Other Stuff · Queer

#queerpop open thread

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We’ve had two months of #queerpop posts now, and I think it’s going well! Combine the two-month-iversary with the fact that I just never got around to writing a post for this week, and we have the perfect opportunity for open discussion!

Questions:

  • What’s your impression of queer issues + pop culture at the moment?
  • Who’s your favorite queer character or creator of queer characters? (If you don’t have a favorite — what genre do you like, the commenters and I will recommend you something. 😉 )
  • Any questions, concerns, or suggestions for the #queerpop column?
  • Anything else!

I am taking pitches for guest posts, especially to run in the fall while I’m starting grad school, so feel free to drop those in comments, emails, Facebook, etc.

Next week I believe we’ll have something movie-related, since we haven’t done that yet!

#queerpop (4)

22 thoughts on “#queerpop open thread”

  1. Who’s your favorite queer character or creator of queer characters?

    I don’t have any specific favorite (it’s difficult for me to rank characters in order like that), but one of them once knew the ‘softer side of Sears’, was a computer nerd, and nearly destroyed the world in a grief stricken state.

    I probably gave too many hints.

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  2. I’d love to participate in this if I could. I’m finding myself more and more drawn to these issues in fiction. I’m particularly interested in the representation of asexuals, bisexuals, transgender and transexual people in fiction. Even polyamory. I read a book last year that almost made steam come out of my ears, even though it was polyamory written by a polyamorist.

    On that note, I’ll take recommendations for any of those! Especially if it isn’t transgender born-male to female. I noticed in a recent LitReactor Top Ten list that born-female to male was hardly represented on the list, and I found that curious.

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    1. That’s interesting — I couldn’t find any trans men when I did my A to Z in comics, either. It’s especially strange because gay fiction is so much easier to find than lesbian fiction. (FYI, I’m told that “born female” isn’t a preferred construction, “assigned female” is better.) And I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything where a character identified as asexual. There are a lot of characters who seem to be ace, but it’s usually described as a character being totally dedicated to their work. Lots of versions of Batman or Sherlock Holmes fit that, for instance.

      The Non-Binary Book Club read Ancillary Justice and is now reading Alanna by Tamora Pierce. Both of those are more “gender variance” things than anything else. I must also recommend one of the most adorable picture books ever, Jacob’s New Dress, but that’s not exactly an in-depth treatment either. 😉

      For polyamory, you might like Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines. He’s the guy who did that “posing like a woman on a fantasy cover” competition with John Scalzi a while back. I couldn’t make it through the book, it just never grabbed me at all, but I’m really disappointed about that because a lot of people love it and, having skipped to the end to see what happens, it evolves into a poly relationship at the end. There’s also the comic series Strangers in Paradise, which isn’t exactly a healthy poly relationship, but it’s somewhere between that and a love triangle.

      There’s a lot of good YA stuff coming out now, like None of the Above, but I’m very behind on reading all of it.

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      1. I read Libriomancer and enjoyed it, but the polyamory fell a bit flat for me. Worse than that one though, was Ascension, a Scifi that had all of the “markers” going for it…. woman-of-color as main protag, and lesbian to boot…. but it sort of devolved into this “everyone can become polyamory if convinced it’s a good idea.” I don’t know about you, but just because a partner might be polyamorist, and I can deal with them having extra partners, does not make me, also, polyamorist. I guess it was a big let down for me since how we assign ourselves, and how we are attracted, are NOT that reprogrammable…

        And thanks for the FYI. I’ll adjust myself in the future. 🙂

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        1. That’s probably similar to how I felt about Ancillary Justice — okay, we shouldn’t pre-judge people by their genders or insist they act certain ways, but most people do HAVE genders. I’ve not read Ascension, but there’s a lot of cheap fiction with queer stuff and polyamory that’s all fetishistic at best.

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          1. Ascension was lauded pretty highly by the #WeNeedDiverseBooks crowd, which is why I picked it up, but as another reviewer put it, the book was more a “checklist of diversity” rather than a strong story. And it started there. I loved the MC’s intimacy with ships, and some of the other characters, but it sort of felt like the author had taken the cast of Firefly and reassigned them to her world.

            As far as the fetish issue, I’m not sure it’s quite in THAT territory, as the author herself is polyamorist, but it did feel like wish-fulfilment, maybe, or simply not-well-thought-out character development.

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    2. Ooh ooh ooh! I can help! Try “The Privilege of the Sword” by Ellen Kushner and “Clariel” by Garth Nix for asexual/aromantic representation. “Swordspoint” by Ellen Kushner for bisexuals, DEFINITELY. “Sharra’s Exile”, “Heritage of Hastur”, and “Hastur Lord” by Marion Zimmer Bradley deal on some level with bisexuals and semi-polyamory, though possibly in a frustrating way. “Skin” by Kathe Koja has bisexuals aplenty.

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      3. Haha. My partner just got a box full of signed books from Kushner last year, and has been raving about Swordspoint for years. I guess it’s time to pick it up! And thank you for the recs!!

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  3. Oh god, I have too many favorite queer characters to count! However, I’m watching The Legend of Korra right now and am very excited to see how the relationship between Korra and Asami progresses. 🙂

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      2. It’s a great show. I think the relationship between the two was rushed, but it takes nothing away from the show. I know that the last season almost wasn’t made due to budget cuts.

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