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. I may not be a gay man, but I know appropriatn when I see .
WHAT WOMEN WANT: GAY MALE ROMANCE NOVELS
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. A gay bt iend is shown as the perfect accsory for any hip straight woman. In this dynamic, which I see enacted gay romance novels, the tth of the man’s queerns is erased, bee the character is gay only the ways the straight woman thor n image.
The thor handl her gay characters like dolls, g them to act out her sir.