dead dove

English

Alternative forms

dead dove: do not eat

Etymology

Referencing a scene from the second episode of the American satirical sitcom Arrested Development, in which the character Michael Bluth inspects a bag labelled Dead Dove: Do Not Eat and, having found a dead dove inside, remarks on his surprise, "Well, I don't know what I expected."

Coined by Tumblr user mostlyvalid in 2015 as an Archive of Our Own tag to "signal[] that a given fanwork is for rolling around [in tropes that might be viewed as problematic], not giving a measured evaluation of anything. […] there will not necessarily be any subversion, authorial commentary condemning problematic aspects, or meditation on potential harm."^[1]^[2]

Noun

dead dove (countable and uncountable, plural dead doves)

(countable, fandom slang) A disclaimer or tag for fan fiction, particularly on Archive of Our Own, signifying that the work contains the content that is described, and as such, readers should not complain or be surprised about finding that content.
(countable, fandom slang) A fan fiction that is particularly disturbing or disgusting due to its subject matter.
(uncountable, fandom slang) Such fan fiction, collectively.
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dead,‎ dove.

Synonyms

(WYSIWYG): See what you see is what you get

References

^ mostlyvalid (15 April 2015), “A Proposal”, in Tumblr‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 April 2015:
Sometimes, in fandom, we just want to write id-tastic fic that rolls around in tropes that might be viewed as problematic. But we don’t want to address the problematic side of things in this particular fanwork; we just want to roll around and wallow. It is considered courteous to give readers a heads-up via use of AO3 tags. I propose a tag that signals that a given fanwork is for rolling around, not giving a measured evaluation of anything. […] The “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” tag would essentially be a “what it says on the tin” metatag, indicating “you see the tropes and concepts tagged here? they are going to appear in this fic. exactly as said. there will not necessarily be any subversion, authorial commentary condemning problematic aspects, or meditation on potential harm. this fic contains dead dove. if you proceed, you should expect to encounter it.”
^ “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat”, in Know Your Meme‎^[2], 2023-12-06, archived from the original on 28 March 2026