Sometimes sexuality doesn't have to matter, it just has to exist.: seanan

Sometimes sexuality doesn't have to matter, it just has to exist.

A few months ago, I got an email from a reader who had a question she wanted me to answer. I like questions. If they're not spoilery for things that haven't been published yet, I'm generally willing to give them a go. This question, however, stumped me for a little while:

"what is the purpose of Dr. Kellis being gay? It neither adds or subtracts to the story line but is distracting."

Dr. Kellis was gay because Dr. Kellis was gay. I "met" the character in the same scene that everyone else did, when his husband showed up to try and convince him to leave the lab for a little while. He was a man, he had a husband, he was at minimum bisexual, and for the purposes of the story, he was gay. He was a gay scientist. Since he wasn't working on gay science (I'm not even sure what that phrase means), it mattered purely in the sense that when he talked about going home, it was to a husband, and not a wife. I honestly never thought about changing it. While everyone in the world is at least somewhat defined by their sexuality—it shapes us throughout our lives, both in the exercising of it and in the existence of it—I've never felt like it was the be-all and end-all of human experience.

What weirded me out a little, and still does, is that no one has ever asked me "What is the purpose of Character X being straight?" No one has ever called it "distracting" when Velma has naughty thoughts about Tad, or when Toby blushes because Tybalt is commenting on her clothing. Men and women, women and men, it's totally normal and invisible, like using "said" in dialog instead of some other, more descriptive word. It's invisible. But gay people are distracting. (Bisexual people are apparently even more distracting. I've had several people write to tell me that a piece of text in Blackout can be read to imply that Buffy and Maggie had sex, and some of them have been less than thrilled when I replied that there was no implication intended: Buffy and Maggie had sex. Repeatedly. Lots of sex. Lovely sex. They enjoyed it a lot, but Maggie took it more seriously than Buffy did, and Buffy wanted to keep things casual, so they broke up. But before they broke up? They had so much sex.)

For the most part, I let my characters tell me what their sexuality is, once it starts to have an impact on their characterization. I don't write Bob as a gay man and Tom as a straight man and Suzie as a lesbian: I write Bob as a zookeeper and Tom as a ballet teacher and Suzie as a ninja, right up until the moment where they have to interact with someone they'd be attracted to. Sometimes, that's when they tell me what they're into. Since this is all in first draft, I can go back later and clean things up, clarify things to add any additional detail that needs to be there, but I almost never tell them "Oh, no, you can't be gay, it would be distracting. It's not allowed."

(The one exception is with characters who are here to go—the ones created to be slaughtered in fifteen pages or less. They're not all straight, but I have to stop and think long and hard about how I would have felt, as a bisexual teenager, if I had finally, finally encountered an awesome bisexual woman in fiction, only to see her die before she got to be amazing. Sometimes this does result in my reexamining their relationships, as it's also difficult to really form strong character portraits in fifteen pages or less. Anyone who's sticking around for more than fifteen pages is fair game.)

Gay people don't walk around saying "I'd like to have an urban fantasy adventure, I'm gay, I like men/women, let's go fight a dragon" any more than straight people walk around saying "I'd like to go to space, I'm straight, I like men/women, let's go steal a rocket." People is the word that matters here. And yes, being anything other than heterosexual and cis in this world means that you're going to experience different things, and have some different perspectives, but it doesn't inform one hundred percent of what you do. I eat pizza the same way my straight friends eat pizza. I watch TV the same way my straight friends watch TV. I chase lizards...well, I chase lizards in a uniquely singleminded and slightly disturbing fashion, but as I'm not a lizardsexual, it has nothing to do with who I do or do not choose to form romantic relationships with.

Dr. Kellis is gay because Dr. Kellis is gay.

He doesn't need any reason beyond that.

serge_lj

June 21 2013, 20:39:49 UTC 4 years ago Edited: June 21 2013, 20:43:38 UTC

New comment

"...I'd like to go to space, I'm straight, I like men/women, let's go steal a rocket..."

And next thing you know, your Significant Other turns into a rubber band with an IQ of 700, and his best friend turns into a pile of bricks..

This reminds me of the Outer Limits episode "Moonstone". One astronaut was played by a black man. The network said there was nothing in the script that required that the character be black. The writer simply changed the script to say 'BLACK ASTRONAUT', thus fulfilling the network's requirements.

elliemurasaki

June 21 2013, 21:04:02 UTC 4 years ago

Sneaky. I like.

killjoy188

4 years ago

seanan_mcguire

the_gneech

June 21 2013, 20:40:31 UTC 4 years ago

Well said. :)

-The Gneech

June 24 2013, 15:59:20 UTC 4 years ago

Thanks.

vulpine137

June 21 2013, 20:43:17 UTC 4 years ago

Dr kellis is from the novella before before the Feed series, correct ? (don't have my kindle handy to check)

I remember noting he had a husband, and thinking 'Huzzah, at least California got that worked out before the zombie apocalypse' and moving on.

I guess that's the point. Hopefully in the near future I won't even have that mental note anymore.

Deleted comment

griffen

mac_arthur_park

June 21 2013, 20:43:58 UTC 4 years ago

This was really inspiring to me. I've been working on chapters for The Jillie Project and someone asked me why one character had an ex-boyfriend and is later flirting with girls.

I'm not trying to make a statement. He's just bi.

I hate that I have to explain his backstory.

June 24 2013, 15:59:48 UTC 4 years ago

As do I, honey.

la_marquise_de_

June 21 2013, 20:45:42 UTC 4 years ago

That's a very good way of putting it. Thank you.

June 24 2013, 16:00:07 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you.

June 24 2013, 16:00:19 UTC 4 years ago

It really, really does.

priscellie

June 21 2013, 20:56:08 UTC 4 years ago

So much truth.

June 24 2013, 16:00:27 UTC 4 years ago

lysystratae

June 21 2013, 20:57:47 UTC 4 years ago

How in the seven hells is it distracting? ???

inaurolillium

June 21 2013, 21:04:37 UTC 4 years ago

Because the reader has some unresolved and/or unconscious homophobia.

More Expand

June 21 2013, 21:00:15 UTC 4 years ago

Yet another of the reasons why you're awesome.

June 24 2013, 16:00:49 UTC 4 years ago

notalwaysweak

June 21 2013, 21:02:16 UTC 4 years ago

In case you needed reminding, you rock.

June 24 2013, 16:00:58 UTC 4 years ago

Aw. <3

q_pheevr

June 21 2013, 21:03:10 UTC 4 years ago

Since he wasn't working on gay science (I'm not even sure what that phrase means)

Whatever it is, it's the opposite of economics.

June 24 2013, 16:04:54 UTC 4 years ago

*snrk*

June 21 2013, 21:03:44 UTC 4 years ago

\o/

June 24 2013, 16:05:02 UTC 4 years ago

kimuro

June 21 2013, 21:07:20 UTC 4 years ago

I find distracting and disturbing the obsession that some (mostly straight) people have with the type of sex that other people (mature, consenting adults) enjoy. It implies to me that those (mostly straight) people are looking at EVERYONE in a sexual way - which really creeps me out. Who goes around imagining everyone having sex unless they're thinking about sex all the time. And when you get right down to it, really, who is it that is a danger to someone else's marriage - the person who has sworn to cleave to someone regardless of the gender of that someone or the person who sexualizes everyone s/he meets?

dragonsally

June 22 2013, 01:27:18 UTC 4 years ago

this this this

danjite

June 21 2013, 21:11:04 UTC 4 years ago

OK, now getting down with my pedantic self, just 'cause Dr. Kellis has a husband doesn't mean he is gay/bi any more than my having a (delightful) wife means I am straight.

Relationship orientation is not sexual orientation any more than my gender is determined by my pink bits.

(That said, Seanan creates universes I love and the fact she writes a character with an attribute is enough for me to accept that the character has the attribute for a reason... even if that reason is 'cos it just IS.)

June 22 2013, 03:57:44 UTC 4 years ago

Point. I'm a Kinsey 4-5 and I've been with my husband for nineteen years.

Edit.

owenblacker

3 years ago

thedragonweaver

julieandrews

June 21 2013, 21:11:56 UTC 4 years ago

Yea, it's a recurring theme in panels on topics like this at WisCon that you don't have to have a REASON for a character to be gay/black/female/whatever. It doesn't have to be an ISSUE story. It doesn't have to be /about/ them being gay, black or female. You know, it can be about them fighting aliens!

I experienced this pretty early on. I wrote a story for college in which the characters were using sign language. I didn't bother to explain why. They just were. BOY HOWDY did that confuse people. And they then went on to make all sorts of assumptions. Y'know, other than, like, 'they both know a signed language, so why not?' Or even the very simple explanation of 'one of them is Deaf'.

No, I was just being distracting and confusing.

Every time you /don't/ decide to make your character white or male, you're 'defaulting' to it, and that's just laziness. He's white because I didn't even stop to consider for a moment that you could have a black female astronaut. Oh yea.. Well I didn't /say/ he was white. Yea, but you named him John Smith and said he was blond.

June 24 2013, 16:06:14 UTC 4 years ago

Ugh.

Just ugh.

oneminutemonkey

June 21 2013, 21:13:42 UTC 4 years ago

YES.
This is totally my philosophy. The characters tell us who they are and what they like.
If they're gay, good. If they're straight, good. If they're bi or trans, black or white, tall or thin, or anything else whatsoever.... fine!

Often times, the needs of a story might dictate certain things about a character. But when the story doesn't dictate that certain things be so... do what seems right.

I have a story in making the rounds, in which the narrator is gay. It's not a plot requirement or something that even comes up because of the story save in the character's mind...but I know he's gay, and he alludes to it, and moves on because O HAI, WE'RE IN TROUBLE. Could he be straight? Yeah, but his sexuality doesn't matter to the plot at hand...and it might matter if he appears again.

So there. Let them be gay. Even if it means that some reader will identify with the character, and go "Hey, look, here's someone just like me, and they had an inadvertent hand in bringing around the apocalypse. HOORAY ROLE MODEL!)

(Sorry, it's been a day. It really has.) :)

June 24 2013, 16:06:52 UTC 4 years ago

It's okay.

We all get to have days.

Love you always.

ravynwitch

June 21 2013, 21:19:44 UTC 4 years ago

BRAVO!!!

All I have to say :)

June 24 2013, 16:07:00 UTC 4 years ago

Thank you. :)

beccastareyes

June 21 2013, 21:20:29 UTC 4 years ago

I always thought the 'purpose' of Dr. Kellis being gay/Buffy and Maggie being bisexual/etc. was to show that this is a world like ours, where there are queer folks around. That choosing to make everyone straight (or white, or male) or 'unknown' is the thing that should require an explanation.

June 24 2013, 16:07:09 UTC 4 years ago

Agreed.

gwisteria

June 21 2013, 21:29:24 UTC 4 years ago

One of the reasons it's a small reason but it is there is that it seemed arbitrary what the sexual orientation of your characters and that there isnt alot of sex in the stories which as a mom of a 17 year old who has self identified as queer/ bisexual since 11....it meant we could share our love of the genre and I could show her world where orientation was just another characteristic not a plot line.

dragonflymn

June 21 2013, 23:57:50 UTC 4 years ago

This this this! My 15 year old hasn't decided what way she goes but she feels very strongly about sexual identity as a basic right and it is AWESOME to be able to share books which are all inclusive!

loree

June 21 2013, 21:42:43 UTC 4 years ago

"what is the purpose of Dr. Kellis being gay? It neither adds or subtracts to the story line..."

I disagree. It adds a sense of normality for we readers who don't fit into the box marked heteronormative.

June 24 2013, 16:13:49 UTC 4 years ago

That was my thought.

hvideo

June 21 2013, 21:43:39 UTC 4 years ago

"What is the purpose of Dr. Kellis being gay? It neither adds or subtracts to the story line but is distracting."

When change is happening in society, that IS distracting - until we get used to it.

I'm not a fan of Victorian literature, but I've been told that there were entire novels written back then where The Big Ending was to reveal that a certain character was gay. When modern readers get a novel like that they ask "Where is the ending of the story?" - because that sort of reveal ISN'T considered a be-all, end-all type of thing.

During the period when I was growing up, a gay person in a story was still such a rarity that it was almost guarenteed to be at least IMPORTANT to the story line. Your reader seems to be from that background - that it wouldn't have been mentioned unless it was IMPORTANT, and so they spend time looking for that importance. Thus the distraction.

We are now (ever-so-slowly) moving into a society where "It just exists". Literature that TREATS it as something that "just exists" will help. When people GROW UP with books (and TV shows and movies and so on) that don't automatically couple it with the idea "THIS IS IMPORTANT OR IT WOULDN'T DARE BE MENTIONED" society will tend to have a more accepting view of things that are still controversial today (gay marriage and such).

Your reader may not be actively against gay people, but your reader still represents the inertia that society has when trying to get used to a change. You, OTOH, are part of the solution. Keep writing the way you do!

June 24 2013, 16:14:04 UTC 4 years ago

I will!

listicath

June 21 2013, 21:44:23 UTC 4 years ago

It's an odd question to ask. Dr Kellis's sexuality didn't appear to me as an artificial construct just to tick a box. He doesn't have to be gay, but then there's no reason why he wouldn't be gay. His sexuality didn't add or subtract from the story, which is exactly the way it should be and I love that you do that. Any distraction reflects more on the readers prejudices.

Now, when Maggie dropped the news about Buffy and herself I was suprised, which was pretty much how the characters reacted. But then that makes Maggie's concern for her other friends' safety all the more poignant. And shows us that, despite the rising, love still goes on.

June 24 2013, 16:14:17 UTC 4 years ago

:)

Yes, this.

evieeros

June 21 2013, 21:51:37 UTC 4 years ago

Squee! Seanan yet more reasons why you are awesome. It's funny you should post this today as I have just been rereading the Newsflesh books and novellas. I was thinking how REFRESHING it was that there were queer characters around who were simply there doing their thing without their sexual orientation being an OMG!hugedeal!

PS yes the icon is Schrodinger's equation for sexuality. Bisexual-physics nerd alert! ;)

geekhyena

June 22 2013, 00:22:15 UTC 4 years ago

Mind if I yoink that? It eloquently sums up my own personal views (pansexual nerd here) And yes, the fact that the characters were queer and it was not a huge deal it was how they were - AWESOME! I don;t think it was ever a big deal/plot point anywhere but in San Diego, where the point was more about how the media treats personal lives of actors, tbh. (but that is WMG, admittedly)

*applauds Seanan*