A Well-Place Eye Roll
"...we're all a part of nature. Some day the world will realize this, but meanwhile there's plenty of work that's waiting. For the sake of others like you, but less strong and less gifted perhaps, it's up to you to have the courage to make good..."
Years ago a friend said something similar to me. I'd run into a few issues after posting a blog called "I'm a Girl, Part 2". Many of my readers, the closed-minded ones, didn't like my re-vision of what it meant to be a woman. When I threatened to quit writing, quit blogging, quit posting, she told me that I had to write, I had to blog, I had to post. Above all, I had to stand. Because unlike many, I was strong enough. And people needed my words. The closed-minded ones, sure, may never truly understand, but the ones like me...they needed to know they weren't alone. And so I kept writing. And I keep writing.
Those who have read my fiction know what I write about, specifically who I write about. My protagonists are almost exclusively lesbian. I've been asked why more times than I can count. Seriously? Why? Hell, why not? It's not like I'm the first writer in the history of the written word to do it. It's just that many people in the mainstream of society don't know this. What to do they say? History is written by and for the victors? I think that's it. Well, literature is also selected, published, and promoted by the victors. Incidentally, historically literature has also been banned by the victors. Who are the victors in this case? Heterosexuals, the "normal ones".
"Because in this world there is only toleration for the so-called normal..." (p. 301)
I grew up a reader. I read all kinds of books and only seldom did I run into a character rumored to be gay (eg. Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby). Interestingly, I stumbled upon this knowledge only after my own coming out. I wonder, though, how my younger years would have differed had we read The Well of Loneliness instead of A Farewell to Arms or The Price of Salt instead of A Catcher in the Rye in my high school English classes? I knew I was different back then - I KNEW IT - but I didn't understand it. I never saw myself, my difference, in the books I read. Those like me were hidden from view and, even today, I believe, if the victors truly had their way, we would remain hidden.
Sadly, I only just discovered these books, books with, not just lesbian supporting characters, but with lesbian protagonists. I began doing research on LGBTQ history and bumped into repeated references. Shame on me for not doing the work sooner (of course, as a non-reader, I tended to not seek out books at all), but damn. Why does it have to be so hard and so non-mainstream?
Interesting fact - Back in the day (ie. not all that long ago), in order to be published, books with gay or lesbian themes had to have an unhappy ending. Lest anyone think the 'lifestyle' was anywhere near cool or Cinderella-like, such endings were intended as a deterant. Incidentally, The Price of Salt has an insinuated happy ending, probably why it was banned for so long (Well, that and chicks kissing).
So, everyone will have to forgive my eye roll when I'm asked why the majority of my protagonists are lesbian. Jesus. I think Sarah Waters said it well (and I'm paraphrasing here) when she said that it was just in her, part of her, so of course it would come out in her writing. I agree completely - It's part of me, part of who I am. Moreover, though, I think I owe those like me a voice. We need to see ourselves in the world around us. And we need a few happy endings so everyone out there, both gay and straight, will know that being a lesbian isn't all doom and gloom and an unhappy, unfulfilled life.
My ultimate goal is to write mainstream, commercial fiction with gay and lesbian characters. I want my books, like Sarah Waters', to be placed in the 'fiction/literature' sections of book stores. I want my writing to appeal to everyone, not just a 'gay' audience. I want to be a writer, not a 'gay' writer. Maybe some day the distinctions, all the LGBTQS crap will go away and people will be allowed to simply be people. Until that day, I'm going to stand, share my voice, and, of course, keep rolling my eyes.
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