fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2199 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2199 ⌋

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

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[Dragon Age 2]

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[Baby-sitters Club]

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[The Twelve Kingdoms]

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[Dangan Ronpa]

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[Homestuck]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 023 secrets from Secret Submission Post #314.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think it's fine for straight, cis writers to write LGBT characters and stories about them.

But if they don't identify as LGBT, I don't see it as LGBT fiction. It's fiction with LGBT characters. I'm white, so I don't think anything I wrote would be (or should be) considered "African American fiction." But that doesn't mean I can't write any characters who aren't white.

"LGBT fiction" would imply that the author was queer or trans to me. But I think it's fine for straight, cis people to write stories about LGBT characters.

I agree. I also say that straight people, should be encouraged to write more LGBT characters in stories.

Not only is it good for expanding horizons, it's also good for the soul.

IAWTC. I also wish there was more acknowledgement of this - that sometimes straight people might want to write about LGBT people and this is not a big deal in any way, but neither is it "LGBT fiction".

Where do you draw that line, though? How unstraight does a person have to be for it to count as LGBT?

NA

I'm pretty sure "not straight or cis" is the qualifier for queer. IDK. Are we going to get into the asexual thing again, or is this some sort of "no one is totally straight" thing?

I'm not doing a thing, I'm just curious.

There are a lot of people who know exactly what it's like to desire a person of the same sex that wouldn't read as particularly unstraight. They might even be in relationships with people of the opposite sex! Are they queer enough? Is this instead a you-know-it-when-you-read-it sort of thing? I admit this has a little to do with myself, albeit with nonfiction. I'm definitely not straight but I'd have a hard time selling myself as a Chard The LGBT Academic what with the boyfriend and all.

I'm not sure what asexual fiction would be unless it's dealing directly with asexuality issues. "Hey, I wrote a great book that happens to have no romantic subplot in it. So. Yeah."

Bi academic who does queer health research here, and the general rule, so far is I can tell, is to just be up front about your identity and situation. If you identify as LGBT/queer, you can still identify as an LGBT/queer researcher (if that's what you wish to identify as, that is) even if you're in a same sex relationship, so long as you make where you're coming from and your circumstances clear. There are some researchers who will say that they identify as bi, pan, etc., but that they don't feel comfortable considering themselves a straight-up queer researcher if they're in a long-term hetero relationship, though, so some of it is also personal comfort level and whatnot. There are still some people who will turn up their noses at people who identify as anything outside of Lesbian, Gay and sometimes Trans (with some major contention for Trans researchers, too, given that some of the prejudice against them from the general LGBTQ community bleeds over into academia) and there's bickering in some corners about what constitutes "queer enough", but it's academia and... well, you're in academia so I'm sure you're used to the back-and-forth that goes on about most things. Some days it's like Tumblr with far fewer reaction gifs. This is just going by what the research that I'm familiar with, too, which is not even touching the tip of the iceberg on queer research and is mostly focused in the social and health sciences, so my perception could be skewed here.

And my guess would be asexual fiction would focus on asexual issues specifically or involve relationships with romance but no sex? I don't think I've ever actually seen any sort of fiction that involves asexuality outside of fandom, though.

I'm so used to the back and forth about things in academia that I might end up leaving academia after I get the phD, so... yeah.

Thanks for the long reply! I really do appreciate it. I wasn't so much looking to rebrand myself so much as realizing that I couldn't if I wanted to without downplaying the boyfriend, and I'm sure as hell not going to do that.

I do still kind of wish I could pipe up and say "gee, I actually do know what it's like to be incredibly repressed." But then boyfriend looks like a beard. Arg.

I don't think there really is much of a line. I think it matters a little if the author identifies similarly to the characters they're writing. For example, a bisexual person might have very similar experiences as some gay or lesbian people, but they may not be able to relate as well to trans experiences. But "LGBT fiction" is a broad category, so I think anyone who isn't straight or cis could write it.

Also, I think you can be an LGBT writer who writes about LGBT characters without writing LGBT fiction. I'm writing a novella about two female characters who are in love, but it's not LGBT fiction.

The book store here tends to throw things that they know are by any LGBT author into their "Lesbian and Gay" book section, regardless of content. I've always been of the same mind as you, though. For me, there's generally a difference of intent behind LGBT fiction and just books by LGBT authors with LGBT characters. LGBT fiction has always felt for me like its more focused on conveying the experience or some sort of issue connected to being LGBT. It's always seemed like one of those hard to pin down distinctions, though.

Yeah, that's how I see LGBT fiction.

The only fiction my local bookstore includes in the LGBT section is romance and erotica. I don't object to its inclusion there (at least I know where to find the erotica), and it's probably better than putting all books by LGBT authors in that section. But I think LGBT fiction is it's own (admittedly difficult to pin down) genre.

I like to think this means that there are random "____ For Dummies" and travel guides and math textbooks shoved into the LGBT section because a concerned clerk started facebook stalking all the authors.

Okay--this makes a lot of sense. Thanks!

[ SECRET POST #2199 ]

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers

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Re: queer fiction by non-queer writers