The Romance Writers of America “More Then Magic 2012″ fiction contest was cancelled when people became unaccountably perturbed at the No Same-Sex Romance rule…
Romance Writers Ink Chapter Cancels Contest
Romance Writers Ink (RWI), an Oklahoma chapter of the national Romance Writers of America, has cancelled its “Where the Magic Begins” writing contest after their refusal to accept same-sex entries created a controversy.
The RWI Magic Contest blog explains: “We have heard and understood the issues raised, and will take those concerns into consideration should the chapter elect to hold contests in the future … We recognize the decision to disallow same-sex entries is highly charged. We also opted not to accept YA entries. We do not condone discrimination against individuals of any sort.”
We do not condone discrimination against individuals of any sort. Practice it, yes. Condone it, no.
Thing is, I can see quite a few potential entrants getting po’d over the rule because some of their best work is same-sex romance. Here in the U.S. there is a very energetic subculture of female heterosexual romance writers who write sexy steamy male same-sex romance stories which in turn are devoured by heterosexual female readers. And then there is the entire genre of Japanese “boys love” manga devoted to it (which variously goes by yaoi and shōnen-ai), all or nearly all of it written and drawn by young heterosexual Japanese females for a young heterosexual female audience. Yes, there was moral outrage over the contest organizer’s decision to ban same-sex fiction I’m sure, but I’ll wager there was also quite a bit of disappointment too.
And that is worth taking notice of. The so-called “yuck” factor that people talk about when discussing gay rights isn’t quite as cut and dry as might be thought. At rock bottom it’s powerful heterosexual males who have historically made the rules regarding how love and romance and sexuality are represented in the culture, and other voices were systematically shut out. The loosening of censorship laws in the 1960s allowed new voices to tentatively speak up but it’s been the new technologies that have really overwhelmed the old cultural gatekeepers and that is a big part of what now motivates the culture war. It’s always been about power and often power depends on convincing other people that they are powerless. But the ability of those in positions of privilege and power to dictate to the rest of us how to view our lives is not the absolute it was. The more voices that are heard which previously were not, women, lesbians, gay men, transgendered people, the more everyone can see the beauty and dignity of the many forms of human love and sexuality. And the more they recognize within it their own stories.
So the old story of boy meets girl becomes the story of heart finds heart and suddenly people see that this is the universal story after all, and gender is only the detail of any one particular story, and it’s all the same old story and the fundamental things apply as time goes by.
We can’t have anybody filling people’s minds with the bizarre notion that gay people actually love one another.
I knew that straight guys ‘get off’ on lesbian sex, but I was unaware that so many straight women enjoy reading or seeing gay male sex. I assume that’s why the audiences for Brokeback Mountain were mostly women and gay guys. Go figure.
To add to that, there has always been a large segment of lesbians that “get off” on gay porn and erotica (Remember the “Kids Are Alright?”). Hell, I’ve even read some quite good m/m romance written by lesbian authors with some very graphic love-making scenes. Who would’ve guessed?
It’s always nice to see slash fans love acknowledged somewhere other than the slash fiction pages. Yeah, it’s gay porn, and a large segment of straight women love it. It’s not just young ones, either – I’m fifty and it’s the only kind of porn I enjoy and the only kind of romance writing I read. A lot of us are in the closet about it though (I have not given my real name). People think it’s wierd when men like to think about two women, but for some reason it’s not okay for women to feel the same way about two men. Stupid double standard made up by straight men who feel threatened, but that is the way of the world, right?
Of course, porn for women is different than porn for men – a lot of it (even what we call pwp – porn without plot in the slash fiction world) has a lot of romance along with the sex. As my husband says, “too many emotions”. But that’s part of what makes it fun and sexy for us. And by the way, I’ve had this attraction to slash since forever.
The first published slash, as most people know, was between Kirk and Spock in the late sixties. But for me, as a kid not knowing such a thing was out there, I had to make it up in my head. The only reason I watched Three’s Company was in hope that sometime Jack, in order to maintain his cover, would have to kiss his best friend Larry in front of Mr. Roper. :) I wrote a lot of slash in my head before I found out it was a real thing and that I wasn’t *just* a lonely wierdo. And that most slash fans were women.
For this contest to deny writers a chance to publicly assert that they love this sort of romance is just another example of how slash is still in the closet – but the fact that some people are so upset that they had to cancel the contest is actually a revelation – and possibly a step in the right direction!
The Front Runner and the Persian Boy…two gay classics, each a great book, each very m/m erotic scenes, each written by female author.
Gene: It’s been something I’ve pondered for a while now, that my favorite gay romance stories (and comics) have almost exclusively been written by women. The only two exceptions I can think of are “The Boys on the Rock” by John Fox and “Coyote” by Peter Gadol…both favorites. But I have nearly every novel Mary Renault wrote and most of the Patricia Nell Warren ones. Other favorites are “The Catch Trap” by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.
Of course, porn for women is different than porn for men – a lot of it (even what we call pwp – porn without plot in the slash fiction world) has a lot of romance along with the sex. As my husband says, “too many emotions”. But that’s part of what makes it fun and sexy for us. And by the way, I’ve had this attraction to slash since forever.
Penny…this is exactly why some gay men love what women write too. I can’t believe I’m the only gay guy who needs to have romance with sexy. I have an entire bookshelf just about full of Japanese manga that I sometimes refer to as “relationship porn” because those comics can get very sexually graphic and yet they’re mostly just trashy soap opera stories. But I love it and sex without emotion is just empty to me.
Gene, The Front Runner was one of the first gay novels I read (I was in my early 20s). I remember they were supposed to make a movie out of it, but it was toooooo controversial, so it was scraped.
The other gay novel I remember which was *extremely* funny was called The Movie Lover by Richard Friedel. I would laugh out loud as I was reading it. It had ‘stuff’ in it that most gay boys could relate to, like being in gym class and when playing baseball going as far out in the field as possible and communing with the bees while praying that the ball would never come out to you. I totally had that experience. I read this only a few years after leaving the hell of high school and found it uproariously funny.
I have a friend from Germany who is only into animated male on male porn from Japan. Apparently, the prettier the men are, the more aimed at the female audience it will be. If the men are all big n butch, then it is meant for gay men. But my friend loves that too.
It has alway perplexed me as to why they would spend so much time and effort drawing and animating what is essentially a skin flick, when the real thing would surely serve the purpose more effectively.
Oh well, each to their own I suppose.
Bruce, Gary, it may be a bit off topic, but it has never surprised me that women (straight or gay) could write material that might seem “gay oriented” as well as anyone else. A great writer can write about people different than oneself. And I agree with you both 100% in your observations. Without romance, most erotica is just crap. Without a touch of the erotic, most romance is just tripe.
That said, I would point out that both of the authors I alluded to spoke often of spending a good bit of time with gay male friends…and, that seems less and less common to me. This saddens me.
I live in Atlanta, which, for all its problems, is as the Advocate Magazine pointed out, a VERY gay friendly city with a huge LGBT population. But, sometimes I miss my old city, which had a great gay community. And that was the difference, it was a gay community. Female, male, old, young, not divided by color, and small enough that we embraced our transgendered community because, well…we kinda HAD to! (or avoid the small # of bars. Most of them anyway). We were to small to not all “hang together”. Lesbians, not prohibited from giving blood like gay men, would organize blood drives. Parties were enjoyed by everyone. When we organized, there was little sense of an issue being a gay issue if it was gay, or a lesbian issue if it focused on womens health or custody battles (which affected both genders, but women more it seemed, at least at that time and place). We were one community, and the writing of local authors and playrights, and the conversation and sense of connection included a lot of lesbians.
I just don’t see that as much now. At least not as commonly.
Here, in Atlanta, I know gay men who live their lives almost ‘female free’. You can do that in parts of this city. Women who wish to can do the same, to the point that there is really very LITTLE interaction between a lot of gay men and lesbian women. Other friends, my age and older, have commented on this not just in Atlanta, but in other cities. Oh, there is SOME interaction, but not on a great scale. IT feels fragmented to me. Not healthy and not good. Gay men forget to work for the important womens issues. Women, tend to cluster together. What will the writing look like from this fragmenting community? Will young gay men and young lesbian women continue to see themselves as parts of separate communities? (such is largely the case here). If so, I think it is a lessening…a weakening of us all.
This was way off topic, but, I have thought about it for some time.
I would love to hear the thoughts of the women ‘in the room’ and the men to. Am I alone in these observations? I look forward to hearing everyones thoughts.