don't lead to sex.
* Medicinal Snuggling: hypothermia, one sleeping bag and thou
* Gen Bed Sharing: slide on over, buddy, the bed's big enough for two
* Gen Bathing: showers, baths and, well, more showers and baths
===H/C in Gen as a Substitute for Sex?===
Some fans believe that the intimacy of close body contact and comfort in H/C gen stories can be a substitute for sex. Others disagree.
A fan in 1984 wrote: 
A fan in 1987 wrote: 
From a fan in 2000: 
From a fan in 2003: 
A 2006 comment: 
In 2011, a fan cited This Deadly Innocence, Or The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome as groundbreaking meta:
A 2012 comment: 
====Discussion by Starsky and Hutch Fans====
There was much discussion about this topic in Starsky and Hutch fandom in the letterzine S and H during 1981-82:
===Hurt/Comfort as Manifestation of Friendship===
In a 2014 review of a 1977 Starsky & Hutch zine, a fan says "friendship is something lots of people value deeply but culturally don't know how to express very well...hurt/comfort unearths the depth and extent of a friendship by making the characters prove it." The essay goes on to describe the difficulties with writing good hurt/comfort, and describes a scene from the gen story "Mojave Crossing" as an example of the power of well-written hurt/comfort in articulating the emotional bonds of a beloved fictional friendship:
===Hurt/Comfort as a Tension and Release, as a Way to Fill in the Blanks===
From a 2016 conversation: 
===Hurt Without the Comfort, Comfort Without the Hurt===
For more on hurt without comfort, see Hurt/Hurt. 
 
==Getting the Balance Right==
How much h/c is too much? Many fans have a line of comfort.
From a Starsky & Hutch fan in 2003: 
A fan in 2004 comments on a Due South story: 
==Changes Over the Years?==
Some fans feel that hurt/comfort fanfic is more of an old-school fandom trope, and that "modern" fanfiction relies less upon it. It is difficult to know if this is true, or if the trope has simply become more refined and/or sophisticated in its application.
In 2002, a fan attributed this change to fiction's platform, though this fan's perception of a shift may have had more to do with the fanfiction's delivery system than in content: 
== H/C in Academic Writing About Fandom ==
Camille Bacon-Smith, famously, decided that h/c was the secret cornerstone of fanfiction in Enterprising Women. Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women. Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1992. 
In "Queering Popular Culture", Susanne Jung says, Mirna Cicioni discusses similar instances of comforting in her analysis of the "hurt/comfort" genre which she characterizes as an "eroticization of nurturance." With one partner satisfying a basic need of the other - providing warmth, food or emotional reassurance - elements like warmth or food, "although not specifically sexual in themselves [. . .] are eroticised because they give a physical dimension to the closeness of the bond between the partners and lead to, or become a part of, an intimacy that also has a sexual component". Queering Popular Culture: Female Spectators and the Appeal of Writing Slash Fan Fiction, by Susanne Jung, University of Tübingen, GermanyCicioni, Mirna. "Male Pair-Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing." Theorizing Fandom. Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Ed. Cheryl Harris and Alison Alexander. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P, 1998. 153-77.
In her essay, "Women Reading Men," feminist film critic Christine Gledhill discusses the figure of "The Wounded Man," who "may cross over the gender divide, playing to a fantasy of similarity and rapproachment." Gledhill further notes that: "one attraction to this figure is its capacity to redress the power balance between the sexes--to force the male into the position of the woman. In so doing the wounding of the man, whether physical or psychological, makes the male figure accessible to the female imagination." Christine Gledhill, "Women Reading Men," Me Jane: Masculinity, Movies, and Women, ed. Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumen. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.) 86-7.
==Fanart Gallery==
File:Brothersinarmssisi1-8.jpg|from Brothers in Arms #1 (1987), artist is Mary Otten, the fandom Simon and Simon
File:Tneg15art1.jpg|Spock and Bones, art from T-Negative #15, Jackie Franke (1972)
File:Interphase1inside6.jpg|inside art from Interphase #1, art by Connie Faddis (1975)
 
File:Promises interior by paulie gilmore.jpeg|Starsky and Hutch in Promises to Keep, art by Paulie (1979)
File:Starborne4int.jpg|classic hurt/comfort art with Spock comforting a badly whipped Kirk. Art by Michael Verina from Starborne (1979)
File:Starborneart.jpg|Kirk and Spock in a Pat Stall foldout, Starborne (1979)
File:Precessional interior unknown 2.jpg|Kirk and Spock in Precessional, possibly Stephanie Hawks (1980)
File:Kesselslave.jpg|Chewbacca and Han in Kessel Slave (1984)
File:Discovered rooftop interior by kate n4.jpeg|Doyle and Bodie, inside art by Kate in Discovered on a Rooftop (1985)
File:Fts4.jpg|inside pages from Finish the Story, art by S.C. Hall shows A.J. Simon looking pretty happy about some h/c (1985)
File:Harlequinairs19.jpg|Harlequin Airs interior artwork by Suzan Lovett showing a bound and gagged Doyle being kissed by Bodie. This is felt by some to be one of the best examples of h/c slash artwork. (1993)
File:Plainandsimple4.jpg|the cover of The Plain and Simple Zine #4, Bashir comforts Garak, artist is TACS (1995)
File:Tasks.jpg|two real ghostbusters on the cover of Tasks of the Chosen, art by Marty Siegrist (1995)
File:Bitterbloodfront.jpg|Peter Caine and his dad in Bitter Blood, art by TACS (1996)
File:Nobeach1.jpg|interior of No Beach to Walk On, by Gamin Davis (2000)
File:Ouch12.jpg|cover of Ouch!, a zine series specializing in H/C fiction (2001)
File:Imperium 12 interior Laura Q GrowingPains.jpg|Han and Leia, by Laura Quilles, in Imperium (2003)
File:Ca.jpg|Jim and Blair in Conflicted and Assuaged, art by Lorraine Brevig (2005)
File:Thankme.jpg|Sam and Dean in You'll Thank Me When It's Wednesday! (2008)
File:Walk away victorious by novemberlite.jpg|Walk Away Victorious, Merlin/Arthur fanart by novemberlite (2011)
File:Sickfrank.jpg|Digital art by deviantartist Hootsweets of a sick Frank Iero and worried Gerard Way (2012) 
== Specific H/C Tropes in Fanfic ==
Not all stories with these elements are H/C, but they can frequently be found in H/C stories.
*Amnesia: Usually including the partner's pain in being forgotten or unappreciated.
*Disability fic: Includes blindness, amputation, paralysis, and other permanent injury.
*Brain damage: Sometimes seen as a subset of disability fic, these are stories where one character is made permanently child-like. Examples include: Gentle on My Mind and sequels in The Professionals, the Highlander "Teddy Bear" stories, "Changes" in The Sentinel, "Goodbye to Dreams" in SG-1. Since these stories often include sex, some people have said they fulfill the same needs as chanslash in other fandoms. There are however also brain damage stories in which the character does not end up child-like, but with other effects from a brain injury, such as aphasiaFor example, SGA fics Rebuilding Babel by fiercelydreamed and the aphasic John series by busaikko., seizuresFor example, SGA fic Wear a Rainbow by busaikko., partial paralysis, etc.
*Coma: One of the partners is in a coma for a brief or extended period of time. Example: Distant Shores, an epic Starsky & Hutch slash novel by April Valentine, wherein Hutch is kidnapped, presumed dead by Starsky and everyone else, but actually has been in a coma in Australia for several years.
*Death stories: Sometimes written as all hurt, no comfort; sometimes the comfort is aimed at the BSO who didn't die.
*Presumed Dead: Deathfic with a happy ending, when the dead character turns out to be alive.
*Attempted Suicide: Subgenre of suicide fic where one of the characters attempts to commit suicide but is either prevented by another character and/or comforted after the attempt by one or more other characters.
*Rape recovery: Rapefic stories that concentrate much more on the recovery than the rape itself. Examples include Being an Anchor by Lanning Cook in Sports Night.
*Snifflefic: Stories with very minor hurt, in which the point was the comfort: putting them to bed, making them tea, seeing them cossetted. First used in reference to The Professionals story, Fever, by Pam Rose. 
* Degenerative illness: Stories where the author's woobie develops cancer, AIDS, or other lingering, long-term degenerative illness. Examples include Dancing on Glass by Em Brunson in Sports Night, PuddleJumper Estates and ZPM Enterprises in SGA, possibly Helpless in Sherlock (BBC).
* Torture: Injuring the character over and over again using extreme measures. Very popular in Highlander fandom, as the main characters were immortal and regenerated.
* Amateur Surgery: When one character, usually not a doctor, has to perform a life-saving surgical procedure on another character. A variation has him or her assisting in a primitive field surgery.
== Common H/C Types by Fandom ==
*Age of Sail: Disability fic, primarily amputation.
*Blake's 7: According to executrix, "A lot of Blakes7 stories are referred to as BUARA (Beat Up and Rape Avon), which I believe is the B7 equivalent of a "Get-Spock" story." The term is defined at Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site as "used for slash stories where Avon suffers terribly, but almost invariably without any permanent damage." Blake's 7 Fanzine terminology (Accessed October 16, 2008)
*Highlander: Methostorture, featuring works by Barb G, Juxian Tang, Maygra, and Mairead Triste.
*The Lord of the Rings/FPF: In The Lord of the Rings fic, Boromir dies after much pain, but it is Frodo is the character who is most often sick or injured. His suffering may be related to his ordeal on the Quest and the loss of the Ring. Frodo's hurt includes mental health, loss of a finger, ongoing trauma from the Witch-king's blade, but he tends to be cared for lovingly and well by all the other characters, including many original characters from the Houses of HealingThe FrodoHealers Yahoo! group, which allows only gen stories, had 3754 posts between June 1, 2002, and May 31, 2003. FrodoHealers Yahoo! group. Accessed Oct. 27, 2008. PippinHealers is a smaller but still consistently active group.. See also Hurt/Comfort recs at lotr_fic_recs. In The Hobbit books and movies fandom, Bilbo is frequently presented as injured, movieverse Kili is canonically wounded, and Thorin, Fili and Kili canonically die, so there's plenty of Hurt with and without Comfort.
*Original Slash: Manna Francis's Administration series and maculategiraffe's slavefic The Slave Breakers are both examples of original slash darkfic with a great deal of torture.
*The Phantom Menace: Soulbonding, with a side of BDSM.
*The Sentinel: Smarm bridged the gap between slash and gen, and a lot of Hurt/comfort writers were drawn to it, such as Martha. Ordeal, Snake Oil, and Cake is a series of H/C stories by Martha focused on Blair as the woobie, while The Dragon by Mairead Triste focused more on Jim. Kitty and Martha's Beach, 78 chapters of "platonic" h/c, may still be the paradigmatic smarm story. The Death of Smarm by Lucy Gillam at Fanfic Symposium: 
*Starsky & Hutch: Elspethdixon said: "My general memory/impression is that pretty much all Starsky & Hutch fic of reasonable length is h/c of the old school variety." On wickedwords' journal 
*The X-Files: See Muldertorture.
*Dragon Age: slavefic, especially of the "Magister A/U" subgenre.
*Fire Emblem: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the series focusing on war, plus many characters have traumatic pasts.
*Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Grief/Mourning, due to the high concentration of character death and survivor guilt.
* Voltron: Legendary Defender: Shiro is a gold mine for this due to his PTSD after a year of being held captive and tortured by the Galra, as is Keith due to his abandonment issues and inability to handle his feelings and open up to people. Lance is the subject of much hurt/comfort as well, as his ego and bravado hide deep insecurities and a lack of self-worth.
* Revolutionary Girl Utena: Due to several characters having been raped, abused, and gaslit personally by Akio Ohtori, many post-game fics focus on their recovery from the trauma and learning to trust again. This is most common in shipfic, but can be done in gen as well.
* Hazbin Hotel: Angel Dust is a canon abuse victim with a drug addiction, while Husk is an alcoholic gambling addict dealing with his own bad choices. Angel is more popular a comfort receiver, but it's far from unheard of for the roles to be reversed.
* RWBY: The series itself deals heavily in hurt/comfort themes due to Monty Oum himself wanting his couples to face pain and obstacles. Bumbleby and Renora are the two big examples:
** Yang suffers from PTSD after losing her arm to Adam Taurus, not long after she was expelled from Beacon due to Emerald's manipulation framing her as attacking Mercury unprovoked. Blake herself was mentally abused by Adam, who used to care for her but slowly turned to the dark side and forced her to help him take lives and harm innocents for his own gain.
** Ren is an orphan, while Nora was bullied as a child.
==H/C Challenges and Communities==
* 10_hurt_comfort, a multifandom prompt challenge (2006–present)
* Hurt/Comfort Bingo, a multifandom bingo challenge (2010–present)
* Hurt/Comfort Exchange, a multifandom exchange (2019–present)
* SGAHC, a Stargate Atlantis mailing list
* whitecollarhc, a White Collar LiveJournal community
* Dean-focused H/C Comment Fic & Art Meme, a Supernatural comment meme (2009–2015)
* HD Hurt Fest, a Harry Potter Harry/Draco fest (2014–2020)
* AlexK-H-C-orD, a mailing list for Alex Krycek from The X-Files
* Sheppard H/C, a LiveJournal community for John Sheppard from Stargate Atlantis
* sgahcchallenges, a LiveJournal community for Stargate Atlantis gen
==Fannish Essays and Meta About H/C: Further Reading==
See Timeline of Hurt/Comfort Meta.
==Links & Resources==
* Hurt/Comfort tag at Archive of Our Own
* Recs tagged as Hurt/Comfort at Fancake
==References==
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