Until our society has reached the point where no negative judgment accrues to homosexuality, we can't know what the actual ratio of potential bisexuals to dyed-in-the-wool monosexuals is, anyway. So I think it highly premature to declare that the question is decided, you know?
And now to fandom. There's been this sort of...movement, I'll call it, in fandom that has traditionally looked down on the "plumbing isn't important" trope or the "gay only for you" trope as being unrealistic--or worse, homophobic!--and although I acknowledge that some writers of these tropes might certainly fall into those categories, I don't think this is usually the case, and it is not so for me! When I write from one of these tropes it's because the issue interests me and it seems right for the character. Not because I have any personal reason to want the character to be gay or straight! Again, I understand why this is such a sensitive issue! How could it not be? But I'm not going to allow the narrow minds of people of either monosexual orientation to dictate to me what I can and can't write.
Writers of fiction are not preachers. And if they are preachers, they shouldn't be. Nothing spoils a work of fiction faster than a political or religious agenda that is allowed to supersede the artistic agenda of the endeavor (JMO). It's okay to have such an agenda. I'm just saying if the agenda becomes more important to the writer than the art does, then the art's going to suffer. Consider Ayn Rand, C.S. Lewis, Robert Heinlein. When they've been edited strictly and have reined in their tendency to get up on soapboxes, they've been good. When they haven't, they've been horrid. We have examples in fanfic, too, but I won't mention any here.
I'll also go out on a limb and state that character is the most interesting aspect of fiction, and that as individuals we want to see characters who are individuals, not stereotypical members of one or more "groups."
Therefore, when you and I and other writers who write individual characters who are bisexual in the "plumbing doesn't matter" category, we should not be belittled or negatively judged for being "unrealistic" or out of line, or, heaven forfend, "politically incorrect." Go ahead and attack our skills if those are lacking, go ahead and complain if a media character isn't recognizable as the canon version. Go ahead and tell us if we have not substantiated, from canon and in the story, any such assertions we make about the characters. Go ahead and tell us if we haven't convinced you. But don't tell us that it is impossible for a character not to be a monosexual. Don't tell us people can't "switch teams" after a certain age or can't discover, to their surprise, that they are bisexual, even when their teen years are far behind. Not only is every individual unique, but these events, as you note, have happened--and they've happened quite a lot! They've simply been less visual, just as the homosexual behavior of other mammals and vertebrates has been largely invisible--because people's political, religious, and personal prejudices, preconceptions, and agendas have been allowed to prevent the honest reporting of these phenomena.
So writers should not be automatically suspect for writing from one of these "tropes," nor should such fic be dismissed automatically as "unrealistic." So there. :)
no subject
Until our society has reached the point where no negative judgment accrues to homosexuality, we can't know what the actual ratio of potential bisexuals to dyed-in-the-wool monosexuals is, anyway. So I think it highly premature to declare that the question is decided, you know?
And now to fandom. There's been this sort of...movement, I'll call it, in fandom that has traditionally looked down on the "plumbing isn't important" trope or the "gay only for you" trope as being unrealistic--or worse, homophobic!--and although I acknowledge that some writers of these tropes might certainly fall into those categories, I don't think this is usually the case, and it is not so for me! When I write from one of these tropes it's because the issue interests me and it seems right for the character. Not because I have any personal reason to want the character to be gay or straight! Again, I understand why this is such a sensitive issue! How could it not be? But I'm not going to allow the narrow minds of people of either monosexual orientation to dictate to me what I can and can't write.
Writers of fiction are not preachers. And if they are preachers, they shouldn't be. Nothing spoils a work of fiction faster than a political or religious agenda that is allowed to supersede the artistic agenda of the endeavor (JMO). It's okay to have such an agenda. I'm just saying if the agenda becomes more important to the writer than the art does, then the art's going to suffer. Consider Ayn Rand, C.S. Lewis, Robert Heinlein. When they've been edited strictly and have reined in their tendency to get up on soapboxes, they've been good. When they haven't, they've been horrid. We have examples in fanfic, too, but I won't mention any here.
I'll also go out on a limb and state that character is the most interesting aspect of fiction, and that as individuals we want to see characters who are individuals, not stereotypical members of one or more "groups."
Therefore, when you and I and other writers who write individual characters who are bisexual in the "plumbing doesn't matter" category, we should not be belittled or negatively judged for being "unrealistic" or out of line, or, heaven forfend, "politically incorrect." Go ahead and attack our skills if those are lacking, go ahead and complain if a media character isn't recognizable as the canon version. Go ahead and tell us if we have not substantiated, from canon and in the story, any such assertions we make about the characters. Go ahead and tell us if we haven't convinced you. But don't tell us that it is impossible for a character not to be a monosexual. Don't tell us people can't "switch teams" after a certain age or can't discover, to their surprise, that they are bisexual, even when their teen years are far behind. Not only is every individual unique, but these events, as you note, have happened--and they've happened quite a lot! They've simply been less visual, just as the homosexual behavior of other mammals and vertebrates has been largely invisible--because people's political, religious, and personal prejudices, preconceptions, and agendas have been allowed to prevent the honest reporting of these phenomena.
So writers should not be automatically suspect for writing from one of these "tropes," nor should such fic be dismissed automatically as "unrealistic." So there. :)