I do tend to read more of the male/male variety. I haven't run across a lot of good lesbian romances
I will note that, on a market level, there is a causal connection between these two statements. One of the reasons why it's hard to run across good lesbian romances -- at least once you get away from contemporary settings (emphasis on the "good") is that when you look at the consumption habits of non-gay/lesbian readers, women are far more likely to be interested in reading male-male romances and men tend to be interested only in female-female pornography (not romance).
Looking over the "recommended reading of the year" from the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards committee, you see about 75% female writers and about 80% male characters. This is specifically in the speculative fiction genre, not the romance genre, so the results don't quite carry over. But in SF, even lesbian authors are statistically more likely to write male-male relationships (especially for protagonists) than female-female ones.
And, I will freely admit, an awful lot of the non-contemporary lesbian romance novels I've read are simply badly written. And a certain amount of this is affected by market forces: without a strong and remunerative market there's less of a context for nurturing and developing good writers, and conversely the good writers rapidly discover that there isn't a lot of money in non-contemporary lesbian romance and often shift to topics and projects that will pay the rent more consistently.
In cultures where men had multiple wives, would/could the women have had relationships with each other, either completely clandestine or as a sort of "open secret" among the wives?
It's one historic context in which a lesbian romance could be set -- I confess it's not one that interests me to write about. As I discuss in the next response, there is a strong element of writer/reader identification in how the stories and characters are shaped. I want to write and read about characters that I enjoy identifying with, and for me that means female characters who are in control of their own lives and bodies (at least by the end of the story!) even if that narrows down the list of possible historic contexts somewhat.
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Date: 2011-02-16 08:44 pm (UTC)I will note that, on a market level, there is a causal connection between these two statements. One of the reasons why it's hard to run across good lesbian romances -- at least once you get away from contemporary settings (emphasis on the "good") is that when you look at the consumption habits of non-gay/lesbian readers, women are far more likely to be interested in reading male-male romances and men tend to be interested only in female-female pornography (not romance).
Looking over the "recommended reading of the year" from the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards committee, you see about 75% female writers and about 80% male characters. This is specifically in the speculative fiction genre, not the romance genre, so the results don't quite carry over. But in SF, even lesbian authors are statistically more likely to write male-male relationships (especially for protagonists) than female-female ones.
And, I will freely admit, an awful lot of the non-contemporary lesbian romance novels I've read are simply badly written. And a certain amount of this is affected by market forces: without a strong and remunerative market there's less of a context for nurturing and developing good writers, and conversely the good writers rapidly discover that there isn't a lot of money in non-contemporary lesbian romance and often shift to topics and projects that will pay the rent more consistently.
In cultures where men had multiple wives, would/could the women have had relationships with each other, either completely clandestine or as a sort of "open secret" among the wives?
It's one historic context in which a lesbian romance could be set -- I confess it's not one that interests me to write about. As I discuss in the next response, there is a strong element of writer/reader identification in how the stories and characters are shaped. I want to write and read about characters that I enjoy identifying with, and for me that means female characters who are in control of their own lives and bodies (at least by the end of the story!) even if that narrows down the list of possible historic contexts somewhat.