On Isms & Idiots (Part 2)

 
Continued from here:

And for the people who're saying the real problem they have with this sudden change is because, there was never this distinction before? And it was apparently done because some gay writers have had a problem with (so many) straights winning the Lamba?

OF COURSE GAY WRITERS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT.

They should.

They're entitled.

The straight female writers who've pushed their way into queer spaces have not gone through queer experience. So what that they feel comfortable writing gay characters. They're coming from a position of privilege, one that's built on all the work queer individuals and their allies for civil rights have done in the past thirty something years.

A bunch of straight women writing primarily for more straight women have ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE in an award system of queer lit about queer experience. Because what they're writing is not queer experience. It's not. It just isn't.

Yes, no doubt there are exceptions of skill, but as a whole, it's a whole bunch of fantasy with kink and emotional intimacy and projection - as much as YAOI is. The problem is not that people have been writing wonderful and well crafted books but they just HAPPEN to be straight and now - oooh, discrimination!

The PROBLEM is that straights have every fucking thing else. And for every submission by a straight author, there's one less submission by a queer author to be considered. And when it comes to an award and recognition system that was originally set up to say "Here, we're queer, and we're going to write about our lives because our lives are deserving. Our lives count. Our stories count!" It's just plain fucked up and wrong to have the spotlight appropriated by people who are not a part of that struggle.

And no, writing about two men in love, or two men having sex DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE YOU PART OF THE STRUGGLE. It makes you a consumer and possible voyeur just like the guy who draws sexy Asian chicks isn't suddenly a part of the fight for Asian American Social Justice Media Recognition.

I'm so the hell tired of these whiny individuals not even being grateful for the ally-ship they've been automatically awarded by the awards foundation. Yes, ally-ship and yes awarded. Lamda has treated these individuals as grown-ups; compassionate, understanding, queer ally grownups. And instead they get a bunch of brats who only see what they want and can't have and who, whether they intend it or not, are behaving as if submitting to and possibly receiving a Lammie - getting a purple Lamda COOKIE - is more important than encouraging and supporting the growth of queer writers willing to write queer experience.

They're behaving exactly like people who are NOT ALLIES. Who, past their consumption of the other/ of the exotic, have no intention of doing a damn thing to bring those others into their sphere; to bring recognition to the problems those others face.

They're proving exactly why steps needed to be taken to make said awards once again part of the creative expression of a struggle for equality and recognition as more than object. They're proving WHY there's a need for more tales that promote gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals as human beings with unique points of views and experiences told from a queer point of view.

And PS: Sexism is not Cissexism. Misogyny is not Transphobia. Anti Feminist Thoughts are not Racist Thoughts. It is all NOT exactly the same, no matter if the person being oppressive and domineering and pompous looks the same; no matter if the person is the same. Each bit of oppression is different, by itself, a unique entity. This is why each has its own name. And claiming otherwise is the real comparison of apples and oranges and chocolate bars.