In the previous part, I already talked about girls of the feminine to masculine spectrum a little bit. The last chapter was mostly because of the massive complaints about female characters in general (even though male characters should be complained about just as much). This chapter is mostly about the LGBTQ community, and I do understand some of the complaints. Most of the complaints are LGBTQ literature being based around stereotyping, and I totally agree with that. The other complaint is mostly about art, which, in truth, is the only reason why I wanted to write about this complaint. Yes, I care about the LGBTQ community, I’m pretty sure I’m within that spectrum somewhere, I just never think too deeply about it upon myself, but while the LGBTQ’s complaints about “Gay Lit” are extremely valid, the complaint about the art is, in my opinion, quite stupid, but I’ll get to that in the later half.
First, not every lesbian will be butch, a tomboy, or be an extreme fashionista, just like not every guy will be feminine, have an accent, or be a total jock still in the closet pretending to be straight and be a total playboy. If every guy who was an asshole and who was a playboy manly-man, then Dean Winchester from Supernatural would totally be gay, but he’s not. And don’t let those people who say he’s at least bisexual tell you otherwise—what they’re saying is fanon. Until the directors or the writers of Supernatural tell us on the series DVDs that Dean is at least bi, then fine, he’s bi and it will be officially canon, and I will continue to watch the show because almost nothing can ruin it for me (I mean, come on, Bobby and Crowley kissed [with tongue] for Pete’s sake!), but until then, Dean Winchester being at least bi is just as good as an inside joke. It’s just fanon.
Sorry, the Supernatural rant is over now, I promise. Moving on, the next thing you should know is that real people aren’t stuck in gender roles. Even in heterosexual couples, tops and bottoms switch. If you know the Jewish mythology about Adam’s first wife, then you know what I’m talking about. (I’ll give you a hint: Adam’s first wife was NOT Eve [and this is not Supernatural related].) Some women like to control what goes on in the bedroom, and occasionally men let them.
Next, sex doesn’t have to be penetrative at all! Gays don’t have to give each other blowjobs or have to be involved in anal sex or any intrusion of the anal area at all, and lesbians don’t have to buy dildos or, dare I say it, a strap-on. Anal sex is quite hazardous for anyone whether the person is the “top” or “bottom” due to stretching, and not to mention diseases in their bowel movements, and this is precisely why I tell you not to rely on pornography because they never tell you where the danger lies. Sometimes, touching and kissing is enough, and you know what? This applies to heterosexual couples too!
Are you starting to see a pattern here yet?
If you haven’t gotten the pattern yet, here it is: treat any type of couple of the LGBTQ community as you would of the heterosexual community. They have the same kind of romantic problems as heterosexuals do. They worry whether their partner could be interested in other people, they worry if they aren’t good enough for them, they worry about whether they could start a family, and there are plenty of other things everybody in the world worries about when it comes to their partner. Basically treat all characters of every sexual orientation as human beings on equal ground.
Now regarding “art,” I’m just going to warn you, it’s about yaoi and shonen-ai—Japanese manga and anime featuring male homosexuals. The complaint goes something like this: “Why does the uke (the ‘bottom’) always look like a girl?”
I get it, kind of, if I squint my eyes really tightly, in a few cases (I love yaoi, so I do see where this comes from), but it depends. In my opinion, it’s just the artist’s style. On the bus on my way to school I see a lot of people whom I can’t tell what their gender is. No one has a girlish or boyish face. If you took a photo of a hundred people’s faces, cut a square from their eyebrows to their chin, and cheek to cheek, you’ll see it’s actually quite hard to tell. Guys can have large prominent eyes and rounded jaws just as much as girls can have deep-set eyes and an angular jaw, so guys can indeed look a little “girly” naturally. Besides, this complaint doesn’t happen as often as it probably used to—things have definitely changed over the decade I’ve been reading. Now they include fathers of children finding out their gay, and figuring out how to juggle parenthood with discretely dating their partners, which I think is absolutely adorable and hilarious to even think about all the possibilities for comedy. Just about the only problem I have with yaoi manga is that the gender roles are stuck, and even when the author hints at trying to change it, something happens during the scene and the gender roles switch back.
Like I mentioned before, if people follow the above tips for LGBTQ literature in their stories and comics, everything should be dandy. It really shouldn’t matter how either character looks.
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The Mary-Sue Complaints Checklist
Non-FictionMy second Mary-Sue series revolving around specific complaints most people would declare as Mary-Sueish or considered as bad writing, which I don't agree with. This series includes: Writing solely in second person Using cliches or writing self-inse...
