What's the point of a tag that tells you to read the tags? Isn't that redundant? Actually, no! "Dead dove: do not eat" does serve an important purpose because it's NOT just a generic "mind the tags" statement, there's more to it than that.
Because of all the misinformation surrounding DD:DNE and how muddied the waters have become with some people trying to claim that it's equivalent to "what it says on the tin" (or the like), there seems to be some confusion about its purpose. I recently explained the origins of DD:DNE and its inherent dark connotations, but I just encountered another misleading dead dove post and I want to provide more clarity on how it's supposed to be used and why it's genuinely helpful.
Many writers these days tend to be overly cautious and tag every little thing, particularly when it comes to potentially triggering or problematic content, regardless of how much or little that content is featured in the fic. While thorough tagging is greatly beneficial on the whole, it can sometimes be hard to tell the tone or intent of a fic and how much weight you should put on those warnings from just looking at a list of tags.
"Dead dove: do not eat" is a flashing warning sign that, not only will potentially triggering or problematic content feature heavily, it will also be presented and framed with little to no authorial commentary or judgment. It's saying: "I hope you're prepared to read something fucked up because that's what you'll find here and I'm not justifying, moralizing, or apologizing for it. You have been warned." This should be used in conjunction with specific content warnings to indicate the exact flavor of fucked up you're going to encounter, but even if someone chooses not to clarify in the tags for some reason (a controversial choice, to be sure), it's still a warning in and of itself. DD:DNE is not entirely meaningless without other tags, it's just more thorough and informative with them.
Consider two fics tagged with rape/noncon, one with the DD:DNE tag and one without.
The fic without the dead dove label may just include discussion of noncon that happened to a character in the past, the noncon may occur in the fic but be glossed over and not described in detail, or the noncon may be dubcon at worst. Everyone has different thresholds for certain types of content, so some people may still choose to warn for it in these cases. I'm not attempting to pass judgement on whether or not the noncon warning should be used in that way, but it happens regularly and it can make sorting through tags to find what you're looking for complicated.
The fic with the DD:DNE tag? That's a Rape Fic. You can pretty safely assume the noncon is going to be a major component of the fic, it will likely be explicit, you won't be spoon-fed any morals about it, and it probably won't have a conventionally happy ending.
Not having the DD:DNE tag obviously doesn't mean that a fic does NOT contain dark or problematic content, as not everyone chooses to use it, but including it essentially guarantees it (at least when used correctly). This can be very helpful for anyone specifically looking for something angsty and awful to wallow in, while allowing others who aren't interested in that to safely avoid it.
Because of its inherent connotations, "dead dove: do not eat" should NEVER be used as a generic call to "mind the tags." If you add it to your non-problematic, 100% consensual fic because you happen to include an unusual kink or whatever, you WILL scare away readers because they WILL assume you have a dark untagged twist in there somewhere.
DD:DNE is a convenient fandom-agnostic modifier that conveys to readers they are about to encounter something unapologetically fucked up and to make sure they're in the right headspace for it. Do not open the bag labeled "dead dove" if you are not prepared to see a dead dove. Conversely, do not label a bag "dead dove" if there's not a dead dove in there.
i don't care if it's nazis, mormons, or a bunch of misguided autistic people. if anyone ever tries to tell you your soul is from another planet and you're actually part of the class of impressive people that secretly did everything cool in the world but is now extinct and lives on through your broken genome, you RUN. YOU WILL RUN AWAY. YOU WILL SPRINT FULL SPEED AWAY FROM THAT.
grabs you by the shoulders listen. listen to my words. i understand the urge to make fanfiction about yourself and to find a reality in which you're super awesome and great and everyone who hates you is wrong and dumb. i get it. you're better than that. you can love yourself without putting other people down, dehumanizing and generalizing, and retaliating against your oppressors.
there's no NPCs. there's no aliens coming to save us. we're not the next step in human evolution. our hyperconnected nervous systems give us terrible sensory overwhelm more often than they make us geniuses. neurotypical people are sentient, conscious, aware people who are capable of understanding you. we're more the same than we are different. we're more the same than we are different. we're more the same than we are different.
Even if you hate it because your skill has improved and you now think it's just too cringy, or you've moved away from that fandom or that show, or you've grown in some way that makes the story something you just do not like and don't want associated with you... if you've posted it to AO3, please orphan the work instead of deleting it.
Because I promise you, no matter how much you may hate it now, someone out there loves it and will want to read it again.
I keep finding empty bookmarks for fics that have been deleted and it's like finding a gap in my memory where I know something really nice used to be, but I can't remember what it was, or who it was, and it's a horrible sense of loss because I'll likely never figure it out. It's just a thing that I once loved enough to mark so I could come back to enjoy it again someday and it's now just an empty shelf.
The only miserable one in this whole story… is you. With your speech about love, and “Boom, boom, ciao.” Wow… That’s because you’re too much of a coward to admit the truth. You don’t love anyone? Of course you don’t, darling. You don’t have the balls for it. To love you need courage. See? This is bravery. I feel it and I say it. And that you don’t know how to do. How long has it been? Ten years? You were in love with Berlin for ten years? And you never dared to tell him. Of course… you worshipped him and followed him like a dog. And that’s it. Now what? Nothing is possible now. He’s dead. And you’re empty. The only thing you can do is hide behind that damn speech. Boom, boom, ciao. Because you know. You’ve been left in the lurch forever, friend.
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