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i get it, in a perfect world we would be able to simply Know who was queer & who wasn’t because being in the closet wouldn’t have to exist. but we don’t. so criticism on the basis of whether an author shares a gender and/or sexuality with their characters should be CAUTIOUS.
that doesn’t mean you can’t critique or dislike books with queer rep in them because maybe they’re ownvoices & you just don’t know... it just means that the emphasis on disliking something because of the author’s seemingly nonqueer identity can be distinctly harmful.
i know, the idea of allocishet men writing sapphic stories, and allocishet women writing achillean ones is a particular source of contention in the community. but the fact is, the narrative that these are Extremely Pervasive issues hurts trans writers. it hurts queer writers.
and it does so VIOLENTLY. i’ve grown up surrounded by the narrative that i was disgusting, evil, dirty, & morally bankrupt for gravitating towards mlm content. it directly harmed me in the process of figuring out that i myself am achillean & trans, & i know i’m not alone.
consuming & writing content before i was ready or able to be out or even question my gender, was at times the only solace i had for immense pain & dysphoria i couldnt even name. but i felt shame. sometimes, i still do.
if we want to work on eradicating the idea that being allocishet is the default,,,,, we have to put that into some amount of practice. and that doesn’t mean you can’t prioritize reading from openly queer authors. you absolutely can.
this is a complicated topic that doesn’t have a one size fits all answer. there’s nuance here to the way we critique & consume & how we protect each other, whether we are out or not. & i certainly havent covered all that nuance here but i had some Thoughts. hope they made sense.
