The Bitter Debate

According to a 2011/2012 survey conducted by the Romance Writers of America, 91% of romance readers are women. This is fact probably not surprising to most authors. However in 2013, Jessica Freely, author of the article listed below, conducted a survey based solely on readers of gay romance. What she found was that a staggering 85% precent of gay romance readers in her survey were also women. A large portion of her participants came from the M/M romance group over at Goodreads.com.

While this may surprise some, this data hardly made me bat an eye. It seems I can't log onto Facebook without seeing someone, authors of gay romance and erotica, discussing this, somewhat, hot button issue. The most popular question, at least that I've seen, is the ever imflamatory "are women equipped to write love stories about gay men.". This is a double sided question that will always have conflicting views. Since the majority off the readers of gay romance and erotica are women, it's obvious that women authors will always have a place in the genre. While I, personally, enjoy my gay erotica written by men, I don't wish to bad mouth women on any facet. Some of my most favorite authors are women and my early literary education was based on some of these women.

That being said, I believe most male authors write gay romance and erotica for men. While women write for women. We know what it's like to be in the emotional mindset we write about. The heated sexual encounters that happen between two men are something we've experienced first hand. Every romance novel, or short story, written by a gay male author for a gay male audience may not be squishy, stereotypical romance material but it is written from a place of true knowledge.

If a male author tried to capture a concise picture of the emotional, and physical, reaction of the female orgasm, which I know a male author has tired to do, it probably wouldn't be able to live up to the same standards of what an actual woman has experienced. The same is true for men. The majority of the public would have a problem with a white, male author going on a publicity tour and telling world that they know what it is to struggle as black man because he did a little research for a book. The same is true for straight, women authors. 

Now, I don't wish to see my comment section or inbox filled with angry comments from women authors, and those who love their work, but I realize it may happen. The entire reason I am writing this post is not to anger people but to rally my gay male constituents. If we want to write stories for gay men, we have to get gay men to read more romance and erotica. We need to stop arguing who can do it better because of course we can capture what it's like to be gay men better than anyone else. That's a no brainer. 

Source Article:

http://popularromanceproject.org/reading-gay-romance/