wait why are people reacting this way to that ask about books written by gay men? isn't that like asking for books written about people of color by people of color? I'm not sending this to be mean, I just really wanna know the reason
Oh honey. I’ve been drinking so here we go.
I think you’re combining two posts here.
I’m assuming you’re referring to Abi’s post here where she comments on feeling unwanted in her own genre. Her post links to two asks submitted to Riptide Publishing (her publisher).
This ask about the sexual orientation of their authors.
The ask about WaveCon…. Sam Schooler put it best in her tweet about it, calling it rude and gross.
Here’s the original announcement of WaveCon. It was never pitched as an MM con as the asker so delightfully tried to put forth. It was always pitched as queer con and a celebration of LGBTQ fiction.
Last time I checked, there are far more orientations in the queer community than gay male. I’m a B. Hi.
Heidi Belleau also commented on her twitter which brings us to the crux of the issue here.
When you insist that something is specifically one label and not others, then you discount and ostracize everyone else - people who work damn hard to write stories for you and for others. Insisting that an entire convention on a cruise ship is for gay males only is insulting to the very real people who write damn good stories in queer fiction. Ace, Aro, Bi, Lesbian, Pan, Trans, Queer, Fluid, Variant, Agender, etc. That’s a lot of people.
So many people that you’ve completely cut off and said don’t count.
Plus, specifying that a convention is only for gay males is so… fetishizing. There is this horrible stereotype of readers of queer fiction and that it’s “all straight women ogling gay men” and that is so gross. Asks like that perpetuate that terrible stereotype and it’s something all of us need to put a stop to.
A lot of queer fiction is written by females. A lot of books, surprise, are written by females and yet, time and time again, women are reminded through asks like these that their work isn’t valuable enough. It doesn’t measure up to men’s work. Women authors dominate a lot of categories, yet the recognition goes to males more often than not. It’s a product of systematic sexism and it’s gross and tiring.
Honestly it’s so fucking tiring I cannot even begin to process how exhausted I am with it.
Moving on because I could write an essay on how judgey and rude that is and I don’t want to bore people or just start rage-typing. No one wants that.
The second ask about the orientation of Riptide’s authors…
Basically? It’s none of anyone’s damn business. If you want to buy from queer authors or POC authors or female authors or any other non-straight, non-white, non-cis, non-male qualifying author then that’s awesome and a great thing to do. I encourage everyone to do that, actually.
It’s rude to ask a publisher which of their authors are queer to satisfy your checklist. What if some of their authors are questioning? What if some of their authors are queer but aren’t out yet? You’ve just made people extremely uncomfortable by basically saying “hey if you don’t out yourself right now then you’re losing my sale” and there are those who aren’t ready to do that yet so what do they do now? Lose the sale and stay quiet? Or do they out themselves in the hopes of getting your business and word-of-mouth sales?
Abi herself spoke on twitter about possibly being ace, but she hasn’t fully figured that out yet. She’s still reading and figuring it out. So does she put herself on that list in hopes that you buy her book even though she might not be ready to apply that label?
(And before anyone asks, she told me I could put that in here)
People may not have a problem with it at face value but, honestly, it made me extremely uncomfortable that someone was asking a business to out authors instead of asking authors directly or finding out information on their own. If an author is out about their orientation and/or gender identity, that information will usually be somewhere easy to find.Â
This isn’t the same as asking for POC authors. That is so completely different. You don’t need to ask if someone’s POC do you? And what if someone is white-passing but is still from a non-western culture? What then? Do they qualify then?
What about disabilities? Are you going to ask about disabled or mentally ill authors and have people talk about very real issues in their lives just so you’ll buy their book? And who are you asking? Their publisher? Another third party?
It’s a slippery slope, my friend.
Identity is very personal and to ask for someone’s very personal identity that they may or may not be comfortable with a third party giving out just so you can exercise your capitalistic right to buy books is rude and invasive.
It’s stressful to those who depend on book sales to live but who may not be ready to be out.Â
The reason behind wanting to read marginalized voices isn’t wrong. What’s wrong is how they went about doing it. There’s a difference.
But how am I supposed to find out, you ask. It’s just easier to ask the publisher.
I honestly don’t give a fuck about what’s easier. I care about people’s comfort in their own space with their own identity and telling you on their own terms.
Browse their social media. I’m serious. The vast majority of marginalized authors I know, I got to know through social media and what they discuss. They will mention it. They will. I promise.
They will do it on their own terms. And that is what is the most important thing here.
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