It was about seven months ago that Norithics wrote a journal asking a probing question. You no doubt notice I was slow to respond, but that is not itself important to my response here.
The context of the question is that among fan fiction, there exist stories where some characters are portrayed as gay (or lesbian or bisexual) who have not canonically been portrayed as such. (No surprise there.) Additionally, among readers of fan fiction, there are some who react with varying degrees of disgust to such portrayals, even to fluffy romances. It would be trivial to dismiss these people as "haters," but some of these people comment on their disgust and add that they don't mean offense to LGBTs. It is this last subset of readers that frustrated Nori, and I hope to put one new theory into writing.
First, though, I will point out some obvious theories and dismiss each in turn-- not for being wrong, exactly, but for being easy to suggest, and in particular easy to reject for not applying to the whole population (rather, the whole remaining population, since each theory applies to some of these people).
The first such theory is that when the reader/commenter says they're not a bigot, they're lying or mistaken. Or maybe they're just a little bigoted, so they tend not to notice. But surely some people can dislike an aspect of someone without it being hate; let's give them a little credit.
A second theory is that when a character is written with an alternate sexuality, the reader may object because that character has never canonically expressed that sexuality. Maybe one could dismiss this theory because that reader should accept they are reading fan fiction, but that's not my dismissal; some parallel reader objections, such as breaking the canonical laws of physics/magic/Budapest, are welcomed with open arms.
No, I reject this because there are possible in-universe rationalizations that the reader might reject anyway. The character in question may not have expressed any sexuality at all, or maybe only done so rarely, or even expressed heterosexuality only because that's what their society accepts. Which is to say, sexuality is an inherently complicated subject, so when a character's invented homosexuality appears to go against canon, it may not be in contradiction.
Let's assume, though, that the reader accepts counter-canon events in fan fiction, including shipping one or more romantic couples. Given the reader doesn't fall into the previous categories, why would one who accepts gay relationships between actual gay people not do so between alternate versions of fictional characters? Maybe, as rick2tails explained for himself(warning: a bit more explicit), the reader might think the particulars of being gay would be an insult to one character or another, or at least not fit their established personality.
That's a pretty compelling argument, but again, it might not apply to everyone remaining. Rick still dislikes some gay or bi pairings, but his position has become more nuanced; this dislike only arises when it goes against the source material a certain way, when a pairing doesn't make sense. Of course, what "makes sense" varies from reader to reader, but does this explanation apply when a reader has looked at several gay pairings (of varying quality) and found none of them to "make sense"? Shouldn't one suspect that this reader is applying a blanket criterion of "is gay" or something equivalent?
I realize it looks as if I've painted myself into a corner. I'm claiming there exist some fan-fiction readers who like non-canon romance and enjoy (or at least tolerate) real-life gay romance (between others), yet still reject non-canon gay romance wholesale. But I'm confident there are some who feel this way and are desperate for an explanation. And so I am writing this journal to provide an answer which, except for a few extreme cases, should exhaust nearly all reasonable possibilities.
You, dear reader, have a blind spot.
Every single time you have read about characters in a gay relationship, you have rejected it as not fitting your idea of romance. You've never thought about it in detail, but I think it's because you barely have an idea of what romance looks like when it's between two men or two women. Perhaps you have a gay or bisexual friend who's in a relationship, but you haven't pried about the details or been eager to use this as your entire model.
So if I'm right, you must be pretty uncomfortable about that blind spot, now that I've pointed it out. And maybe you shouldn't use me as a reference, but I'll tell you anyway: everything I've seen about straight love applies to what I've seen about gay/bi love. Partners cuddle, swoon, argue, say hurtful things, and break up or make up without regard to whether their chromosomes match. There are cosmetic differences regarding copulation, but if you're not interested in gay sex, I won't force those details on you.
That really does seem to be the case- there's just no understanding because it's utterly alien. They just... assume that somehow it must be completely different, when it's really not.
That really does seem to be the case- there's just no understanding because it's utterly alien. They
