The Road Thus Far, The Queer Experience, & Writing The Other

[spiderstars]

Introduction

Because I know most of my f-list doesn’t really follow metafandom. For context, go here: this. The entire debate has become somewhat muddled, mired in fuzzy terminology and defensiveness from all sides. I am going to try to give a breakdown, as far as my understanding goes, here. Corrections and clarifications are more than welcome.

My

Comments

[aeirol]

You definitely provided some clarity for me. After listening to you last night, I knew some of this, but this post rounds out and fills in the holes for that.

One thing I am curious about: you qualified that you and everyone else seem to be talking about male/male only, and this makes a lot of sense as it is a lot more prevalent (at least so far as I know). But has anyone tried to examine the female/female side of it, and possibly do a comparison with the male/male? Maybe because I've seen f/f much less than m/m, I'd be really curious to know how it holds up when taken with this discussion in mind, and how much of it is written by whom.

[spiderstars]

I haven't seen anyone bring much in the way of female/female into it, likely because fandom does consist rather largely of women, and the dialogue seemed to be initiated by a few reasonable requests for people to go "dude. watch your stereotypes when you write".

[aeirol]

I know that there have been polls made about the genders of people writing in fandom, and generally the answers weigh in on the female side; I can also extrapolate (and may also have read about, my memory is a bit fuzzy) that there have been polls about m/m fiction with similar results. Do you happen to know if there have been any similar polls on f/f fiction? Or even f/m or other types of fiction? (I'm not expecting you to, you just have a much more intensive involvement in fandom/LJ than I do, so I thought I'd ask)

[tommyrotter]

I think this is really well articulated and done very thoroughly

[soujiokita]

Nice entry!

Not related: I read an interesting article over the weekend about the conservative case for gay marriage... http://www.newsweek.com/id/229957 Just thought I'd share...

[eibheall]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! Although I second aeirol's comments about comparing m/m to f/f.

One thing I'm curious about: At the beginning, you identify yourself as queer, and define that as "some sort of space between bisexual and lesbian." I've never really understood the term "queer" as opposed to homosexual or bisexual, or why people identify as queer rather than one of those other terms. I realize that this is probably a matter of opinion and definitions to some extent, but since you've identified as queer, may I ask more about what that means to you? Do you feel it's a more accurate description than bisexual or lesbian? Sorry that this isn't directly related to your post, it's just something that I've wondered about and would enjoy hearing your perspective on, if you're willing to share it.

[spiderstars]

I replied to aeirol, so you might want to look at that comment as well. If I need to clarify I will.

I like "queer" because it's a lot less totalizing than "bisexual" and "lesbian". I am honestly not sure whether I am bi or lesbian, so neither term feels quite right to me. Queer allows me to express my sexuality without having to qualify it with a bazillion uncertainties. It also avoids people immediately dismissing me as "bisexual", which tends to happen in both the straight and gay communities.

Also, it's a lot more inclusive.

[eibheall]

Thanks!

[dharma_slut]

IAWYS.

Plus, my identity has changed a number of times. It's much easier, instead of reciting a life history in acronym form, to just say; "queer."

And then adopt a stance of "you got sumpin ta say huhuh?"

*grin*

[koemiko]

I love well-written, argumentative essays. ♥

A++

[spiderstars]

Thank you so much!