Misuse of words, or Did she really out him?

[karmyn75.livejournal.com]

As we all know, LKH has a strange way with words and misusing them in amusing ways. There's the infamous lose/loose, the new air/err, and my new favorite, the overuse and abuse of 'homophobe'.
I'm the first to admit I have no sort of gaydar at all. I mean, even after I saw a photo of a friend in a newspaper story about the university glbt club I still wasn't sure he was gay. Now he's in the middle of a sex change.
Anyway, it seems to me that LKH is misusing the word homophobe. When Richard is uncomfortable at seeing JC naked, Anita says he's homophobic. Maybe he just doesn't like seeing other men naked all the time. Nothing homophobic about that. The use of the word homophobe heavily implies that JC is totally and completely gay. Of course the readers know he and the other men are, but LKH has been denying this all along. Now she outs him.

Comments

[windiain.livejournal.com]

God, I need sleep. I thought LKH had outed a trans 'friend' on her blog for a moment then, which says a lot about the woman in that I wasn't surprised she'd do that. *headdesk*

Agreed. She's not quite grasped the meaning of homophobia. Just because you may not be comfortable with members of the same sex being naked does not mean you think being gay is wrong and evil. It just means that you probably have some social and personal hangups that mean you're just not comfortable with naked people. Or you're a very private person. Hell, I don't like seeing naked nether regions on ladies (or men, for that matter, but that's because penises are funny. Yes, I am ten), but that doesn't mean I give a damn about what they do in their sex lives.

LKH really gives me the impression that she likes to appear as if she's hip, cool and open-minded, but she really isn't as she has little understanding of things like homosexuality (she's probably to uncomfortable to buy a gay calendar to research it). So her attempts at being cool and in the know are frankly embarrassing.

And yes, it's so very funny that she's uncomfortable with homosexuality, and yet manages to create an ensemble of some of the most obviously gay men ever. Who aren't gay. No, really. :D

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

I like noses. Noses are cool, man!

[shalanar.livejournal.com]

Of course the readers know he and the other men are, but LKH has been denying this all along. Now she outs him

I always assumed JC and the other men in the series were bisexual, unless it was explicitly written that they were gay or straight. Most of them have had/enjoyed relations with both men and women.

As to Richard, yeah I agree...I don't so much see the homophobia. A lot of people aren't comfortable around nudity, let alone nudity of the same sex. Doesn't mean he has issues with homosexuality.

[rianax.livejournal.com]

Unless it is his homosexuality, which he doesn't have since the boy is Boy Scout straight. I would freak out if a chick kept hitting on me, especially if she knew I didn't swing that way.

Anita Homophobic?

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Remember waaay back when Anita was uncomfortable being around naked people of any sex and would make the leopards wear clothing? Does that mean that Anita was homophobic (using LKH's definition of homophobia) or just a repressed Catholic girl of the '80s?

My vote is that LKH did NOT out JC because if she DID then he WOULDN'T want Anita. And we can't have that. Can we?

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

It sounds to me like she's trying to paint anyone (espeically folks she dosen't like) who might be uncomfortable with what she's pushing as fun, intimate, sexy and progressive as 'bad' by using current catch terms that suggest bigotry, conservatism, etc.

As to what her writing reveals about her thougths on actual vairant sex, like homosexuality ... she seems to belive that queers can be cured by the love of a good woman and that lesbians are threatening to the free and open sexuality of straight women. Because, if there were any lesbians frequenting the AB books, who knows what the ardeur might make her do? :o

I'm still of the opinion that she's got the mentality of a fifties housewife tryign to show how wicked she is.

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

Well... there was Sylvie, the lesbian werewolf. But I can't remember the last time we saw her. The Killing Dance?

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

I thought that Sylvie was one of the best little-used characters in the books. She was sexy and powerful. She would make such a good, strong lupa. :( Fare thee well, Sylvie.

[rinkori.livejournal.com]

Wellllll. There are a lot of semantic things here.

I agree that LKH overuses the term "homophobic." After all, I'd be uncomfortable seeing JC naked if he'd stolen/sexed up my girlfriend, after all. It's not necessarily homophobia; it's not wanting to get busy with the guy who took your former significant other and turned her into, well, kind of a hobag.

I get the sense that LKH is just trying to be "daring" and "alternative" or some other kind of nonsense (and it's really sad that denouncing homophobia would equal being "daring," but that's a rant for another day). Of course, her actual writing reveals that she's not so open-minded as she thinks.

On the other hand, you're misusing some terms yourself here. If your friend was born biologically male and is transitioning into living as female, it's proper and respectful to refer to your friend as "she."

And, you know, gender identity and sexual orientation are totally separate things, so while your friend is transgendered, that doesn't affect whether your friend likes men or women or anything in between. "Gay" and "transgendered" aren't one and the same.

"Homophobia" is often used to apply to just anyone uncomfortable with same-sex sexual tension. "Biphobia" as a term isn't used that often, and it has connotations of objecting to the fact that someone's attracted to both genders, rather than objecting to the fact that someone's attracted to the same sex. (Thus, some homosexual people are just as guilty of biphobia as some straight people are.)

[x-bluerose-x.livejournal.com]

Quite right. I know of transgendered people who identify as straight because they are attracted only to those of the same biological gender--and vise versa.

[windiain.livejournal.com]

As a trans person, I have to say that the use of pronouns in this particular context are probably fine. Some trans people might take issue, but I don't. It's basically a frame of reference to people who don't know this person in order to illustrate a point; 'I knew this guy, he had a sex change'. If the poster had gone into more detail about this person's life and then continued to use the male pronouns, then it would be offensive, but as it stands, it would have gotten confusing to refer to the friend as 'she', as I for one would have wondered whether she was MtF or FtM.

Essentially, I read it as the original poster saying 'The LGBT world is something I admit I don't know much about [illustration], but even I can see that LKH misuses the word homophobe.'

Also, gotta agree with you re Richard - I wouldn't want to see my ex's new boyfriend naked, either - all the mental comparisons, wondering what he's got that I haven't etc etc.

And 'kind of' a hobag? *cackles* I'm sure her reputation is past that now. ;)

[sevariusjr.livejournal.com]

As a trans person

omg pix plz

[rinkori.livejournal.com]

The OP was vague about the whole trans/gay illustration, so I was just throwing stuff out there to make sure it got said just in case. While the OP wasn't being offensive or anything, it's better to overexplain than underexplain, I think!

(Sup other person in the trans* community! My significant other is a transguy.)

[slayra.livejournal.com]

"Homophobia" is often used to apply to just anyone uncomfortable with same-sex sexual tension.

Strangely enough that would make Anita Blake a homophobe. After all, she is unconfortable with the notion that Asher and Jean-Claude are "doing it" behind her back. From what I read it's not only a question of jealousy, but it gives the idea that the fact that Asher is male also plays a big part in Anita 'not liking the idea'. Of course, I always thought AB read like a homophobe. A veiled one, but one nonetheless.

As for Richard, we all know about his 'experience' with Gabriel. Since he is (for the moment) a straight character who was sort of abused in a way (at least that's what I gathered) by another man, I don't see why he shouldn't feel unconfortable in the presence of other naked men. The fact that Anita, the homophobe is classifying Richard as one, is actually hilarious.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

oh jeez. richard is uncomfortable with naked jc (who has totally hinted that he wants to bang him. if anyone male or female that i was not interested in was all HEY I WANNA FUCK YA! and hung around me naked i'd be bothered too) and he was super duper freaked by the rape of augustine. i get that. richard himself has been raped so even if he WERE slightly homophobic (and i don't believe discomfort=homophobia) there is a REASON. hello, he was raped by GABRIEL! gosh, lkh is so...bad with words.

and i totally thought you meant she outed a collegue too!

homophobia

[kerame.livejournal.com]

The fans at LKH forum call Richard "paranoidly homophobic" because he doesn't want to do things like participate in a group hug with the entire harem or sleep in a bed with them.

[ladymina.livejournal.com]

Word.

It might have to be more to do with the possibility of a threesome and with having his damn rival being the one who is naked

[dwg.livejournal.com]

And yet, ironically, LKH also states that because Richard is a lycanthrope, he's way more comfortable around being casually naked with other people, who may or may not be also naked.

*facepalm*

I'm not buying her explanation. I substitute my own, that he's lit a torch for JC and is also upset about the hoing of his ex GF.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

I can't decide if she does this on purpose, to get people riled and to delineate the sides. Or she's just stupid.

Seriously, all snark aside, I vote for "stupid". When OB and NiC came out, I noticed that OB was all violence and NiC was all sex (well, by my sadly naive standards, before I saw the dreck that LKH could churn out when she really tried). I figured that LKH was a reasonably intelligent businesswoman seeing if the violence sold better than the sex or vice versa. Then the sex kept getting worse in every conceivable sense, and that plus her own self-wank has me convinced that she's dumb. Or at least has Serious Issues that I do not want to be privy to.

[windiain.livejournal.com]

But you would NEVER EVER expect some random guy who works as a school teacher to jump in the sack with a guy if he's NEVER been interested in men before.

Yes, you wouldn't think that was a hard concept to grasp. I'm a slasher, and I'll willingly put random hot guys in the sack together, BUT even I can recognise that in reality that's just not going to happen.

I dunno, the fact that Richard is around naked people and wears the ridiculous bondage crap that JC makes everyone wear does suggest to me that he's more open-minded than people give him credit for. Homophobic is not a label I'd stick on him.

On the other hand, this is me reading behind the lines. LKH clearly has her own issues with the subject, so for all we know Richard IS homophobic in her mind, he just hides it. The problem there is that she's written stuff about him that doesn't say 'homophobic', it just says 'closeted'. ;)

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

and anyone has an idea why she's been researching 'entomology' for wereanimals? :)))
what's up next? wereants?
>_>

[amamelina.livejournal.com]

Next winning science fair project: A wereant farm. Oh, the little kiddie geeks would go wild.

Hmmm, actually, I want one, too.