I have read my weight and then some in books in all genres. I honestly never cared the gender of the author, just that the story was great.
I've read books written by men that have depicted women in horrible lights. Does that mean men shouldn't write about women? No. I've read women write men in a way that makes them sound like monsters. Does that mean women shouldn't write men? No.
Talent is talent, plain and simple. A book pulls you away from your reality and into a different world. Whoever the person who brought you there doesn't matter. I care about whats between the ears not between the legs.
In the M/M world the debate is that women shouldn't write about men with men. Now, not EVERYONE agrees with this and those that do are in the minority.
The LGBTQ community wants equality. Well, how do you expect that to happen when there are people saying "Being a women in the M/M genre is wrong." Hypocritical much? Yeah it is!
QUALITY! That is what matters. Some of my favorite authors in the M/M genre happen to be women... Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, Anne Tenino, Rhys Ford, Kate Aaron just to name a few. Amazing the way they pull emotion from my heart and soul. Then you have Male authors in the genre Kade Boehme, Edmond Manning, John Inman, They do it too! Do I care if any of them are men or women? NOPE!
Since I hope to be publishing my first M/M book soon under a pen name I really hope that my gender won't matter but that the quality of my work is what does.
Let's put this puppy to rest, shall we people?
I agree.
ReplyDeleteI once was directing a gay actor who had no stereotypical "gay mannerisms" in his daily life. He always said himself that he "looked straight to the untrained eye." But the MOMENT he played a gay character onstage he became the biggest, most flamboyant and superficially "gay" man he could muster. It was not convincing at all, and might have even been offensive to some. He looked like he was making fun of gay men.
The argument that people who have a certain life will write it better makes sense on paper, but the reality is some people GET people and some people not so much. I will argue this is trainable, but understanding anyone's motivation, intention, mood, personalities, and thoughts is independent of having those same motivations, intentions, etc. Some people can live a life and have no understanding of themselves, and some people don't have to live a life to understand it. And, honestly, I don't want to write about straight, white, young women all of the time, nor do I think that will make a good book.
Plus, nothing ticks me off more than when a man says, "I can't write for women. I don't know what it's like to be one!"
Oh yeah. But that paraplegic, orphaned international spy relates to you on a core level.
You have to write about people who aren't like you. Just sometimes the differences are deeper than skin level. Or, in this case, genitalia level.