[ SECRET POST #5356 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5356 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 45 secrets from Secret Submission Post #767.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/dWanddB.png

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much. Sexualities/identities aren't made up, but labels are. What we all fall under now could be called and considered something else in 10 years as social categories expand and contract, even if our sexualities/identities themselves don't change

[(Anonymous)]

I agree!

Related to this:

Yes, I want more fantasy/historical non-straight characters. No, I don't want them to use our modern words for their identities.
I've read a YA fantasy book (that I overall quite liked) set in a medieval fantasy world and suddenly one character proclaimed himself bisexual and another said she was asexual and it took me out of the story soooo hard. You can describe both those orientation quite easily in ways that make them clear without spelling them out like that imo.

[(Anonymous)]

I know some people feel that it’s “erasure” when sexualities aren’t specifically labeled... but damn, why would the labels be the same? Maybe I just want descriptions of behaviors!

[(Anonymous)]

I agree to this strongly, having recently read some stories from people who may have been autistic.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm old enough to see my preferred label go from slur to reclaimed to slur again! So yeah, keep current labels out of it, they'll change soon enough.

[(Anonymous)]

I think this really depends. In a lot of media, there are already other things that really really date the work. Things like how the work approaches

I agree that a description of something is a better approach for timelessness. "I don't feel attraction to anyone," may be better than "asexual," but it also has to do with the setting and what you're doing. If it's a modern setting, people use modern labels. If it's an older setting, you may want to use older labels.

But it doesn't take me completely out of a work for fantasies and sci fi. Sometimes the tendency to create in-world lingo or something of the sort is more distracting (or sometimes even offensive depending on what they use). And a just straight description can also be unrealistic and distracting. It really just depends on the framing, setting, and how the work goes.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. And taking it even further, even if they keep the words out of the text, I think writers should keep whatever labels they personally see the characters inside their own heads and off of their social media accounts. If your fantasy society doesn't have labels so that character wouldn't label herself a lesbian, but you see her as a lesbian and say so on Twitter, fandom won't ignore it and won't be merciful if Random Casual Fan who doesn't follow the writer/fandom says that she'd be kind of cute with Male Character.

[(Anonymous)]

This salty gay remembers how it was used to hide bisexuality, so no fucking thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

A line such as "...the men and women I've loved..." requires no labels and makes a character's bisexuality clear. The secret isn't saying keep a character's sexuality hidden, it's saying keep the words you use to show it in line with the setting.

[(Anonymous)]

And then there are those of us who are amused every time modern writers go out of their way to slap modern labels where they don't make sense, especially in fiction about cultures that didn't even have those concepts as things

If not labeling and hiding it was appropriate or accurate to the times, or if the concepts and social groups simply did not exist, then it'd be more in-character for labels not to be used

[(Anonymous)]

I'm making a bet right now that a movement will start that criticizes the very idea of setting anything in a culture that doesn't have modern LGBT+ words or concepts, on the grounds that choosing that culture for your setting is a sneaky way to justify not having "real" representation. Like how there are people who think choosing to put your story in racially homogeneous setting is just an excuse not to have racially diverse representation.

[(Anonymous)]

This salty old-as-dirt bi ace who reads fantasy a lot happens to think it's better writing when books manage to make it clear that a character is queer (whether a specific flavour of queer or more generically queer) without necessarily stopping the narration cold to use a term that doesn't fit in-universe. So yes fucking please.