I concur. I gotta say that this stance went from "mildly annoying" to "really infuriatingly insulting" over the course of her books. It's just bizarre to me that she consistently wants these men who are described in ways that are extremely effeminate compared to what is generally considered to be the cultural standard, who all live together and strip together and who have been naked together and sexual with each other before... and yet she's got this almost histrionic reaction to any implication of "other than straight" sexuality in any of them. Heaven forfend that after hundreds of years of undead living, these guys have all finally dealt with their own internalized homophobia to whatever extent that was relevant to their basic orientations.
I don't know why Asher and Jean Claude both didn't just tell her "Listen, INFANT, we have lived and loved for ten times your little lifespan and you don't know what you're talking about so either you can it with the ultimatums or hit the bricks." I know I'd sure be "Get good with it or get gone." As I recall too, wasn't the only person who was actually allowed to be gay the were-hyena's Oba? And didn't he turn out to actually be a hermaphrodite in the end? As I recall he dies along with a whole bunch of other gay weres, because the punishment for being 100% gay in this series does tend to be a messy end. *sigh* You notice how many of the actually evil characters are gay either by direct revelation or by mannerism? Nice. *glare*
One thing that does keep me reading though, I have to admit, is the train-wreck aspects of watching the author struggle with the issues that her characters are going through and the very, very obvious biases which she has. It's clear that she keeps drifting towards admitting that she finds gay men attractive and gay sex hot, but then she kind of freaks out and drags all the men back over to her by their collars, insisting that they remain faithful to only her and only women. And yet, Nathaniel the former male prostitute...who feeds Asher...who has lavender eyes and hair down to his ankles...HMMM. Alrighty then. Jean Claude (he of the flounces and leather and lace ensembles) is allowed to be -grudgingly- bisexual, but even then his attraction to Asher makes it sound more like he was humoring Asher's desire for him because he loved Asher than the fact that he genuinely kinda likes man sex himself. The Augustine encounter (so with you on that one) really does throw a pretty huge spotlight on Laurel K's issues. The whole thing makes me want to sit Laurel K. down and go "OK dear, what gay man broke your heart? Well that was a long time ago and you need to build a bridge and get over it sister. You have more issues than a National Geographic lending library and it's starting to affect your work.."
Anita needs a pair of big girl panties (so she can pull them up and deal with her issues) worse than any character I've ever read before.
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I don't know why Asher and Jean Claude both didn't just tell her "Listen, INFANT, we have lived and loved for ten times your little lifespan and you don't know what you're talking about so either you can it with the ultimatums or hit the bricks." I know I'd sure be "Get good with it or get gone."
As I recall too, wasn't the only person who was actually allowed to be gay the were-hyena's Oba? And didn't he turn out to actually be a hermaphrodite in the end? As I recall he dies along with a whole bunch of other gay weres, because the punishment for being 100% gay in this series does tend to be a messy end. *sigh*
You notice how many of the actually evil characters are gay either by direct revelation or by mannerism? Nice. *glare*
One thing that does keep me reading though, I have to admit, is the train-wreck aspects of watching the author struggle with the issues that her characters are going through and the very, very obvious biases which she has. It's clear that she keeps drifting towards admitting that she finds gay men attractive and gay sex hot, but then she kind of freaks out and drags all the men back over to her by their collars, insisting that they remain faithful to only her and only women. And yet, Nathaniel the former male prostitute...who feeds Asher...who has lavender eyes and hair down to his ankles...HMMM. Alrighty then. Jean Claude (he of the flounces and leather and lace ensembles) is allowed to be -grudgingly- bisexual, but even then his attraction to Asher makes it sound more like he was humoring Asher's desire for him because he loved Asher than the fact that he genuinely kinda likes man sex himself.
The Augustine encounter (so with you on that one) really does throw a pretty huge spotlight on Laurel K's issues.
The whole thing makes me want to sit Laurel K. down and go "OK dear, what gay man broke your heart? Well that was a long time ago and you need to build a bridge and get over it sister. You have more issues than a National Geographic lending library and it's starting to affect your work.."
Anita needs a pair of big girl panties (so she can pull them up and deal with her issues) worse than any character I've ever read before.