What women want: Gay male romance novels - The Globe and Mail

Contents:

• 13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH
• WHY ARE SO MANY GAY ROMANCE NOVELS WRTEN BY STRAIGHT WOMEN?
• WHY DON'T STRAIGHT PEOPLE READ GAY BOOKS?
• WHAT WOMEN WANT: GAY MALE ROMANCE NOVELS
• 21 BOOKS EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO READ RIGHT NOW
• 60 GAY ROMANCE NOVELS THAT ARE THE BT THE GENRE: THE ULTIMATE GUI
• HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

13 VERY GAY AND VERY GOOD BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ THIS PRI MONTH

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.

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

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

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.

WHY DON'T STRAIGHT PEOPLE READ GAY BOOKS?

Bee they’ve been told so by a culture that has long treated gay men as a ntered, fetishized object of cursy. Everywhere, the media giv the gay-bt-iend dynamic: straight women treatg cis gay men like pets. 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 characters, who are labeled as gay, are only fantasi — -straight women’s fantasi, shared wh an dience of straight women.

When a straight woman cis to “reem” the gay narrative by makg her ma characters mastream-hot, cisgenred, able-bodied guys, and “giv them” a happy endg, she is not makg progrs.

WHAT WOMEN WANT: GAY MALE ROMANCE NOVELS

My cricism of straight women -optg gay bodi for their own pleasure is based on the belief that no person n ethilly e other people, pecially margalized people, to benef themselv.

Claimg that gay romance wrten by straight women is somehow “LGBTQ reprentatn, ” only mak thgs worse.

Straight women seem to feel entled to wre gay characters bee they thk homosexualy is simply an herent sire to attract and please a man. Ripti Publishg produced the lovely and subtle Hopels Romantic, about a gay man who falls love wh a trans girl. The gems are the fulfillment of what gay romance n be: LGBTQ thors, wrg about LGBTQ characters, for an dience of all kds of rears, cludg straight women.

21 BOOKS EVERY GAY MAN NEEDS TO READ RIGHT NOW

I suggt that a greater diversy of thors might enlarge the mastream’s unrstandg of what means to be gay. As Gee Michael told The Guardian a 2005 terview: “Gay people the media are dog what mak straight people fortable, and tomatilly my rponse to that is to say I’m a dirty filthy fucker and if you n’t al wh , you n’t al wh .

60 GAY ROMANCE NOVELS THAT ARE THE BT THE GENRE: THE ULTIMATE GUI

Instead of perpetuatg the dynamic of gay men tg straight women, or signg their choic, straight women who want to wre gay romance might ask themselv the qutns any wrer should: Why am I wrg this?

If straight women gravate towards gay romance, that’s great, : but should be romance on our terms.

Instead of occupyg space a genre that objectifi gay people, is better to support gay thors, pecially wrers of gay romance and other LGBTQ-centered stori. Gay men, however they choose to prent, or tegrate to society, or mata their relatnships, mt be rpected.

HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

There isn't that much gay l published the days, pecially sce the mise of Gay Men's Prs, and anyway I nsir myself a cizen of the world, not a member of some exclive agment of society lled the gay muny.

I need to read about you, precisely bee you are I started wrg, I wrote maly about gay characters.