You will drive yourself mad with language prescriptivism because words are defined primarily by usage. In a similar vein, you will drive yourself mad expecting genre to be a precise, clinical breakdown of key elements in media, because genre taxonomies are first and foremost a mixture of culture and marketing.
- They/It/He
Weird furry.
RaccoonRobot
Spicy alt: @LoosfButHornt
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in reply to @amydentata's post:
yeah by my forecast I'm maybe a month from going completely mad
I like Ian Crosby's (Youtube user InnuendoStudios) take on genre, in that its practical purpose is to set expectations. A murder mystery, for instance, can get away with introducing a lot more characters in its opening act, because the genre conditions you to take an interest in potential suspects. Similarly, an action movie can get away with Really Bad Science, because you know not to expect realism from an action movie.
Honestly this applies to language in general; communication is all contextual and I would argue that in many cases the best you can do is appeal to the listener's shared experiences and try to pick out the ones that set accurate expectations.