(*Possibly necessary disclaimer that I think women have every right to write about queer men. Some of them do it very well! But it becomes a problem when their voices are getting published almost to the exclusion of queer men's voices.)
Just going back to this bit because it's relevant to the next bit, but oh yes, I totally took that as a given re: where you were coming from. I also think - to go off on a tangent - that a lot of the broader discussion of this on Twitter grossly overinflates how many of the writers in question are straight women, or identify as women at all, and ignores the longstanding complications of queer 'representation' as it breaks down on gendered lines within the community. Overall, my sense is that it's less about who's writing what and more about what the industry is comfortable publishing, from whom, and for whom. The less ideological and more practical issue being where that leaves writers who express or embody things outside of that comfort zone.
It's interesting that to the extent there seem to be any queer men writing genre, it's horror. Which isn't fully going for that same audience of 15-25 year old women, although based on the recent kerfuffle about "cozy horror," I think it may be starting to.
I agree, although this is now an area where I'd want to do a historical scan of queer male writers in science fiction versus horror. Because while I can think of several big names in the science fiction world, both in terms of people openly writing about queer men and those sticking more to allegory, my gut says horror has always been more of a home for that - possibly because queer horror has always been deemed more palatable than queer optimism/banality?
I'd also say to the extent that queer men (and possibly straight men writing m/m?) are writing genre in big ways these days, it's in comics. Maybe not in pure numbers, given the size of the relative publishing worlds, but I suspect in terms of proportion, especially when scoping for the biggest mainstream publishers. I'm really interested in how that actually played out behind the scenes over the last decade. (I think Image was, weirdly enough, a crucial part of it, but I'm not sure of exactly what politics among the Big Three saw this happen.)
I tried to write a original m/m romance once, and I didn't get very far because writing a novel is HARD. But at least most of the conflict between the two MCs had its origins in a disparity of money, power, and social status, and even the Wicked Rival was a decent-enough guy who just really didn't get the whole true love business and had other things on his mind anyway. It's the sort of thing I wish other people would write.
It's certainly the sort of thing I'd be here to read if you ever took another run at it!
no subject
Just going back to this bit because it's relevant to the next bit, but oh yes, I totally took that as a given re: where you were coming from. I also think - to go off on a tangent - that a lot of the broader discussion of this on Twitter grossly overinflates how many of the writers in question are straight women, or identify as women at all, and ignores the longstanding complications of queer 'representation' as it breaks down on gendered lines within the community. Overall, my sense is that it's less about who's writing what and more about what the industry is comfortable publishing, from whom, and for whom. The less ideological and more practical issue being where that leaves writers who express or embody things outside of that comfort zone.
It's interesting that to the extent there seem to be any queer men writing genre, it's horror. Which isn't fully going for that same audience of 15-25 year old women, although based on the recent kerfuffle about "cozy horror," I think it may be starting to.
I agree, although this is now an area where I'd want to do a historical scan of queer male writers in science fiction versus horror. Because while I can think of several big names in the science fiction world, both in terms of people openly writing about queer men and those sticking more to allegory, my gut says horror has always been more of a home for that - possibly because queer horror has always been deemed more palatable than queer optimism/banality?
I'd also say to the extent that queer men (and possibly straight men writing m/m?) are writing genre in big ways these days, it's in comics. Maybe not in pure numbers, given the size of the relative publishing worlds, but I suspect in terms of proportion, especially when scoping for the biggest mainstream publishers. I'm really interested in how that actually played out behind the scenes over the last decade. (I think Image was, weirdly enough, a crucial part of it, but I'm not sure of exactly what politics among the Big Three saw this happen.)
I tried to write a original m/m romance once, and I didn't get very far because writing a novel is HARD. But at least most of the conflict between the two MCs had its origins in a disparity of money, power, and social status, and even the Wicked Rival was a decent-enough guy who just really didn't get the whole true love business and had other things on his mind anyway. It's the sort of thing I wish other people would write.
It's certainly the sort of thing I'd be here to read if you ever took another run at it!