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Look up homoerotic titles on Amazon and you will run into the inevitable one or two snotty reviews from some male readers who disapprove of female authors writing gay romances. I'm glad to report that these reviews seem to come from only a TINY segment of the male population. But it still annoys me here at Obsidian Bookshelf. I'm not annoyed that some men feel that way in the first place, but that they feel compelled to pipe up and force their views upon the rest of us. (There is one especially whiny Amazon reviewer who laments that publishers don't force authors to identify their true gender so that he can be assured of only buying gay fiction written by men.) Why do some men dislike gay erotica written by women? Some may attempt to take the high ground, and object to women writing "porn" that exploits them. But then they would have to object to ALL porn; it wouldn't make sense to say that exploitation is only okay when it comes from other gay males. What is wrong with erotica anyway? As long as sexy writing doesn't spring from hatred for the gender being portrayed, there is nothing wrong with it. I think the real emotion behind the objections of some men to women writing gay romances is a misplaced territorialism. Now, I don't have a problem with some male readers preferring only male authors. (I think it's stupid, and I think they're missing out, but I recognize their right to have this preference.) I can understand that they might get irked when they end up with a book written by a woman using a pseudonym, or initials, or an ambiguous first name. But they can always return the book, get a refund, and avoid that author in the future. What I dislike is when reviewers vent their prejudice against women through dishonest Amazon reviews. It's as if these guys are on a holy mission from God to cleanse the homoerotic genre of woman writers. Well, hey, boys, it's not entirely your genre! It's ours, too. Enlightened writers of homoerotic fiction (whether they are male or female) recognize that we women are some of the best fans to have. We'll buy your books and recommend you word-of-mouth for years to come. To paraphrase Walt Whitman: "We contain multitudes!" There are far more of us women fans of homoerotic fiction than people might imagine. So what do I mean by a dishonest review? Am I saying that no man had better pan a book written by a woman? Of course not. I myself am a generous reviewer of homoerotic fiction because I love the genre and want to see it thrive – but I still point out the flaws where I see them. It's okay to do that. It's also your right to have a personal bias against women writers – even if I think it's stupid. Furthermore, I could tolerate someone posting a review on Amazon such as "I didn't read this book because I have this bias but I want others with my bias to know that the author is female." I would think that this is stupid, but at least it's honest. What I dislike are the dishonest reviews. A reader who just wants to slam women writers will post an Amazon review that questions the author's basic competence (e.g., "This woman can't write!") or makes a vague assertion (e.g., "[the books he has read by women] felt emotionally wrong") or gets downright ridiculous ("[the sex] is technically wrong"). These are all quotes from real Amazon reviews. The first quotation is not even worth addressing. I'm wondering what the second quotation even means. The third quotation makes me want to laugh and say, "Get real! How technical can sex really be?" None of these reviewers are admitting the truth: that they're biased against women writers, they're going to find fault no matter what, and they actively want to smear these books in the eyes of the buying public. It's that last part I object to. Why go out of one's way to try to harm another's creation? Just don't buy the damn book, and leave it at that! Don't launch a campaign against the author. These reviewers (with the destructive agenda) are different from the ones who post to say that they just didn't like the book for a handful of personal reasons. The destructive reviewers have an agenda against women writers in the homoerotic field; though sometimes subtle, you can always spot it. If a book really is a bad book, it deserves a bad review. But it should be critiqued accurately on the basis of its plot, characters, pacing and other literary values. Unfortunately, some of these destructive reviewers will even lie about these things just to advance their agenda. Is the woman writer attacked in that first review I quoted really unable to write? Oh, come on! I read about 100 books per year in all genres and write a lot of book reviews, and I know what I'm talking about when I say that I haven't yet read a homoerotic novel written by either a man or a woman that deserved some of the snotty reviews I've seen on Amazon. When I was in college, we had a visiting author who spoke in our creative writing class. She felt strongly that white writers shouldn't write about people of color. (I'm not going to specify her ethnicity because who cares anyway?) Her point was that the publishing industry has only so many "slots" available for stories about the ethnic experience, and it's wrong of white authors who are better "connected" to beat out the ethnic authors. At the time, I found this to be an unworthy position to take, and I still feel that way. (I'm not going to specify whether or not I'm white because who cares anyway?) I could see her point if a white author secured the only "slot" and then announced himself as the spokesperson of that particular ethnicity, and then proceeded to get it all wrong! That would be immensely irritating. But quality and accuracy will float one's writing to the top, and I believe there are always readers for a good author's writing. No one should be restricted from writing outside of his or her ethnicity or gender. That's how we build imagination and, sometimes more importantly, empathy. Judging from some of those Amazon reviews I read, I think we could use some more empathy. ~~ Val Kovalin. |
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