femgenficathon

Oh no, don't worry, I didn't take your question as rude whatsoever. :) I did toy with the rating, warnings, and labels I thought I should put on this. Perhaps it's only PG-13? Perhaps the warnings are too detailed? Perhaps it's not dark at all... It more just came down to me feeling rather unconfident about the story. I read and reread the Ficathon rules a zillion times, certain that I was breaking them somehow (not least with the childbirth situation). So I think I just put all those disclaimers and warnings and labels up there to keep anyone from reading the thing, and finding out it violates the spirit of the challenge! Eep.

there are fandoms where "gen" includes all het, just to confuse matters...

Oh yeah, I've heard that. Good grief - I am very glad HP doesn't do that!

I have seen people use (or assume) "gen" to mean "general" in the same sense as "general audience" and therefore that it ought to be G-rated or close to it.

Yes, I think that's what I was thinking. I did a small, unofficial poll on my LJ a few weeks ago, to see if it was just me who had never seen an R-rated GenFic, and one friend mentioned that she had come across a GenFic community that did not permit stories rated higher than PG. Gah! So, as I've said, I feared that such a thing might be more common than I realised, simply because I don't generally read (or write) GenFic. Just wanted to make sure all potential labels and warnings were out there!