Okay! So, I'm writing a story with a couple lesbian villains but I'm not lesbian so I need to know if this is, like, okay. I want to write some lesbian villains with strong motives in a story that deals a lot with child-parent relationships. But I need someone to tell me if this is bad representation. It's in a fantasy setting. Here's the deal: Before the start of the story, Erica and Jill were married. They divorced because, well, one of their sons tried to unleash a bunch of evil magic and Jill decided to stop him by freezing him in crystal. Jill ran off and now the plot of story starts as Erica tries to find a way to free her son. But she does this in the worst way possible: creating monsters to terrorize the city in order to gather the magical energy needed to free her son. Jill teams up with the story's protagonist, Mary, and gives her the power to fight the monsters. Jill does not tell Mary that she is married to the villain, Erica, or that their son was trapped by Jill. So Mary fights for Jill, who seems nice but is actually kind of a horrible person. Later, Mary finds out the truth. She then works to help Erica free her son. In the end, Erica and her son live happily ever after and Jill runs away, doomed to be alone because of they way she treated her family. Basically, Erica and Jill are both villains in their own way. Erica is a good mother who makes a bad decision and Jill is a bad mother who leaves her family (this story deals a lot with parent-child relationships and the effects of divorce. There's a divorced heterosexual couple that I didn't mention here). Erica is redeemed in the end, Jill is not. Erica and Jill aren't the only LGBT characters. Mary has a two moms, lesbians, who are a loving couple and are supposed to act as a character foil to Erica and Jill. Mary's moms communicate well and treat their daughter well. They don't freeze kids in crystal for making a mistake, like Jill does. This is kind of unrelated, but Mary has an important ally who is a trans girl. I haven't decided if I should make more characters LGBT or not. So... are these two good lesbian villains? Or are they poor representation for lesbians? Should I balance it out by adding more morally good lesbian characters? Should I add more LGBT characters or specifically more lesbians? Should I just change Jill's gender so that the villains are a divorced straight couple? Please help!
Characters shouldn't be defined by their sexuality. I'm no gay man, but if you're worried about pissing in someones coffee with a certain idea, then don't write anything. Someone, somewhere, will always find a reason as to why x is insulting, if they want to. So, write what you want and focus on the characters being human (an all the complexities that comes with) as opposed to LGBT crowd pleasers. Some can be gay, some can be straight, just so long as its not their only defining character trait. Just my two cents. Good luck with the story though. And welcome to the forum!
I think this is fine. They sound like complex, nuanced characters who don't play into any existing crappy stereotypes about lesbians, which is really the thing you have to look out for, and they're neither the only lesbians around nor the only lesbian parents.
I agree with izzy. As we've discussed in previous conversations about representation on this forum, one of the big issues with negative portrayals of minority characters is that they're too often the only portrayals of minority characters. In this situation, you've balanced things out with other portrayals, and you're not tying the "villainous" actions to the characters' sexuality. I do wonder about having too many more LGBTQ characters, unless you introduce a plot device explaining why all these people meet up in statistically unlikely ways. I mean, a random sample of humans will be mostly heterosexual, so if your characters aren't mostly heterosexual I think it's valuable to establish that you're not taking a random sample. Mary doesn't stumble across Erica and Jill on the street; she knows them because they're old friends of her mothers (and her mothers tend to hang out with other lesbians from time to time). Whatever. I don't think it needs to be an elaborate explanation, because people do tend to cluster around those they're similar to/feel comfortable with, but I'd recommend acknowledging that there's been an element of selection to your group, rather than just a random cluster of people off the street. It sounds like an interesting story!
The three big things to look at when dealing with potential stereotypes – in this case, "lesbians shouldn't raise children" – are Major characters who have the same trait, but who are of the more privileged demographic Major characters in the same underprivileged demographic, but who don't share the same trait The characters with this trait from this demographic are fleshed out as being more than just that one trait My impression is that you already have the second part down pretty well and that you have a start on the first one, and you would ideally be doing the third thing (fleshing out the characters into 3-dimensional people) regardless of any potential stereotyping. Frankly, my bigger issue with this is: what was Jill and Erica's son trying to do with his dark magic? How far did he and Erica get in their respective evil plans before they were stopped? What does "Erica and her son live happily ever after" look like after the things that both of them tried to do? What were the other options available to Jill that she should've taken instead of crystallizing her son at the beginning?
My protagonist Rose is straight as a wet noodle. Early in the story her childhood friend Lyla confesses to her, and their feelings are mutual. If you like the idea, roll it with and own it, don't other people tell you what to write. Plus I have found out that intimate scenes are really fun to write.
Good for you Kind of like W.D. Griffith? Sensitivity readers aren’t “censors,” they’re fact-checkers. If a police writer asks a police detective for feedback on a kidnapping scene, and if the detective tells him “Actually, it’s a popular misconception that chloroform knocks you out in seconds with no side effects after you wake up...” then would you consider that to be censorship on the detective’s part?
Before you write about them, learn about them. This is America write what you want and what you are pasionate about! Should we preclude a lesbain from writing about a strait person? I do not think so, so why limit yourself?
The problem with the second part is making sure you do the first part first. Female authors are generally better at writing male characters than male authors are at writing female characters, and this is largely because most female authors have had more exposure to the life experiences of men than most male authors have had to the life experiences of women. The r/Writing community of Reddit had a pair of threads a while back "Women, what do you want male authors to do differently with female characters" and "Men, what do you want female authors to do differently with male characters." The "men, what do you want" thread didn't have nearly as many comments as the "women, what do you want" thread did, and a lot of the comments in the "men, what do you want " thread were "this thread doesn't have nearly as many comments as the other one did." I'll see if I can find them. Likewise, I'm a queer white author, and it would be easier for me to write a near-authentic straight character than for me to write a near-authentic non-white character; I've just had so much more exposure to the life experiences of straight people than I've had to the life experiences of POC. Matt Easton word of the day: CONTEXT EDIT: Found them! Women: What do you want males to know about writing female characters? Men of r/writing: what do you want women to know about writing male characters?
Whole heartedly agree the first part may be difficult for some. I would likely start with literature lesbian wrote and then move on to asking some about themselves. The second could be tricky as one could easily upset some one if the questions were not given in the correct way. I know nothing about being a lesbian, large amoutns of research would be required for me to complete the task. How ever if I felt strongly enough about the story I would do what is needed. The good news is as you pointed out women tend to be more open about their experiences and opinions than men do. Tell me this being gay and male could a strait auther pick your brain on the experience with out offending you!
The third big part is researching the stereotypes specifically (Google is always a good place to start) because you're not looking for the small number of right ways that are hidden behind a bunch of wrong ways. The popular awareness – or "zeitgeist" if you want to be snobby – has a small number of options that are each given an undue amount of emphasis (most of which wouldn't even be problematic in of themselves, only becoming problematic because they're so overemphasized that people who could be different are still expected to conform to them) , and you're looking for the massive number of possibilities that are hidden behind them. "How do I write a lesbian character" isn't going to be helpful. "How do I not write a lesbian character" is going to be a lot more helpful. Uh, what? I'm actually asexual/aromantic; "queer" is actually an umbrella term that doesn't just refer to "gay" specifically.
I guess you learn some thing every day. Sexuality terms are not my strong suite. When I include sexuality in my stories, they have been of the heterosexual nature because that is what I have an understanding of. I have not realy even attempted to write about some thing I do not know and know well. I find it easier to write what I know and what I am pationate about. I hope some day I will feel strongly enough about a story to leave my comfort zone and have a learning experience. Considering my finantial situation at the moment, it is likely that I will continue to write in my comfort zone and write things I think I can actually finish.
