From: Lambda Literary ~ Can M/M Romance Challenge the Definition of LGBT Lit?
But isn’t it time to stop policing the gates of the LGBT community and begin to embrace the queerness that exists in even the most seemingly heterosexual spaces and places? Isn’t it about time that we allow writers to have as complicated identities as the defiantly queer heroine, Lisbeth Salander?
Brilliant!
From: Gawker ~ Why Are Straight Women So Obsessed with Gay Sex?
These homo bodice rippers are meant for the types of suburban ladies who pick up those paperbacks with Fabio on the cover.
OK um, can someone handle this? I stopped reading from this point on. Sad!
*sigh* Oh good someone did.
Tags: eBook Commentary, Gay Romance
erastes wrote,
The Great Gehayi has handled it beautifully here. With extra SPANK.
http://gehayi.livejournal.com/415465.html
Link | August 19th, 2010 at 6:05 am
James Buchanan wrote,
Yeah, seriously the line that got me: “And even more than this, isn’t there something queer about the fact that supposedly straight men and women want to read and write fiction where this choice is possible?”
Beyond Eraste’s and Lee’s non-straight sexual identities, I guess that Don’s 50so odd years of coming to terms with his sexuality and living as a gay man in San Francisco were all a ruse because only STRAIGHT men could ever believe in/write Romance….I’m F’ing BOGGLED.
Link | August 19th, 2010 at 7:17 am
LVLM wrote,
These horny lady writers insinuate that some gay men feel like they’re being “oppressed” by females imagining their sexual exploits for their own jollies. If any gay men think that, well, then they’re just silly
Why is it assumed that female writers of erotic romance, of any kind, are horny? Seriously?
Link | August 19th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Chris wrote,
So glad you had the link to gehayi’s post, because otherwise my brain might have exploded.
Link | August 19th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Lee Rowan wrote,
I think this article, like so many of them, says far more about its author than any of the people writing any sort of gay romance… or het romance, for that matter.
Link | August 19th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Treva wrote,
And, of course, why are men so obsessed about women who read gay sex? I’ll let someone else come up with silly answers to that question. I’m getting bored with the whole subject.
Link | August 20th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Stumbling Over Chaos :: Leapin’ linkity lizards! wrote,
[...] articles and discussions about m/m romance, gay literature, queer identity, and more: TeddyPig, TeddyPig again, James Buchanan, K.Z. Snow, Gehayi, and [...]
Link | August 20th, 2010 at 5:07 am
kirsten saell wrote,
Haha, LVLM, I’m awfully horny, but it comes and goes…
You have no idea how Beecroft’s description of her discovery of slash jives with my discovery–at age 13?–of my grandfather’s Stag magazine collection. When you’ve got two Barbies and a Ken and you’re making them do all kinds of things that would make your mom’s hair turn white at age 10, you kind of do feel like a lone pervert amid a sea of “norm”s.
I don’t have a problem with investigation into why one author would choose to write m/m exclusively, or why another would prefer some variation of two women and a man, as I do. I think it’s healthy for authors to think about why they write the things they write, and for readers to think about why they read the things they read. But that investigation is deeply individual and personal, and the conclusions are going to differ from person to person, and nobody has any right to make blanket assumptions about what’s going on in the “collective psyche” of a group of women who–for reasons that might be varied and complex, or as simple as “just because”–like reading about certain kinds of characters and relationships.
I have no doubt that some of those negative assumptions are going to be accurate for some of those readers and writers. For others they won’t be remotely correct. It’s complicated. Except when it’s not, lol.
Link | August 20th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
“I don’t have a problem with investigation into why one author would choose to write m/m exclusively, or why another would prefer some variation of two women and a man, as I do.”
Well, that is why I like reading magazines about the Leather Community. My point is that you don’t read these magazines with the guys cowering in a dark corner like they are revealing horrible secrets.
The guys are like FUCK YEAH! and sharing their turn-ons or actually acting out on film what it is they like to do without any personal justifications or deep psychologically probing questions.
They look into it and the article writer is into it and the magazine is into it so you can’t help but to enjoy reading about it even if it is not your thing AT ALL NO WAY NEVER.
In my opinion these reporters in Gawker and Out Magazine are not being unbiased at all. They are promoting their personal issues loud and clear and the subsequent articles and the negative way the community gets represented is horrid.
I don’t like the tones of shame and “not normal” that permeates the articles.
Link | August 20th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
kirsten saell wrote,
Well, is there misogyny within the m/m reading/writing community? Pretty sure there is since I’ve come across it myself, but that characterization isn’t representative of everyone, or even the majority of women who’re into m/m by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a pretty small segment of a greater whole.
Is there a reluctance or inability within the m/m community to explore sexual agency through female characters? You bet that’s true for SOME of them, but again, that’s not why every women who reads or writes it does so.
Does gender identity/sexual orientation of authors/readers play a part? Of course, but it will play as many different parts as there are authors and readers, and for some it won’t play a part at all.
But these are questions readers and authors should be asking of themselves, unabashedly. Why do I like this above and beyond all the other things I might like? But fuck, there should be no shame in self-examination. We are who we are, ffs. We like what we like, for whatever reason. And hell, even if embodied every negative stereotype of what a m/m author or reader is, why the fuck should you apologize for who you are? Thinking about this shit is supposed to be about growing as a person, being self-aware, not about feeling ashamed of who you are. Sheesh.
And judgments from outside? Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.
Link | August 21st, 2010 at 12:00 pm