Gen, slash, het, ship – what do they all mean?

If you’re new to slash fandom, or fandom in general, you might not know what all the terms mean (I didn’t at first), so here’s a quick primer:

Gen (short for general) is a label for a fanwork that contains no romantic or sexual content. In S&H, that means the guys’ relationship is totally platonic. For example, an S&H fic where one is injured (hurt/comfort) or where they’re solving a case (casefic).

Slash is a type of fanwork in which two (or more) characters of the same sex or gender are placed in a sexual or romantic situation with each other. Slash more commonly refers to male/male pairings, with femslash being used more often to refer to female/female scenarios. Contrary to popular belief, not all slash stories contain graphic sex scenes. Some don’t even contain a kiss. The word slash comes from the “/“ between the character’s names (as in Starsky/Hutch). S/H refers to fanworks containing Starsky & Hutch slash, while S&H refers to gen works.

Het (short for heterosexual) is a subgenre of romantic or erotic fanfiction or other fanworks. When a fanwork is labeled het, it primarily focuses on a heterosexual relationship or male/female encounter. So basically, it’s the opposite of slash. In S&H, it could be a fic that’s primarily about Starsky’s relationship with Terry or Rosey Malone or whoever.

Shipping in fandom is the act of supporting or wishing for a particular romantic relationship — that is, a het (different-sex), slash (male/male), femslash (female/female), or poly (three or more partners) ship — by discussing it, writing meta about it, or creating other types of fanworks exploring it. Fans who have and promote favorite ships are called shippers.

An example of a het ship is Mulder/Scully (X-Files). An example of a femslash ship is Jamie/Dani (Haunting of Bly Manor). An example of a slash ship is Starsky/Hutch, obviously. Also Kirk/Spock and a gazillion other M/M pairings in fandom.

Sometimes there’s a fine line between gen and slash in fanfic, as many fanfic authors will tell you. Ultimately, it’s up to the writer how they want to tag their fics.