Rambling About Gay Things
In a combination of SGA related flailing and trying to hunt down some research books for my novel -- and how I love that "research books for my novel" means books about boys in cowboy hats kissing -- I'm in a bit of a gay mood today.
(Spoilers for "Harmony" and "Outcast", but mostly incidental -- this should mostly make sense to non-fans.)
First off, the books: I want a library card because there are so many books to read, but I would feel really embarrassed if the only books I checked out had names like "Queer Cowboys" and "Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition". <---this is a real book, btw, which I NEED LIKE BREATHING.
Anybody got any good recommended reading on homosexual relationships in the nineteenth century, particularly in the American West? So far I've found a bunch fairly cheap on Amazon, but I don't know how good they are. (Also, one that seems to be about Abraham Lincoln's gay love affairs and I don't know if I'm that brave.)
Part of the problem is that I need to know how this sort of relationship would play out in public -- the body language, the degree of secrecy or openness, the reactions from both the high and low sections of society. Most of the books seem to focus on either decoding the obscure Victorian metaphors in contemporary literature or on real people's relationships as viewed through diaries and letters.
Anyway, on my short list are: Queer Cowboys, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality (Jonathan Katz), Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition (no pirates in my book, but come on!), and Gay American History. Any other good ones I'm missing?
And then on to the fannish part of tonight's program (not too fannish, don't worry). Mainly this is from a conversation I had with Rey about how incredibly gay S4 of Atlantis is. Like, they cannot seriously be doing this on accident any more. I'll give the body language and cock-blocking homo-eroticism of earlier seasons a pass, but you cannot give me an episode about John and Rodney walking through the woods with a little girl who is clearly their spawn while snapping at each other in a very married way, and then give me an episode a week later in which John is awkward around his estranged family who look very suspiciously at the hot male friend he brought along. My GOD.
So the thing is, Altantis's Homoerotic Subtext (check the IMDB keywords, y'all) is very barely "sub" anything at this point. Yes, you could read it as friendship, but the great thing is...you can also read it as gay WITH NO CONFLICTS. There is not a single word in that last episode that would contradict John being disowned by his family for being gay. And there's about four years worth of significant looks and behavior to support that theory. It occurred to me (or possibly Rey) that while we've been squeeing about having Martin Gero's babies and how much they love us but they couldn't be doing it on purpose...maybe they ARE doing it on purpose.
And wouldn't that be awesome? And not just in a "boys kissing!" way. Think about it. This show has been running for years, has well-established characters and an enthusiastic fanbase. You take the two male leads and slowly but surely take their close friendship into a sexual relationship. Suddenly, you have gay characters in the leading roles of a successful sci-fi show. Not as comic relief, not as niche television on LOGO, not in the background on a soap opera. Well-rounded characters who are awesome in their own right and happen to be gay, or at least in a gay relationship -- a relationship that's well-established with lots of history and believable feelings.
Can we say "ground-breaking?"
It'll never happen, for a dozen reasons. Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a genuine issue for the characters; the fact that not all fans are slashers is a genuine issue for the network. And I'm not sure I trust the writers enough not to screw it all up. I'm pretty sure they aren't doing this on purpose in the first place. And part of the fun of slash is the subversion. And Good Lord, you'd never get away with GAY PEOPLE behaving like normal human beings, not on a channel like Scifi.
But...science fiction is about pushing boundaries. First interracial kiss on tv, anyone? (That would be Kirk/Uhura, for the newbies out there.) First lesbian kiss was on Star Trek as well, IIRC. And it would be awful nice to get gay characters on tv who have character traits beyond 'gay', or occasionally, 'sassy.' And it would certainly get Atlantis on the cover of TV Guide. And it would be amazing.
(Spoilers for "Harmony" and "Outcast", but mostly incidental -- this should mostly make sense to non-fans.)
First off, the books: I want a library card because there are so many books to read, but I would feel really embarrassed if the only books I checked out had names like "Queer Cowboys" and "Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition". <---this is a real book, btw, which I NEED LIKE BREATHING.
Anybody got any good recommended reading on homosexual relationships in the nineteenth century, particularly in the American West? So far I've found a bunch fairly cheap on Amazon, but I don't know how good they are. (Also, one that seems to be about Abraham Lincoln's gay love affairs and I don't know if I'm that brave.)
Part of the problem is that I need to know how this sort of relationship would play out in public -- the body language, the degree of secrecy or openness, the reactions from both the high and low sections of society. Most of the books seem to focus on either decoding the obscure Victorian metaphors in contemporary literature or on real people's relationships as viewed through diaries and letters.
Anyway, on my short list are: Queer Cowboys, Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality (Jonathan Katz), Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition (no pirates in my book, but come on!), and Gay American History. Any other good ones I'm missing?
And then on to the fannish part of tonight's program (not too fannish, don't worry). Mainly this is from a conversation I had with Rey about how incredibly gay S4 of Atlantis is. Like, they cannot seriously be doing this on accident any more. I'll give the body language and cock-blocking homo-eroticism of earlier seasons a pass, but you cannot give me an episode about John and Rodney walking through the woods with a little girl who is clearly their spawn while snapping at each other in a very married way, and then give me an episode a week later in which John is awkward around his estranged family who look very suspiciously at the hot male friend he brought along. My GOD.
So the thing is, Altantis's Homoerotic Subtext (check the IMDB keywords, y'all) is very barely "sub" anything at this point. Yes, you could read it as friendship, but the great thing is...you can also read it as gay WITH NO CONFLICTS. There is not a single word in that last episode that would contradict John being disowned by his family for being gay. And there's about four years worth of significant looks and behavior to support that theory. It occurred to me (or possibly Rey) that while we've been squeeing about having Martin Gero's babies and how much they love us but they couldn't be doing it on purpose...maybe they ARE doing it on purpose.
And wouldn't that be awesome? And not just in a "boys kissing!" way. Think about it. This show has been running for years, has well-established characters and an enthusiastic fanbase. You take the two male leads and slowly but surely take their close friendship into a sexual relationship. Suddenly, you have gay characters in the leading roles of a successful sci-fi show. Not as comic relief, not as niche television on LOGO, not in the background on a soap opera. Well-rounded characters who are awesome in their own right and happen to be gay, or at least in a gay relationship -- a relationship that's well-established with lots of history and believable feelings.
Can we say "ground-breaking?"
It'll never happen, for a dozen reasons. Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a genuine issue for the characters; the fact that not all fans are slashers is a genuine issue for the network. And I'm not sure I trust the writers enough not to screw it all up. I'm pretty sure they aren't doing this on purpose in the first place. And part of the fun of slash is the subversion. And Good Lord, you'd never get away with GAY PEOPLE behaving like normal human beings, not on a channel like Scifi.
But...science fiction is about pushing boundaries. First interracial kiss on tv, anyone? (That would be Kirk/Uhura, for the newbies out there.) First lesbian kiss was on Star Trek as well, IIRC. And it would be awful nice to get gay characters on tv who have character traits beyond 'gay', or occasionally, 'sassy.' And it would certainly get Atlantis on the cover of TV Guide. And it would be amazing.