A rant ...

[bubosquared]

Twice in recent days, while talking to ruby_fruit, we've gone off on rants about Things We Want To See More Of (Or Even At All) In Books And Other Media. Specifically, what we want to see are "casually gay characters."

Honestly, I'm a little burnt out on Gay Lit lately. Not that I don't still love to read about boys loving boys and girls loving girls and either loving both, but I'm starting to feel a bit ... ghetto-ised, I suppose. It's not that I want Gay Lit to go away, it's that I want more gay characters in "mainstream" lit. And on TV. And in movies. And fuck, in songs, in advertising, in the street, in every part of everyday life. But I'll limit myself to books, and the general media to some extent, because if I get started on the rest I'll just never shut up.

As most of you will know, I pretty much read only fantasy and some science fiction (with a peppering of True Crime and nonfic when I'm feeling like reading brainless trash and brainfood, respectively). You'd think in these genres if not in any other genre, or in "mainstream" lit, you'd see more gay characters being generally accepted. Or even gay characters at all.

In fantasy, you have the opportunity to set up a society where same-sex relationships are accepted the way opposite-sex relationships are. Yet very, very few writers do this. Why? If nothing else, it's a perfect way to set your novel apart from the gazillion other fantasy tomes on the shelves. Because there are people out there, people like me, who will give anything a chance if it has two boys or two girls touching in sexy ways.

For once, I want to read a book in which there are queer characters other than the by-now-cliché effeminate gay mage or the lesbian mercenary (especially if she "turned gay" because of rape--HATE!). I want to see the macho mercenary fall in love with a bloke. I want to see the hero walk into a bar and get hit on by the waiter instead of the waitress, and not freak out. I don't care if he's straight and just politely turns him down, even, though it'd be even better if he flirted back, of course. I want to see the beautiful witch fall in love with the heroine rather than the hero. I want to see the kitchen boy go on a quest to prove himself worthy of his True Love, and have that True Love be the prince rather than the princess. I want to see a society where same-sex relationships are the norm, and procreation is the only reason for m/f sex, if it happens at all (turkey basters, anyone?)

Science Fiction is marginally better about this, but not by much. In most science fiction worlds, sexism (and, usually, racism) are things of the past, yet queer people are still not even acknowledged most of the time, and when they are, well. See above for the usual clichés. I'm tired of it. Show me the hero saving the guy instead of the girl, and falling in love with him. Show me the women settlers raising a child together. Hell, show me the people falling in love with aliens whose race has more than two genders, or no gender at all--though that's getting into genderqueer territory somewhat.

And once genre fiction gets with the program, let's start fixing "mainstream" lit. Let's start seeing queer characters in contemporary books, and let's start letting them have actual relationships. Let's start letting the protagonist have a gay or lesbian friend, and allow that friend to be more than just "the best friend". Let's start writing about queer characters, and have a plot beyond the main character's sexuality. One in ten people are queer, and that's not even counting the bisexuals, and a whole lot of us are out and proud, so let's start seeing that in books that are supposed to take place in the here and now. Let's start seeing an accurate picture of what (especially urban) life is actually like in this day and age.

I'd especially love to see more queer characters in YA novels that aren't coming-out stories. Not that I dislike those, and I'm sure they're a great help for a lot of queer teens, but not every queer person had to struggle first with themselves and then with their family and peers to come out as queer (I didn't), and putting queer characters in "straight"/"non-queer" YA novels may help make people, especially teenagers, realise that we are everywhere.

I'm sick and tired of being "accepted". I don't want to be "accepted", as if I'm some sort of embarrassing relative you'll put up with for the sake of blood ties but who you'd rather not be seen with in public. I want to be acknowledged as part of society. Because I am, and I've had it with being invisible to the media, with seeing queer people trotted out to show that look, aren't we progressive? I want to see "my kind" in books, on screen, in ads and in the street, and have no one bat an eye the way no one bats an eye at straight couples.

I'm here, I'm queer, and I refuse to be invisible any longer.

Comments

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* and in a way, it;s almost sad that I'm so excited and grateful for the way JMS portrays queer people (and othr things as well, e.g. the female pope thing), because it should be the norm, not an exception. Alas, it's still very unusual, so my JMS-love remains intact. :)

And yeah, I liked that scene because it reall was a scene I've seen hundreds of times before with a man and a woman, except this time with two men, and treated exactly the same. (Also, the scene was just funny. Hee.)

[wibbble]

JMS is really good about being realistically casual about a lot of the future changes. You wouldn't have to explain modern social dynamics (or history, or technology) while talking to a modern person - so when most SF does it it's terribly forced.

JMS has the plot tool of the aliens to use when needed, but a lot of things are just left as casually mentioned background with no further explanation.

Which I really like, but requires an extraordinary amount of work, or you end up contradicting yourself.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

JMS is really good about being realistically casual about a lot of the future changes.

he's also really good about thinking those changes through in the first place, which a lot of science fiction authors I've read in the past didn't. Sexism will be a thing of the past, something quaint and old and unacceptable in polite company, but apparently queer people don't even exist anymore, or they're ghetto-ised to the point that they don't interact with straight people like the hero at all. Same goes for non-white people, which is stupid considering that logically speaking, five centuries from now, there'll likely be much less completely white people than there are now. And, um, </tangent>

[wibbble]

Are you talking about authors or screenwriters?

I've not really noticed what you're talking about - but then, that might just mean that I didn't notice it.

There's a lot of really shit-hot science fiction literature out there. You should pop round our place and raid the bookcases. I've picked up a lot of good stuff over the last few years that I've not even got around to reading yet!