I'm going to pose this question and I hope to garner some serious answers and discussion.
Do you think Transgender Fiction plays a role in the transgender fight for equality? Are there people who are picking up what we write and drawing conclusions about the community as a whole? It might be something else for a non-tg person to write a tg character as a punchline or a stereotype, but do our characters say more because we are writing within the TG community?
If so, what do our characters say to mainstream society as a whole? Are you proud of the message that is sent? Do you think transgender fiction (as a whole) is representative of the community and/or the plight that we go through? If you think we are sending out the wrong message, what message do you think we should be sending out? What would you like to see more of/less of in transgender fiction?
Thank you. I will chime in with my own answers in a few days.
Comments
In a word "Yes"
Yes on both counts. What we write, especially what we publish via Kindle Direct, Smashwords or Feedaread, etc. speaks volumes about us as a community. However as you have pointed out much of it is tough to get into the hands of the non TG reading public and even to get those who classify genre to take it as something other then erotica.
The practice of making TG stories sexually explicit (whether MTF to GG, or MTF to GM or MTF to MTF) simply reduces what we write to erotica; and niche erotica at that. It demeans us and reduces who we are to sexual fetishists.
TG authors, especially those whose skill is good enough to write a mainstream story, have a responsibility to the rest of the community to represent us in a light that will allow non TG folk to see us as serious people who deal with the same every day dilemmas as the rest of the world. Our stories need to have real characters, with real day to day lives that just happen to be TG.
There have been a few that have such characters and story lines. The rest of us need to emulate them.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
On this subject I think...
That I write strong characters who have been dealt a hard hand in life. I don't cater to any crowd as far as I know, and feel that my own stories could be read among a variety of audiences, assuming they were given a chance by such. Doesn't Min come across as an excellent, convoluted character? Lady Muse? Maeve?
As for whether my characters say more than I expect them to... probably, you'd really have to ask someone else. I know what they say to me, but I've been surprised on that count before.
As for being proud of the message sent, sure why shouldn't I be; all my characters are strong people going through various hells of their own or others' devising, just like real people do all the time; what's not to be proud of there? The only thing that would make me hang my head there was if I knew the story sucked. I don't like shoddy work, especially my own.
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To be controversial
Yes, of course fiction plays a key part in developing acceptance and understanding within Society. This in turn drives legislation and policy. The best recent example of this was the way the LGB community leveraged fiction as part of their societal' normalisation'.
However the vast majority of current TG literature falls into two distinct sub genres:
1. Fantasy/wish fulfilment, which may or may not include significant erotic/pornographic content.
2. Struggling through adversity, which is normally (though not exclusively) the province of the autobiographical works.
Both are largely either ignored by mainstream fiction readers, or used to reinforce preconceptions.
I accept that I am perhaps being over simplistic here and there are of course notable exceptions. However, using the LGB example I mentioned above, I suggest that true success in changing society's preconceptions will only happen when TG fiction concentrates on characters who happen to be TG, rather than where the story is driven by being TG.
Persephone
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
I somewhat agree
I somewhat agree with the last part of your post. Obviously there are shades of gray in just about everything. However, society perceives the individual by how they perceive themselves. That's why I personally stay away from politics and "movements" in our society. They're painted over with a broad brush regardless of any new ideas and/or sentiment brought to the table.
The general masses will only see LGBT as that which defines them. If they thrust the LGBT mantle before anything else, the rest is lost in the background. They won't be seen as fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, co-workers, friends, etc. They'll be seen as gay person, lesbian person, bisexual person, transgender person, etc. Unfortunately, and to their detriment, that is what the majority of LGBT movements boast before all else.
There is quite a bit to be said about pride in who and what you are. But there is a lot more to be said about humility. People can be too proud of being LGBT, just as easily as a mother can be too proud of their son. Making sure the camera catches you kissing your gay partner, will not sway society. But sitting down with your gay partner, and talking about your struggles in life before a camera, might draw a lot more people in. People rarely see the latter, and almost always see the former; usually in the form of pride marches. Which in turn are painted over broadly as an in-your-face flaunting of scantily clad crazies walking down the street.
To this day, my grandparents still think being gay means having 80 piercings, wearing leather straps and chaps, with a pink mohawk, while humping trashcans with your tongue sticking out, while another guy spanks you. Why? Because that's what they see on the news. That's the image that has been painted for them. It's not judgmental. I can't hold that against them, anymore than they can hold it against me being bisexual. And I won't be able to change their view by showing them different gay pride marches. It simply is what it is.
Now applying that to TG fiction... It's not hard to see why it is thrust into erotica, or even massively clumped together to the point where people think a shemale is the standardized term. It simply is what it is. Most TG fiction is fantasy driven narrative, that leaves little room usually for feelings or sentiment. I probably read less now that I've started writing it, but when I was reading it, I had a hard time finding realistic portrayals of TGs. Even what you would think was a simple exploration of cross dressing, turns into blackmail, forced bimbofication and the person being stuck without hope in the end. People who want to understand TGs would have to dig for hours to find a nugget of realism in all of the fantasy. Sadly, I feel the unbalanced scale is one of the main reasons it is not being taken seriously.
But on the flip side, you can have too much realism. The story can turn into a day-to-day autobiography if you let it. This drives most writers to inject the warm fuzzy feeling of fetish back in to entertain their audience. I've seen so many stories go overboard with that as well. The adage of "a little dab will do ya" is thrown out the window, and pretty soon your little first time cross dresser is being driven across country in the back of a serial rapist's trunk. In the words of Tommy, "I've seen it a hundred times." But I digress...
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
Persephone sums it up well
A mainstream story where a character happens to have TG issues might help increase acceptability; however we do not expect superheroes or elves to be accepted participants in everyday life even though in fiction they might show more humanity than TG erotic fiction characters
Rhona McCloud
Equality and Whateley
Any time you introduce new ideas and get people to think it's a good thing. The Whateley Academy stories at the Crystal Hall site is a good example. There are a lot of readers there who have TG leanings at all, but read the stories because of the genre and the fine writing. True many are comic and SF fans who already tend to be more open to new or unusual ideas, but it's the getting the word out that is the important thing.
I have no idea of how busy Crystal Hall stays nor the number of hit counts on the stories, but there is no doubt that Whateley has none-TG fans.
hugs
Grover
Not so much
Maybe I'm just a pessimist but I can't help but feel that most non-TG folks will come across TG-fiction by accident while searching for erotic fiction. The stories they are most likely to encounter at such sites have plots about some sissy boy forced to wear frilly dresses and have to give his uncle a blow job, or a guy in his garage has a device that lets him shoot fem-rays into his unsuspecting neighbor's house turning him into a sexy bimbo to be his sex toy. These fetish stories most likely will turn people away and they won't find sites like this one.
Just my two cents...
Melanie
Hmmm
I think I have an idea for a new story...
I agree with persephone
I strive that my characters are people first who happen to be TG. We deal with different issues at times, than many others, but that is true with every individual. Each individual has there own group of issues thy must cope with. But all in all we are individual people and it is on that level that I hope my audience relates to my characters.
Yes being TG does effect what happens in my life and what flavor of issues I must deal with. But being black or French or rich or smart, each have there own sub set of blessings and curses. I am hoping that the readers get a chance to identify with the blessings and the challenges of living my characters lives, and seeing the world through there eyes.
There is a important place for Erotica because it is an important part of who we are. But it is the great writing that returns me to this site on a consistent basis. I just hope to reach the ability levels of our heavily great writers on this board, so some day people will enjoy reading my contributions to our community.
Huggles
Misha Nova
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
To me, it is not either or, but both.
First, thank you Katie, for asking an interesting question.
I think Persephone raises a valid point. More literature where the protagonist just happen to be TG, would - in my opinion - be one way of entering mainstream literature. Whateley academy is another way to reach outside the TG community.
I believe there are already stories here at BC where the protagonist or another main character, just happens to be transgendered. Having a homosexual protagonist in detective novels has become so mainstream - at least where I live - that it can be considered cliche. I would love for the same thing to happen for literature with transgendered protagonists.
Where I disagree with Persephone, is the value of the "vast majority of current TG literature". I believe they have great value.
I am a 50 year old transgendered person. When I was in my early twenties, I decided NOT to transition. My primary reason was, and is, that I will never be able to pass as a woman. To me, gender is tightly coupled with gender-role, and the society around me would never see me as a woman. I would always be addressed with the equivalent to "Yes Sir" - I'm not a native English speaker - anywhere I went.
I have always known I was different, but the mental anguish didn't start until puberty set in. At that stage, gender roles became more well defined, and secondary sexual characteristics so obvious, that it was no longer possible to mentally pretend differently.
I relate this information, not to draw sympathy, but because puberty/early adolescence, to me is phase in life even more traumatic than the puberty experienced by cis-gendered. When I read a story about a young TG, who naturally/magically or otherwise manage to cross the gender divide I couldn't, then I can feel happy for that imaginary person, and dream.
Those stories which are the "vast majority of current TG literature" bring dreams and hopes to me. They make - especially - the dark periods of my life more bearable. I cannot know if I am the only person in this situation, but I doubt it.
So to me, it is not either/or, it really is both. Because they both help build bridges, bridges from not so happy lives to happy lives, bridges from cis-gendered culture to tg culture.
So in short, I believe the most prevalent type of literature has value, but the kind Persephone proposes has value too.
[slight irony]
Ps. I know this is primarily an American site, but as a socialistic, science believing christian, I sometimes have a hard time dealing with some of the religion inspired antagonists. ;-)
[/slight irony]
A violent agreement :)
Snowdrop,
We may be in danger of having a 'violent agreement'.
Good fiction and literature always has value. The escapism, comfort and insight that good TG literature can offer to anyone within the transgender spectrum can never be underestimated and should always be considered a boon.
How many of us have read Jan Morris' 'Conundrum' and gained insight into our condition and courage for our own journey?
How many have buried ourselves in a Tanya Allan or Jenny Walker novel as sheer escapism?
However….
The exam question asked was about using fiction to change mainstream perceptions of TG individuals. I do not decry the escapist/fantasy or journey through adversity sub genres. I just believe that to influence mainstream audiences we need more writing where the character just happens to be TG if we are to break out of the literary TG ghetto (which at the moment is a couple of cul-de-sacs off a quiet , badly signposted lane, within LGBT bookstores).
Persephone
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
Re: A violent agreement :)
Persephone
I'm glad we're having a 'violent agreement', because I found your comment about a character who just happens to be TG spot on.
Maybe it's my lack of English skills, but I took this part:
To be a gentle critisim about some of the stereotypes presented int typical TG littrature.
Snowdrop
A character who just happens to be TG
Actually I was introduced to the idea of why this was important by Nancy Cole who has been writing books on exactly this for several years.
Persephone
Non sum qualis eram
Your Mileage May Vary
In my personal opinion (your mileage may vary) TG fiction might have a small role to play but it's never going to be defining in any meaningful way. I think it's a fallacy to think that TG fiction is in any way representative of any TG community (and I'm sceptical that there is much of a TG community) as we're all very different people living different lives. If anything has demonstrated a change in attitudes to TG people it's been the visibility of TG actors, models, military personnel etc. - i.e. real people - going about their normal lives. I certainly hope people aren't reading what we write and drawing conclusions from it (and I say this as a writer of silly stories about superheroes and magic).
I also have to say that a good writer doesn't need to be TG to write a good TG character (in dead tree format, the character of Sage from the YA fiction 'Almost Perfect' springs to mind). In fact, arguably some of the biggest stereotyping of TG characters comes from writers within the TG community.
Read. Write. But most of all have fun doing it. I leave my world changing for when I leave the house every morning.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
I had to think awhile here.
Before putting in my own dime's worth. (Inflation is a bitch, isn't it?) Back to the serious things here. I think a good approach is to show TG characters who are able to face adversity and emerge as strong people who are just people. All of us have faced adversity of one kind or another and (hopefully) come out stronger from the experience, just like people who consider themselves normal have to do off and on. I know that a lot my characters come across as put upon and complain about things, but they have other things to worry about that something as basic as sex and gender. Not that something like that is easy to handle, hence the adversity thing. My thinking is just to show that people are people regardless of the situation they find themselves in.
We don't have to let ourselves be limited to simple erotic or fetish stories. Just tell the story, make sure your character comes across as a person instead of an object and go from there.
Maggie