Small mention about LKH's books

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/400000640/post/260033826.html?nid=4381

It is down at the end of the article


Queer male characters are starting to pop up in other areas of mainstream paranormal romance; queer female characters, not so much. A Laurell K. Hamilton fan mentioned to me recently that the steamy scenes in her books include pretty much every possible sexual configuration except for women willingly having sex with other women. Is this because queer female characters might put off the straight female majority of Hamilton's readers? Is it to deliberately eschew those porn stereotypes of women who perform same-sex acts for the enjoyment of men (stereotypes so often played out in portrayals of female vampires, who inevitably end up looking like Renaissance Faire rejects or caricatured dominatrices)? Or is it that in the end, paranormal romance still harkens back very strongly to the romance novel tradition? Is there room for queer women in mainstream paranormal romance, or is the market just not ready for it?

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Well, they say that in school girls on the whole focus more on words than boys do, whereas boys in general prefer being shown something than reading about it.

Perhaps this persists later in life. Television and movies are areas in which men dominate; maybe men prefer to see two women having sex, rather than reading about it? And because for a long time there was a paucity of m/m love affairs on screen--the Hays movie code made that all but impossible for a long time, and even when gays were allowed, they were often depicted as stereotypes or jokes--I think that women learned to take what they could get where they could get it. And those would be gay books from underground (and later, small or speciality) presses.

That said, it's not true that every sexual configuration shows up in LKH's books. Though most of her male characters are stated to be gay or bi, they never seem to touch each other or have sex with each other, at least not onscreen. In fact, there's at least one m/m couple that has been in love for over a century...but they aren't having sex because Anita-LKH doesn't want them to.

Two guys not having sex because of pressure not to do so? That's not revolutionary; it's reactionary.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

The only other position I can recall is doggy style. To me, the men having Anita underneath them and on her knees feels like LKH is allowing Anita to be constantly dominated in sex.