"...I am really uncomfortable with arguments like 'I like slash, so therefore I'm queer'..."
Sorry, I didn't phrase that well, did I? :-( For me, it's really a feeling that (as Martin Niemoller said of the Nazis) the "haters" will count me in with the others they want to oppress, due to my associations and choices, so I'd damn well better be standing in solidarity with the rest of my geek, weirdo, and "queer" friends before They come for me "and no one is left to speak up"...
The other point I was trying to express: given how many of my friends in "slash" fandoms are self-identified "queer" (and not just "in solidarity" as I am), I'm uncomfortable with seeing some of the "YOU straight-girl romance fans are f*cking with OUR gay fiction!" comments that started this discussion. There were far too many in some places I found (via LinkSPAM) that feel like "EEEW! Gurrrl-Cooties!" complaints, rather than logical arguments (e.g.: "gay" characters written by non-"gay" authors were negative stereotypes, or followed unrealistically hetero-sexist relationship roles).
OTOH, I checked out the websites of some of those "straight woman writers writing m/m original fiction for straight female romance readers", and going by their own words, they ARE "fetishizing" gay sex the same way "straight" male producers of "girl-on-girl" porn are fetishizing lesbian sex. If I were a gay guy, didn't have any knowledge of "slash" fandoms, and thought ALL non-gays writing m/m fiction were creating commercial products for "straight" female fans, I'd probably find the non-fannish m/m romances annoying, especially if the "straight" writers used stereotypes and the same heterosexist tropes as in mainstream m/f romances.
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Sorry, I didn't phrase that well, did I? :-( For me, it's really a feeling that (as Martin Niemoller said of the Nazis) the "haters" will count me in with the others they want to oppress, due to my associations and choices, so I'd damn well better be standing in solidarity with the rest of my geek, weirdo, and "queer" friends before They come for me "and no one is left to speak up"...
The other point I was trying to express: given how many of my friends in "slash" fandoms are self-identified "queer" (and not just "in solidarity" as I am), I'm uncomfortable with seeing some of the "YOU straight-girl romance fans are f*cking with OUR gay fiction!" comments that started this discussion. There were far too many in some places I found (via LinkSPAM) that feel like "EEEW! Gurrrl-Cooties!" complaints, rather than logical arguments (e.g.: "gay" characters written by non-"gay" authors were negative stereotypes, or followed unrealistically hetero-sexist relationship roles).
OTOH, I checked out the websites of some of those "straight woman writers writing m/m original fiction for straight female romance readers", and going by their own words, they ARE "fetishizing" gay sex the same way "straight" male producers of "girl-on-girl" porn are fetishizing lesbian sex. If I were a gay guy, didn't have any knowledge of "slash" fandoms, and thought ALL non-gays writing m/m fiction were creating commercial products for "straight" female fans, I'd probably find the non-fannish m/m romances annoying, especially if the "straight" writers used stereotypes and the same heterosexist tropes as in mainstream m/f romances.
Does this all make sense?