standing in front of the sink i'm pretending to wink

[fitz_clementine]

So I've been bumming around the house all day long. I had an appointment with Dr. Feelgood my friendly local mustachioed psychiatrist-since-high-school, who I only really see anymore to get pills ordered in to the university pharmacy, but the appointment's been postponed. This is irritating 'cause I'm all out of pills. Anyway, I didn't feel like

Comments

[spacklegeek]

Wondering idly why those Hunger Games books... seem to be set in a World of No Queer People

I know folks have brought this up before - maybe over at themockingjay? - and I've wondered the same thing. I seem to recall someone pointing out that, since it's to be supposed that Finnick (and others?) slept with patrons regardless of their sex or gender, queerness is acceptable, at least in the Capitol. But this is of course problematic for several reasons. We don't see expressions (even implied expressions) of queerness outside the Capitol, and Finnick wasn't exactly sleeping with people because he truly wanted to.

I don't know. We don't really have examples of queerness or anything other than the standard gender binary in Harry Potter, either (JK outing Dumbledore after the books were finished doesn't count, I don't think), but fanfiction has manifestly explored this topic anyway.

disclaimer: i'm getting drunk as i type this

[fitz_clementine]

Yeah, well, that's why I say I'm not surprised and am possibly being over-sensitive. I mean, I don't think any straight, cisgendered person would have any reason to consider why or how or whether they ought to represent GLBTQ etc. people in their writing, not in our society...oh, I don't know. I suppose I think that if you're going to tackle sex slavery and child soldiers and PTSD and alcoholism and drug addiction and class war in your YA novels, you might as well put in a character or two who's explicitly, canonically gay/bi/trans/whatever. Doesn't have to be a big thing. Could just be an offhand reference, like how we know that Rue and Thresh are Black because of their fairly cursory physical descriptions. The argument I most often hear against putting explicitly LBGTQI etc. characters in YA fiction is that it's drawing too much attention to or putting too much emphasis on sex, somehow (or on injustice/inequality), which is Too Delicate A Topic For Adolescents/Children To Handle, but I think if you've already pulled out the former

[fitz_clementine]

...okay, and that may have sounded unnecessarily aggressive/defensive. (I'm kind of not that sober over here.) Sorry. It's clear that you've thought about/wondered about this, too.

[spacklegeek]

Not at all. Actually I think your disclaimers were the only indication I had that you were less (more?) than sober.

I think it's a good discussion to have, because you're right: the only times we see explicitly (or even subtextually) LGBTQ characters are when it's a book somehow geared toward LGBTQ people. Or, maybe, they exist so the author can feel good about him/herself - "look! i'm including a gay character in my book! i am hip and aware and queer-positive!"

The only instance I can think of (twenty minutes after having woken up, here...) where that's not the case is SWORDSPOINT by Ellen Kushner. She created a society there where being more than straight isn't any kind of Big Deal - no one cares, just like no one cares if you are straight. It's not worth mentioning, beyond the idle gossip of who is sleeping with whom. (It's a great book for a lot of reasons; have you read it

[fitz_clementine]

I think I may have read short stories by that author and set in the world of that novel...but...no! Maybe I ought to put it on my "to-read" list.

...And Harry, maybe . Hee. :D

[fitz_clementine]

Oh, and I definitely interpreted Madge as having a crush on Katniss until we found out the Tragic Family Backstory reason why she gave her the mockingjay pin.