For the most part I think the "Is published m/m romance exploitative of gay men?" question is not something I should poke as a straight woman who doesn't read published m/m romance. But some of the assumptions made as the discussion has shifted into fanfic have bugged me.
I do not find m/m sex remotely sexy, but still have a few boyslashy stories knocking around in my head because they are interesting stories that happen to be about two men in a romantic relationship. I mean, I think if you write a lot of fiction with relationships in and none of them are m/m then you might want to think about why. (In my case I think it's mainly because I like female protagonists, but I still poke myself about my lack of gay male secondary characters)
People keep comparing it to "lesbian porn aimed at men" but I think it's important to remember there's actually a lot of generally respected f/f romance written by men: Strangers in Paradise, Revolutionary Girl Utena, bits of Buffy etc. There's male femslash writers too.
Which is not to say some slash isn't creepy with regards to gender/sexuality, but to frame the argument as "It's exploitative porn" vs "It's porn as legitimate female self expression" is to undersell the variety and depth of slash.
no subject
For the most part I think the "Is published m/m romance exploitative of gay men?" question is not something I should poke as a straight woman who doesn't read published m/m romance. But some of the assumptions made as the discussion has shifted into fanfic have bugged me.
I do not find m/m sex remotely sexy, but still have a few boyslashy stories knocking around in my head because they are interesting stories that happen to be about two men in a romantic relationship. I mean, I think if you write a lot of fiction with relationships in and none of them are m/m then you might want to think about why. (In my case I think it's mainly because I like female protagonists, but I still poke myself about my lack of gay male secondary characters)
People keep comparing it to "lesbian porn aimed at men" but I think it's important to remember there's actually a lot of generally respected f/f romance written by men: Strangers in Paradise, Revolutionary Girl Utena, bits of Buffy etc. There's male femslash writers too.
Which is not to say some slash isn't creepy with regards to gender/sexuality, but to frame the argument as "It's exploitative porn" vs "It's porn as legitimate female self expression" is to undersell the variety and depth of slash.