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i try not to engage in fandom discourse anymore but something that very much frustrates me about Discourse
is this underlying assumption that if you are critical in anyway of fictional portrayals of lgbt sexuality, then u must want gay love to always be desexualized and "pure"
is this underlying assumption that if you are critical in anyway of fictional portrayals of lgbt sexuality, then u must want gay love to always be desexualized and "pure"
and that isn't the case at all. Like (nsfw//) i enjoy sex. I enjoy works of fiction that portray a diverse and complicated spectrum of gay sex and sensuality. I would like more works in mainstream media and beyond to portray those things. I just believe that we should be-
mindful of /how/ those portrayals impact the world beyond us, reify systems of power/oppression, and harm the most vulnerable members of our communities
so much "ship Discourse" revolves around adult/minor ships and the like, but this goes beyond just that. I think it's important to ask ourselves questions like "does this work fetishize and exoticize people of color?" "Am i portraying poc as more agressive than white characters"
"does this work portray gnc/butch sapphics as inherently predatory?" "Am i fetishizing/dehumanizing trans women?" etc. I'm not saying that sex in fiction has to always be wholesome and healthy, etc. that would be limiting and unfair to those of us w/complex relationships w/sex
but nothing exists in a vacuum. fiction has power. it has the power to maintain the status quo and the power to abolish it. and like anne carson wrote, "To be a different kind of novel, it would have to abolish something, abolish several things...Abolish, not just renounce them"
hm im rambling and got off topic a bit but. it's all very complicated and i think that some interesting, productive conversations can and should be had re: the truly transformative/abolitionist power of sexual lgbt fiction but. the Discourse online doesn't leave space for that
tl;dr: being thoughtful about fictional portrayals of sexuality does not equate to "puritanism" or desexualization, and to claim otherwise is irrational, unfair, reductive, and just straight up not rooted in reality
conversely i do think there's a conversation to be had about how fixations (esp cishet fixations) on idealized/completely desexualized portrayals of gay love can be a form of fetishization when those portrayals r held up as inherently more pure/desirable than sexual relationships
but that's also a complex issue that is probably beyond the scope of current online fandom discourse
