#casual rep

[chaos-monkeyy]

Tonight in things I love about The Expanse novels:

"Drink? I've got water, coffee, bourbon, and some herbal tea shit my husbands both drink, tastes like grass clippings."

-Admiral Milan, acting commander in chief, a 'broad man with a heavy face and salt-and-pepper hair shaved tight' and a 'crusty old sailor from the Mars days'.

[leelas-writing]

question for the people about representation

what are people’s opinion on casual background representation? on the chart of queer rep my book is explicit incidental. the book is not about being queer, but about trauma. my two main characters (Jason and Ian) are gay and bi respectively. it’s stated but never really discussed. 

in the background though i have other characters. Jason’s brother in-law’s sister is queer and has a girlfriend. his therapist uses they/them pronouns -- these two are never explicitly stated as being gay or non-binary/genderqueer.  is this type of representation something people want to see?

[alyssajolt]

I feel like part of why we never get casual lgbtq+ rep is a cycle

people that aren’t lgbtq+ always want to know some really fuckin private details about how or why and BUT HOW about a person being lgbtq+

there aren’t many that just accept it as: “okay yeah, you’re trans” or “okay, you’re gay, cool”

so we end up with media always giving the entire backstory to a person because usually the writer isn’t lgbtq+ and they’re still catering to the cishet audience even though they’re writing an lgbtq+ character.

that’s just really sad.

and this is why the media is so important. if we manage to get casual lgbtq+ rep, they’re allowed to have faults and grow and learn from that, but if we got more casual rep

it would begin to send the message to everyone that 

you don’t need to know if someone was born with a penis or a vag

you don’t need to know if someone’s sexuality is influenced by past traumas

you don’t need to force someone into an uncomfortable situation just because you want to know 

an explanation isn’t always necessary. nor is it always required.