Forum: Author Hangout

Perhaps a definition of "gay sex" might help the challenge. Is Lesbian activity considered "gay sex"?

Nope! ALL straight men either read or write lesbian sex scenes, so it's no big deal, whereas most straight men have serious issues reading gay sex scenes, even if they can get through a story about gay characters. I've been around the gay community for most of my life, experimented in my youth, but still had issues reading/editing others stories until writing the one book completely changed my perception.

In general, lesbians using strap-ons is more a male fantasy than a lesbian reality. In fact, the majority of 'strap-on' porn features women screwing guys in the ass, rather than woman-on-woman strap-on sex.

The same is true of MMF, because quite a few straight writers will write such scenes strictly from a straight perspective (ex: "We have fun, but we never crossed swords!").

Trans sex is more of a stretch, but again, most straight writers approach it as M/F sex with a surprise ending--never really dealing with the full act, rather than describing the actual trans experience. (Note: I had less difficulty with trans tales than I did gay porn.)

Drag or transvestite is closer, as it often focuses on two men trying to temporarily pass as women having sex, and thus actually describes gay sex.

By the way, most gay males I know are perfectly happy, at least since the 1920s when the suicide rates dropped significantly (gay porn before that was a real horror-fest of depression!). A couple (or a group) of gay gays isn't unusual or out of bounds, and makes for cute phrasings.

To CW: Is your intention to suggest writing about your personal squirk(s) [those based upon prejudices] to test whether that changes you, or your perceptions?

As usual, someone else typically better expresses my own thoughts than I do (which is why it takes me so long to revise my own words).

Yep, that was my point. For most of us, lesbian sex is more an attraction than a squick, and even when we write about trans characters, we tend to see them as straight characters with a twist rather than a separate sexual being, so we focus on what we relate to rather than our own issues. I suspect, many people 1-bomb gay stories because it's so difficult for us to acknowledge that we're each capable of being somewhat gay ourselves (finding enjoyment in reading about male-on-male sex). If you read gay porn, you need to relate to the characters, even if you never engage in gay sex yourself.

No! Not true! Speaker for yourself, not me.

I didn't mean that everyone IS gay, but that, in order to read about gay characters, they have to imagine themselves in the characters' heads. That explains why so many people 1-bomb gay stories, they refuse to put themselves into that situation. While men don't mind reading about lesbians, or women about gay men, they don't have the same difficulty in identifying with the characters.

By the way, although most people refer to an older guestimate about 15% of the population being homosexual, most recent figures place the number around only 5 to 7% (for the 'exclusively homosexual', at least). The number of exclusively straight is MUCH, much higher. So no, I'm in no way claiming the majority of readers are gay.

Maybe that was my issue. Despite being on the fringes of the gay culture for so long, I found I had difficulty editing gay author's sex scenes, which I only overcame when I was forced to write my own (a story which required me to get into the gay character's heads).

My resistance was probably my refusal to admit that I'm not, at least partially, a part of that lifestyle. Hell, everything thinks the same way, even if we have slightly different desires. My uneasiness was likely a last-ditch effort to declare myself safely distinct from my gay brothers and lesbian sisters.

I wouldn't say it bother's me so much as it doesn't interest me.

I'll read a story with some M/M sex as long as there is something else to draw my interest.

there is no indication he ever had a wife

I guess you didn't read The Da Vinci Code

there is no indication he ever had a wife or girlfriend

Sorry, but that information is in the Bible, you just have to understand the society involved. To them it was so obvious it wasn't stated.

Jesus started his wanderings as a Teacher a defined level of knowledge of the Torah, but not a Rabbi. At that time you had to be married to be a Rabbi. When Jesus entered Jerusalem they called him Rabbi, because he had been accepted as one and made a Rabbi - thus he had to have been married. A secondary marker, is a woman could not travel with a man unless she was a relative, slave, or servant. Mary Magdalene was not a slave, or a servant, or a blood relative. Also, only wives, mothers, or sisters were allowed to handle the deceased, and she was involved in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. Makes it kind of obvious she was his wife.

Lets really light up the switchboard, speaking of Orthodox, was Jesus "straight"?

I think, over the past 10 to 20 years, most non-relgiously affiliated 'experts' now assume that Mary Madoline was not only Jesus' main apostle, but also his wife (common-law, if nothing else). There was also a "Book of Mary", written shortly after Jesus's death, but the Catholic church ensured that none survived. However, no one associated with Christianity (at least in an official position) would agree with that supposition.

EDIT: What Ernest says.