Six Inches Forward, Five Inches Back
Sep. 1st, 2009 02:19 pmAs a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.
It was suggested that we post an excerpt of our own queer speculative fiction today, but instead I'd like to talk briefly about stories in general. Last night I watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch for the first time. It's a film about a transsexual rock star, and it has a lot to say about gender and sexuality. It's not a film that offers answers--which is good, because I hate films that do--but it asks questions with an androgynous growl, through amplifiers, with the mic stand bent forward so that the singer is inches from your face. And god knows there are questions to ask about these things. It seems to me that one of the functions of story is to reassure us that other people have grappled with the same questions, have struggled in the same ways to fit into the ill-fitting slots the world tries to offer us. We are all square pegs. To pretend otherwise, to claim that anyone who lives or loves across arbitrary lines is deviant, is not just hateful, but inherently violent, and that is what is intolerable.