How-To and How-NOT-To Wre Gay Fanfictn

Contents:

• WHY ARE SO MANY GAY ROMANCE NOVELS WRTEN BY STRAIGHT WOMEN?
• WHAT WOMEN WANT: GAY MALE ROMANCE NOVELS

WHY ARE SO MANY GAY ROMANCE NOVELS WRTEN BY STRAIGHT WOMEN?

In gay romance novels, ’s both, and straight women wrers are rponsible. When I started workg as a book reviewer 2009, gay romance was explodg as a popular romance genre. (Technilly what I’m talkg about is lled “male/male romance”; “gay romance” is wrten by gay men for gay men, may not foc on a romantic relatnship, and don’t guarantee a happily-ever-after.

But outsi the dtry, the distctns are elid, and most people thk of all male-male romance novels as “gay.

The vast majory of gay romanc are wrten by women. The first time I noticed this, I flipped the book over my hands, back and forth, lookg at the ultra-gay ver art, and then the thor’s photo on the back.

WHAT WOMEN WANT: GAY MALE ROMANCE NOVELS

I may not be a gay man, but I know appropriatn when I see . How uld straight women feel that they have the thory to wre gay romance? Bee they’ve been told so by a culture that has long treated gay men as a ntered, fetishized object of cursy.

The trope of the tame gay man is a favore straight culture.

Everywhere, the media giv the gay-bt-iend dynamic: straight women treatg cis gay men like pets.