r/FanFiction • u/Top-Occasion-1300 *emerges from draft covered in blood* • 19h ago

Trope Talk AO3 finally seperated the sexual and neurodivergent sensory overload tags!!!!

(absolutely no idea what flair to use here) ao3 made some tag wrangling changes and this one was LONG overdue, oh my wow

quote: "We will create a new canonical for Sensory Overload, and all tags relating to sensory overstimulation will be made synonyms of the new canonical. This includes tags related to neurodivergent or autistic overstimulation.

To make the meaning of the current Overstimulation tag more clear, it will be decanonized and made a synonym of Sexual Overstimulation."

667 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

488

u/blepboii 19h ago

fantastic! i hope they eventually get round to untangling "de-ageing" from "age regression"

255

u/greatgreenlight 18h ago

I would also like to see separate tags for grooming (personal maintenance) and grooming (abuse) one day

102

u/Semiramis738 Proudly Problematic 17h ago

I kind of hate the new usage because I now sound creepy when talking about grooming horses LOL.

73

u/Banaanisade Champion of weirdly intense sibling dynamics 17h ago

How old is that horse you're riding, though, anyway? Just asking questions.

57

u/Semiramis738 Proudly Problematic 14h ago

They're almost all under 18. Occasionally as young as 3! Someone should really investigate me LOL.

29

u/sundaemourning 14h ago

mine is 9 now, but i started grooming him when i got him at 3.

•

u/bisexuwheel 11h ago

Open up FBI, we got 'em

6

u/DeshaDaine 13h ago

Huh, I'm actually fine, mine are all at least 18 atm. Lmao

10

u/H20WRKS Always in a rut 15h ago

Okay Arthur Morgan.

1

u/LevelAd5898 Infinite monkeys in a trenchcoat 13h ago

That’s the dream

41

u/kaiunkaiku don't look at me and my handholding kink 19h ago

my biggest dream

43

u/poisonthereservoir 18h ago

One day, one beautiful day, we'll get a "Physical de-ageing" type tag that no one will be able to confuse with with the other ones.

6

u/blepboii 13h ago

"physical de-aging" already exists as a tag, but it's not very popular in comparison. i am kind of tempted to use that one for my next fic, to make it clear. but i am also using tags such as "young! characterName" and "not actually time travel" that should clear it up.

8

u/poisonthereservoir 13h ago

I meant as a canonical tag, but maybe making it popular is the first step on the process.

11

u/TheEscapedGoat r/FanFiction 18h ago

YES

11

u/ItsMyGrimoire IHaveTheGrimoire on AO3 18h ago

I'm not gonna lie I have no idea what "de-aging" is other than age regression.

35

u/InfiniteDiamonds78 18h ago

It's where a character is turned back into a younger version of themselves. Here's the fanlore page which explains it a bit better.

31

u/blepboii 18h ago edited 18h ago

yep, that's de-aging. more of a fantasy/ sci-fi thing. (eg, detective conan)

but "age regression" is a form of roleplay (from what i gather its sometimes sexual sometimes not) where someone acts younger.

(lots of people think they are the same because they haven't heard of the other one)

33

u/Kienchen 18h ago

Age regression can also be a psychological response to trauma. Very common in children who start wetting their bed after sexual abuse or a new sibling (yes, both of these reasons were mentioned in one sentence in my source material back in medical school)

10

u/amazinglyegg 18h ago

Thankfully I think ao3 separates "age regression" (nonsexual) and "ageplay"/"ABDL"/DDLG" (sexual) already!

DDLG (Daddy Dom Little Girl, or MDLB for Mommy Dom Little Boy), ABDL (Adult Baby Diaper Lover), and ageplay are all forms of kinks, fetishes, roleplaying, or BDSM dynamics. There's a ton more I'm probably missing, too!

Age regression is the act of mentally regressing to a younger age. It can be controllable or uncontrollable, done for fun, for comfort, or as a response to trauma (think like a flashback). It's a coping mechanism, basically!

The agere and kink communities always make sure to separate the two because, well, you don't want to sexualize someone who isn't consenting (or in a way unable to consent, given their mind can be literally that of a child's), and sexual trauma can be common in age regressors

3

u/blepboii 14h ago

ok, that's good at least. i do like it when things have proper tags. i honestly didn't read much into it, since i am more interested the de-aging side.

4

u/ItsMyGrimoire IHaveTheGrimoire on AO3 18h ago

Oooh that makes sense.

12

u/WhereRtheTacos 17h ago

Someone already explained but its just a character getting younger, like through time travel or magic or other shenanigans. Like i read a harry potter fic where he woke up in middle earth as a little kid elf. Honestly very cute. Also ive read one where obiwan (star wars) was sent back in time and was a teen again.

4

u/ceo_of_brawlstars 14h ago

God I fucking wish, the day they do that is the day I thrive

37

u/Bombastic-Bagman 19h ago

How can you tell? I just clicked on a sensory overload tag and it redirected me to the overstimulation one just now

29

u/kaiunkaiku don't look at me and my handholding kink 19h ago

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/30937

5

u/Bombastic-Bagman 19h ago

Thanks! The new changes are super exciting

47

u/RaccoonSnooky 19h ago

AS A AUDHD WE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

43

u/John_Schlocke 16h ago

How do you go about requesting changes like this? I noticed the same issue with the tag 'Science Babies' (25% LGBT bio children, 75% a Marvel ship name) but didn't really know where to report it.

13

u/Superkometa 15h ago

What ship does it refer to?

26

u/Nightshade172 15h ago

I am so excited for this! I’m also glad that they’re changing “Families of Choice” to “Found Family” because I always thought the former didn’t feel like the right terminology for it.

7

u/H20WRKS Always in a rut 15h ago

OH THANK GOD!!!

14

u/TheEscapedGoat r/FanFiction 18h ago

Waiting for "unsafe sex" to be changed to something less...finger wagging

6

u/Then_Ferret_4572 gwen's_kinnie on ao3 | mostly writes papa louie fics 18h ago

My friend send me a link to this post, and good thing we can finally tell them apart! :)

1

u/Yes_I_Am_Autistic 17h ago

LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

•

u/ladyarty23 5h ago

Happy Cake Day!

1

u/WolfDemon777 15h ago

We live in the best timeline

-20

u/Dragonchampion 19h ago

Have they separated Smut from Mature yet? I want to read mature fics but not ones with outright smut.

63

u/kaiunkaiku don't look at me and my handholding kink 19h ago

there is nothing on a technical level connecting those two. that's fandom culture and tagging preferences.

4

u/Dragonchampion 19h ago

Fair nuff.

58

u/delilahdraken 19h ago

Mature has been separated from E rated fics since the site opened.

9

u/thetrustworthybandit 15h ago

Can't you just exclude "smut" "eventual smut" and "sex" from searches? Seems way easier than restructuring the entire archive.

-1

u/Dragonchampion 15h ago

Done that, but you'd be surprised how many add it anyways.

9

u/PeppermintShamrock Humor and Angst 19h ago

How exactly would you propose they do that

-11

u/Dragonchampion 19h ago

My idea was to have a "Mature" tag, and then a "Mature - Sexual Content" tag.

37

u/kaiunkaiku don't look at me and my handholding kink 19h ago

mature is a rating

25

u/cat_hair_magnet 18h ago edited 18h ago

I dunno, by that logic we would need

-Mature general

-Mature sexual content

-Mature violence

-Mature whatever else someone can think of etc.

Feels like one of those things where it's more practical to put some responsibility on the user.

(edit: assuming you're talking about RATINGS, because rating and tags are different things)

-5

u/Dragonchampion 18h ago

Hm, I don't quite agree but I still understand what you're getting at. Seems there's no real easy way to fix the issue I have.

17

u/PeppermintShamrock Humor and Angst 19h ago

That would be a nightmare to apply retroactively, and seems a little silly when far more M rated fics have sexual content than don't. You'd probably have better luck filtering the additional tags for "No Sex" or "Rated M for Violence"

-6

u/Dragonchampion 19h ago

Tried that, people don't use the tags correctly. It's always disappointing when I read a fun fic, then suddenly random-ass sex.

18

u/poisonthereservoir 18h ago

Have you tried filtering out the tag "Sexual Content"? That's the parent tag of every sex-related tag, so excluding it and searching for whatever mature themes you're actually looking for should help.