Hello all,
This came up in a discussion on a piece I've written. While it definitely still reads like a first draft and has issues, a surprising amount of folks have pointed out that they think my two male leads act, well... entirely too gay toward each other, and it seems to be a distraction for many.
While this was not intended, I re-evaluated the scene, looking for 'the gay'. There was no touching. Someone pointed out that the narrator checked out the other guy's wardrobe, used 'tasteful' to describe it (I will fix it to 'cool,' just because tasteful is a word adults use to describe someone's formal wear, sexuality not included, not 16 year old guys) .
Another pointed out tapping the chin is a feminine gesture, which the other was responsible for.
I think what it, mostly, boiled down to was this idea of two guys having a similar relationship as to what two straight girls might have. Guys don't usually have emotional relationships - as was cited in that thread: Guys are From Mars. Girls are From Venus.
They were able to sort of talk about their feelings in a way that I'll even admit... most guys can't. Like in one instance, one asks if the other guy trusts him, because the other didn't want to tell him something about his past.
The critique that obviously "two guys don't act like this!" cannot possibly fly, as I'm positive, given the sample size of the entire world, I can find two straight guys who do act like this... but I guess it boils down to a potential risk of alienating the reader.
So, I guess my questions for this thread boils down to these: Does "bromance" annoy you? When does it go beyond "bromance" to "ambiguously gay" or is it always ambiguously gay to even HAVE a bromance? Should the only books that have two guys who, essentially, come from Venus be labeled Gay/Lesbian? Do you even care? Do you like pie?
Please share your thoughts.
This came up in a discussion on a piece I've written. While it definitely still reads like a first draft and has issues, a surprising amount of folks have pointed out that they think my two male leads act, well... entirely too gay toward each other, and it seems to be a distraction for many.
While this was not intended, I re-evaluated the scene, looking for 'the gay'. There was no touching. Someone pointed out that the narrator checked out the other guy's wardrobe, used 'tasteful' to describe it (I will fix it to 'cool,' just because tasteful is a word adults use to describe someone's formal wear, sexuality not included, not 16 year old guys) .
Another pointed out tapping the chin is a feminine gesture, which the other was responsible for.
I think what it, mostly, boiled down to was this idea of two guys having a similar relationship as to what two straight girls might have. Guys don't usually have emotional relationships - as was cited in that thread: Guys are From Mars. Girls are From Venus.
They were able to sort of talk about their feelings in a way that I'll even admit... most guys can't. Like in one instance, one asks if the other guy trusts him, because the other didn't want to tell him something about his past.
The critique that obviously "two guys don't act like this!" cannot possibly fly, as I'm positive, given the sample size of the entire world, I can find two straight guys who do act like this... but I guess it boils down to a potential risk of alienating the reader.
So, I guess my questions for this thread boils down to these: Does "bromance" annoy you? When does it go beyond "bromance" to "ambiguously gay" or is it always ambiguously gay to even HAVE a bromance? Should the only books that have two guys who, essentially, come from Venus be labeled Gay/Lesbian? Do you even care? Do you like pie?
Please share your thoughts.
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