Poke a Bigot in the Eye: Romance Writers Association

[ysabetwordsmith]

Romance Writers Association has officially come out as homophobic and discriminatory, banning same-sex romances from their contest.  Okay, anyone who makes a contest can make up the rules for it.  But it's more than a little counterproductive for a genre  based organization to cut out part of its own content, just because it makes some people "uncomfortable."  You know what makes me uncomfortable?  Bigotry.  That's as romantic as a knee in the crotch.

A good way to express such disapproval is with a boycott and a round of Poke a Bigot in the Eye.  Instead of writing and reading a het romance, write or read a queer one instead.  Instead of giving money to RWA for dues or anything else, take the same amount and put it somewhere queer.  

Maybe drop something into the fundraiser for Plunge, a webzine dedicated to queer women in genre literature.  Fund a few verses of my poem "The Morose Mascot," where two lesbians help a porcupine escape his evil mistress.  kajones_writing has Nadia, a vampire who prefers female partners; in this project characters may be adopted, stories requested, stories sponsored, etc.  ("Morgan - First Feed Part 1" is a Nadia story waiting for sponsorship to become public.)  Looking for a sweet male romance?  Check out "The Less Than Epic Adventures of T.J. and Amal," currently in the running for a Rose & Bay Award in the Webcomic category.  Over in Torn World we have various options including the adorable series about Dini and Lalya by wyld_dandelyon (most of which are public, one waiting for sponsorship) and my story "Owlheart" about Tekura and Osro (also waiting for sponsorship).  There's plenty of romance in alllll combinations in the crowdsource fandom Schrodinger's Heroes. Feel free to play with any of the characters.  "French Military Victories" has male/male romance; it's a crossover fanfic and thus not fundable, but you can read it and giggle.  wonder_city has all kinds of queer characters spanning various superhero soap opera plot threads.

Want more queer romance?  Ask for it in any prompt call where it seems to fit.  (See a list of February crowdfunding projects.)  The February Creative Jam here has a theme of alternative sexualities / QUILTBAG -- my, how timely!  Bring your prompts, your muse, and your money.  Torn World Muse Fusions are always wide open.  asexual_fandom is running an asexual romance fest for Valentine's Day, spanning Feb. 7-21; if you like queer romance for its own sake, without expectation of sex, there's an opportunity to celebrate it.  My Poetry Fishbowl this month has a theme of "wild animals" and I'm open to covering any of the thousand or so species that are homoactive.  

Do you run a crowdfunded project?  Consider setting "queer romance" as a theme, or touching on this topic in your ongoing work.

You could also look through the Rose & Bay Award nominees to see which ones have queer content; there are several.

I've thrown out a handful of examples here, stuff I've written or read regularly or remember off the top of my head.  If you write, draw, filk, or otherwise portray queer romance and want to promote your project then please describe it in a comment.  

Romance is for everyone.  In crowdfunding, nobody has to take "you can't play" for an answer.  So let's give the dirty laundry a good steam-cleaning!

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

I have quite a few queer characters. In Chatoyant College, one of the main characters, Edie, is a lesbian, as are several supporting characters (including her girlfriend, Leila). In Extranormal Crimes, Paul (the supervisor) is gay, Maggie is bisexual, and Tay is a lesbian; Kaede, who has no fixed gender, could probably be best described as omnisexual. A Conversation of Thought & Mind and The Other Side of the Gate both feature lesbian romances.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I really like Kaede.

Hee

[clare_dragonfly]

I thought you would say that! I like zir too :D

[wytchcroft]

i know it's a protocol break but can a visitor just say a big cheers for passing the info (and linkage) along (which i've now checked out) not sure i'd have found out otherwise - and i'm with you on this.
good luck!

'best,
wytch

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's not a protocol break. This community is here for discussion of crowdfunding and related topics. If you're just passing through and like something we're doing, that's cool -- and extra cool for letting us know.

Re: Thank you!

[wytchcroft]

my pleasure :)

[thejeopardymaze]

I always felt that the romance genre was almost always more damaging than porn allegedly is (granted, I won't claim to be impressed by the porn industry itself, but still...), the Twilight series didn't come out of a vacuum.

The homophobia doesn't surprise me, Romance has almost always been hetero normative with marriage and producing children as a goal, whilst being marketed at women.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I always felt that the romance genre was almost always more damaging than porn allegedly is <<

It is not the fault of the genre, but rather the choice of people who write or consume material that carries troublesome memes. It's their choice what to support. Censorship helps nobody.

The important thing is, that's not the only aspect of romance literature. Some of it is far more positive and diverse, and it's evolving over time as people's ideas and interests change.

>>The homophobia doesn't surprise me, Romance has almost always been hetero normative with marriage and producing children as a goal, whilst being marketed at women.<<

It doesn't surprise me, but I'm not inclined to let them get away without a scolding. Romance is open to anyone who wants it. Queer romance is okay. Asexual romance is okay. Carnal romance is okay. Romance as a subplot in other genres is okay. There's no need to limit things to what has been done before, or what the mainstream wants to read.

Just as an example, one thing that drives me nuts in typical romance is that the conflict is usually imaginary -- something that can be handwaved away at the end when the two characters admit they love each other. I find that implausible rather than charming because, okay, I'm not a typical romance reader and favor it as a subplot rather than the dominant genre. So what I look for in a story, and what I tend to write, is a situation where the characters have a concrete point of dispute that matters to both of them, and they either decide to part company or they work out a solution. Because that's how real life works, and it's a skill I think more people need, which means that having some good fictional examples is useful as well as entertaining. It's against the rules of classic romance as a genre. I don't care. I read and write stories based on my taste, not somebody else's rules.

Re: Thoughts

[thejeopardymaze]

It is not the fault of the genre, but rather the choice of people who write or consume material that carries troublesome memes.

I partly agree, but there is a limit that should be blamed on consumers, being that it's a reflection of the mindset of whom runs the mass media, mostly white and male, which influences the populace, why else would corporations pour billions in to PR and advertising agencies each year. I'm under the impression most publishing houses run by big corporations that are publishing 'romance' are run by men.


It doesn't surprise me, but I'm not inclined to let them get away without a scolding.

No argument there, but the institutional problems within the publishing houses seem to have made this inevitable, a lot of people out there still think it's a woman's duty to find that man and reproduce. I've always been bothered by the overall social conservationism of the romance genre, trying to find different words male and female genitalia without ever being blunt about sex, amongst other things.