Gay men and m/m romance

[julesjones]

Mrs Giggles has raised the issue of how gay men feel about m/m romance written by women:

http://mrsgiggles.braveblog.com/entry/27031

Now, I know there are some gay men who are not only fine with it, but actively seek it out because it has an emotional dimension they have trouble finding in mainstream gay erotica, but if I comment I can only repeat what I've heard from friends and in fan mail. Any of you lot out there care to go over and comment?

(Of course, if you read sf&f, there's some good slashy stuff buried in the genre. I seem to have an example in the reading pile right now...)

Comments

[strix-an-stones.livejournal.com]

I have gay male friends that I test my m/m stuff on because I want it accurate. Let's be real, if a het author writes scenes that are so far out of reality as to make the reader wonder how much crack they smoke then it just isn't going to work. Ever. And gay erotica is just turning into porn-lit-lite, all jizz and no fizz.

[sacchig.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking of asking this question myself, since 80% of the m/m proposals I've been getting for my alternate history anthology are being written by women. From guys, mostly what I've been getting are old trunk stories with little or no relevance to my theme.

[j-shelbourne.livejournal.com]

My gay friends say, "Not enough sex, and too late in the story. The mechanics are okay."

Okay, one gay friend says that. The one with the doctorate, who tells me Jesus hates me whenever he loses at cards. (Which makes me wonder if Jesus was gay.)

[(Anonymous)]

The male authors I work with all seem to be fine with it, though I realize that's not the most neutral pool from which to draw. A gay friend who has absolutely nothing to do with my job or the industry, though, feels the same way. He has all the appreciation in the world for good old-fashioned stroke fic as well as male-written m/m. But he likes the different flavor female writers bring to the genre, too. He's a gay man, I'm a straight woman, and we both enjoy both het and gay stories written by straight women and men and gay women and men. Each author adds a different layer to the experience, no one better than any other.

Women already write the alien perspective of a male character when they write the hero half of het stories; adding a second hero in place of the heroine isn't as much of a stretch as it might seem to some folks. I know more than one gay man who writes het stories, which in theory puts them in the same position as straight women who write m/m or even het.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, this Raven. Oops.