Pages

Monday, January 21, 2013

Every time - THIS

What I am referring to is the general response I get from "lesbian authors" whenever I tell them I do not consider myself a "lesbian author".

Consider this recent conversation on Facebook:

ME: I must confess as well (in hindsight), that I don't particularly consider myself a "lesbian" author - perhaps my point of view differs too much? I don't know - 

JANE DOE: ...you decide! And as a Lambda finalist you surely must be in some form queer ... we don't judge our authors ...

ME: Oh I'm queer as a one dollar bill. But I don't consider myself as writing for a particularly queer audience only. The Lambda Nomination was for Periphery an anthology I edited.

JANE DOE: hmm, so you don't object to talk to a lesbian audience, right? or would you rather only address straight audiences?? if you talk to lesbians you might consider talking to [the group] ... first time we got excluded by [a] queer author because we are lesbians - I am thoroughly amused.

ME: I'm not excluding anyone, just stating that I have in the past found that not classifying myself as a "lesbian author" has been received with negative responses. Which I find interesting.

The book I am writing now is not particularly queer per se, even though the protag is queer, it's basically only mentioned as an aside. Most of the short fiction I have written in the last four to five years have not been particularly queer.

JANE DOE: lol ... well, the day we only need to mention queerness as an aside we have overcome the big rift between straight and LGBTQ. We are all human. Sadly, this is no universal view ... see what an interesting thing to discuss in the ***

Every time someone approaches me to take part in a discussion about queer fiction and I bring up the fact that I do not consider myself a "queer writer", this strange perception of BUT I DON'T UNDERSTAND rears its head.

NO I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

No comments: