Sexually Explicit Fanworks

Although what is sexually explicit to one fan may not be to another, a commonly agreed-upon definition of sexually explicit fanworks is fanworks that depict actual or simulated sexual conduct involving one or more persons. This includes sexual penetration, non-penetrative sex and masturbation. Partial or total nudity by itself is generally not considered sexual content.
This differs from "Adult," a term once commonly used to describe all fan fiction and art in zines that were not labeled gen; in practice, it usually included sexually explicit het and all slash, explicit or simply inferred.
"Adult" is now more commonly used as an equivalent to the R or NC-17 ratings, or by authors who choose not to give specific ratings to their stories or art to warn for sexual or potentially disturbing content or mature themes. These themes include the depiction of graphic violence, intense horror, and/or frequent use of profanity.
==Differing Reactions==
What is explicit to one fan is not to another. Or, "I know it when I see it."
 
Who decides: In response to an widely-discussed early open letter regarding what one fan considered het porn at a Star Trek con, Johanna C wrote: 
In 1990, the Beauty and the Beast zine, Black Cover, caused much discussion for its content, something many fans commeted on in Tunnel Talk. One fan, complained about the wording in the flyer See Black Cover to view the flyer. , one she felt was too vague: 
In 1997, a Lois and Clark fan was scolded for posting a submission request for what sounded like an R-rated zine to the LOISCLA-GENERAL-L. Another fan asked: 
Another Lois and Clark fan replied in 1997 on LOISCLA-GENERAL-L. 
===Different Language===
Different fandoms may use different terms to describe porn in their milieu. For instance, furry fandom uses "spooge" or "furporn." In Lois & Clark, a primarily het fandom, it's called "Nfic" for "naughty fic". Jane Austen fandom, another predominantly het arena, sometimes calls it "NB" for "naughty bit" or "nasty bit". Many anime & manga fandoms in the 90s and early 2000s used the term "lemon" (with "lime" being the equivalent of "teen").
===Different Fandoms=== 
A few years after the release of Star Wars, a fan wrote: 
 
==Differing Desires==
A fan wrote: "Fade-to-black sex scenes. You know the kind... "They made love gently. The next morning..." and so on. Drives me nuts. It isn't that I require an explicit sex scene in every story. God, no. And not every sex scene has to be explicit. But when you're writing a first-time story, especially, then the love scene is damned important, and to just skip by it - for what ever reason - usually makes for a bad story." a fan comments in The Hatstand Express #12 about a personal dislike 
 
==Different Mediums==
Explicit fanworks can take many forms:
* fanfic and poetry (written word)
* podfic (spoken word)
* fanart (still images)
* fanvids (moving images)
* gifsets (moving images)
Explicit fanfic contains detailed textual descriptions; explicit podfic contains a reading of the text, but also can include "sex noises" (sighs and moans mostly) at the discretion of the podficcer. Explicit content is more common in fanfic and fanart than in fanvids, for example, where the vidder usually needs to include clips from professional porn in order for the vid to qualify, though creative editing of the source canon can suggest a lot. More recently, Tumblr fans can and do include a porn gif with "look-alike" actors for gifsets that tell a ship story. 
The medium can impact a reader's response to sexually explicit material; for better or worse, visual or auditory sexual content is more immediate and visceral, whereas textual descriptions can provide more distance between the reader and the subject. Explicit fanart is seen by some to be more shocking and objectionable, whereas fanfic is less obvious and therefore harder to challenge. Fan reactions to fanworks mirror the mundane world, where the visual medium is often held to a higher "decency" standard than the written one.
The explicitness of a work of fiction sometimes affects a fan's blanket permission to podfic. From flickings: "if you would like to record podfic of any of my work, please feel free - i am incredibly flattered! my only requests are that sexually explicit rpf not be recorded. from :Blanket Permission to Podfic 
Some fans have expressed disgust at the thought of listening to explicit fanfic read aloud.In her 2012 roundup post of negative attitudes toward podfic, klb noted the trend in people thinking that "[t]he idea of reading porn aloud is inherently gross/creepy/laughable/mockable", but remarked that the situation had actually improved; "where once I couldn't go two days without seeing someone, somewhere, calling podfic gross, creepy, disgusting, laughable, I now go months at a time without encountering a single instance of that." klb. Negative Attitudes About Podfic: A Guided Tour. Posted to podficmeta 8 July 2012. (Accessed 7 April 2013.)
===Different Playgrounds===
Sexually explicit or "adult" fanworks were often split off into their own newsgroups, with a suffix indicating adult content: for instance, alt.tv.x-files.creative and alt.tv.x-files.creative.mature, or alt.startrek.creative and alt.startrek.creative.erotica.
On some fandoms, such as Lois & Clark, sexually explicit fiction is restricted to specific mailing lists which require an age statement before allowing a fan to join. Alternatively, an "ADULT:" header may be required on all fiction rated higher than PG13. The use of such a header allows subscribers to filter such stories out if they prefer not to receive them.
Joan Verba wrote in Boldly Writing about one of her zine Treklink: 
==Some Fandom Firsts==
Because the definition of sexually explicit material varies, and because much of sexually explicit fan material was initially circulated "under the table", it is impossible to pin down these first fanworks. In fact, many of the early explicit fanworks would fall under today's "adult" standards as they neither contained sexually explicit text and scenerios nor images of genitalia (either in use or even just resting). Complicating matters is the fact that for some fans, depictions of heterosexual sex are by definition less explicit than depictions of homosexual sex, and they have labeled all slash as "sexually explicit" even if no sex takes place on the page or screen.
While Spockanalia did not bill itself as an erotic or adult zine, it contains the earliest known lay stories. An excerpt from issue #3's story The Alternate (1968) is an example of some fairly racy prose for the time: 
The editor responds in issue #4 to reactions to "The Alternate" as well as in anticipation of the story Time Enough in 1969: 
Grup was the first adult, or R-rated Star Trek zine. It began publishing in September 1972 and featured a naked Spock fold out centerfold. It showed a fully naked Spock, genitals visible resting alone on a bench.
Most the stories in Grup would be rated PG13 today, but a good number would probably be classified as "adult" (or R rating).Note: the application of movie ratings terminology to literature is misleading, due to the differences in visual and written media. It is, however, a helpful shorthand in these types of discussions.
For example, would the following passage be rated "adult" or "sexually explicit" today? 
Grup was soon followed by R&R in the US in 1976, Grope in the UK in 1976, and Obsc'zine in the US in 1977. All three fanzines published mainly adult het, but on occasion slash fanfiction and in the case of Obsc'zine, the occasional femmeslash.
Here in an excerpt from the first issue of R&R is a sex scene between Sarek and Amanda, Spock's parents. 
The first sexually explicit slash fan fiction published was most likely A Fragment Out of Time published in Grup #3 in 1974. While the story did not directly refer to genitalia, it uses phrases that are evocative and lead the reader to understand that a sexual act is taking place: "....He felt a tightening as he contracted a little when pubic hair was brushed slightly" and "....The other smiled and then ran expert hands once more over the surface and then between the legs, spreading them effortlessly. Careful palms cradled a very sensitive area that had been exposed." and "A circle of thumb and forefinger was working, too...pulling slowly up and squeezing."
Similarly, the first stand alone Kirk/Spock fanzine published in 1976 lacks the type of specific detail required to meet the "sexually explicit" standards today. In Alternative: The Epilog to Orion Spock and Kirk mind meld. The entire first part of the zine—thirteen poems and the first of two short stories—consists of Kirk’s visions as he recuperates in his cabin. He fantasizes a future relationship with Spock and how their sexual relationship would work. 
A poem by Gerry Downes in Alternative: The Epilog to Orion: 
By 1978, when Thrust was published, the language grew more explicit and racier:
==Age Statements and Disclaimers==
* Age Statements during the print zine era
* for online fanworks, clicking the box that confirms the fan is "of age"
==The Uphill Climb for Slash==
From the beginning, slash fanworks, regardless of content were lumped in with explicit het. 
The editor of Imperial Entanglements wrote a letter of protest directly to Lucasfilm in response to Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers by Maureen Garrett. In the letter, she explained that the proposed story contained no physical expressions of any kind of sexual activity and lacked reference to anatomical details. By excluding non-explicit homosexual fan fiction while allowing non-explicit heterosexual fanfiction, Lucasfilm would be adopting a prejudicial and offensive attitude towards gays and lesbians. She also took issue with the concept that "even Imperial crew members" must be allowed to maintain their "innocence" by pointing out that these same Imperial crew members had committed acts of genocide, mutilation and torture. And by setting "homosexual expressions of love" in opposition to "innocence" Lucasfilm would be implying that homosexuality was morally undesirable. Editor's letter to Lucasfilm, undated (but probably 1981), submitted by Barbara T. 
A fan wrote in Treklink: 
* Slash Controversies
==Ratings and Warnings==
A sample of one way an archive fulfills an age disclaimer: Archive of Our Own's warning in 2014 and before: "This work could have adult content. If you proceed you have agreed that you are willing to see such content."
To many fans, these "safeguards" are pretty hollow. A fan in 2007 commented: 
See Warnings, see Age Statements.
==As a TPTB's Argument Against Fanworks==
Professional authors encountering fanfiction presenting sexually explicit views of their characters may be offended by the fans changing their authorial intent. One example is Robin Hobb's Fan Fiction Rant which includes this statement: "At the extreme low end of the spectrum, fan fiction becomes personal masturbation fantasy in which the fan reader is interacting with the writer’s character." Robin Hobb's (anti) fan fiction rant, approx. 2005-06, found at archive.org, accessed 2010-5-17 
==Reading and Viewing Print Fanworks in Public Areas==
For some fannish solutions to this sometimes-challenge, see Reading and Viewing Print Fanworks in Public Areas.
==Some Fig Leaves: Covering Up the "Naughty Bits"==
A fig leaf is a "modesty panel."
They are most often used by fans and non-fans in public venues such as eBay to cover an area on visual fanworks such as simple nudity (both male and female) and male genitalia, to covering mild physical expressions of intimacy (usually between same sex couples), to covering explicit sexual acts.
Sometimes the decision to use a fig leaf is a political and/or personal statement that represents what the applicator considers shameful, illegal, or embarrassing.
See Fig Leaf for more, and for examples.
==Fanlore's Image Policy==
Fanlore has a template for fanart and images that "is intended to be used for explicit images that depict people engaging in sexual acts with visible genitalia." This is the standard often used by museums and galleries when displaying art. An image of Michaelangelo's David, who is naked and whose genitals are visible, would not qualify. Neither would the vast majority of naked women photos and painting hanging in museums and galleries. As a side note, breasts are not considered "genitalia" as they are not used in the reproductive act (any more than any other body part). This means an image of two people where only their breasts or buttocks are visible during sex would not be considered sexually explicit. However, when in doubt about Fanlore's sexually explicit image policy, contact the Fanlore Committee.
The template is to be used with this statement:
"This image is sexually explicit and should be minimised. To link to this image on an article, please use a pixel size of 100 and a thumbnail caption of this warning, along with your own description..."
See :Template:SexuallyExplicitImage.
==Also See==
* Porn
* Pornophobia
* Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers by Maureen Garrett
* Open Letter by Mary Lou Regarding Explicit Fanworks
==Meta/Further Reading==
* , March 19, 2009
==References==
Category:Tropes & Genres