One need look no further than Mary Shelley Frankenstein to see discrimination against female writers.

Heh, yes, discrimination of female writers isn't a rarity.

I know my reply was... chicken.. to say the least.
You have a way with meeting difficult topics head on.
While I accept that inside the MM romance genre there is a fair amount of .. oh, how to be politically correct...
Let me just skip over the whole MM Romance genre and say it like this.

I agree that for far too long there has been an imbalance in the gender roles of characters.

Far too often I stumble across Stereotypical masculine or feminine, flat 'stock' characters where he is strong but cold, & she is weak & needy.
In MM Romance often one character is written as the 'female'.
Of course I have to say that in the LGBT community, of which I am a part of, gender roles tend to flux quite a bit.
I've probably step into the mess that I was trying to avoid by saying that.
Anyway, thank you for your honest blog.

LOL. And I am NOT laughing at you! It took me quite a long time to decide on whether or not to publish that blog post. Obviously it is a very delicate matter which can be easily misunderstood.

But fact is (apart from the obvious nonsense about who writes m/m better, which in my opinion is real bullshit) that there indeed ARE slowly but surely emerging het romances which depict equal partners. It's certainly not yet a mass movement, but young writers with an equalist or feminist background strive to provide such books. I can say I belong to them, I read and write such stories--which is why I happen to know that they are out there!

So imagine reading or writing these kinds of het romances (regardless of subgenre) and being told you don't or even can't exist (..."because gender unequal yada yada yada"...). Doesn't sit well, eh? I consider myself equal to any man. So I really tend to be miffed by readers telling me how I should see myself. I haven't allowed society to gender me (with the help of my family), so why should I now simply accept it from people I haven't even met yet? ;P

This must be one reason for the pretty hefty response. At least it is what I detect in many of the comments. And then there is the "lack of engaging". It's really a bit obnoxious and disingenuous to complain of something, and it is something about which you COULD do something, and then move on to the "perceived as easier" alternative. That's again pretty damning. And I guess that's where the second wave of protest originates.

I don't think anyone said m/m writers shouldn't write m/m. But those who do so because they find it easier (which in itself is nothing per se awful or bad), might rather turn to a white lie than offend. And those who genuinely don't understand that they really could help het romance get better, they should have a rethink, I think. Not hundreds of books. But maybe one for every 3 or 4 written in m/m? Hell, even just 1 in 10 would be a step forward, innit?

That's what motivated that blog post. Not any aggression towards the authors mentioned in that interview. I do believe they were largely misrepresented and that interview was really shoddily written.

So to recap: You are directing this blog towards the need for more 'balanced' coupling in the m/f m/m (and I will add f/f) romance books.

Equality is a good thing, no? And apart from that, I had the feeling some among these authors and their fans truly didn't see where the conflict was. Both were talking apples and oranges.

Yes, Equality is a good thing.

I haven't read the article in question.

I have however seen both male and female readers complain both about the gender of the author ... and if the book happens to contain a het coupling in the so called MM-Romance storyline.

While I do love my MM Romance reading goodreads friends, I have seen the " Ew, girl cooties" sentiment expressed.
And that shows to me that they do not really 'care' about the equality of the coupling (as far as gays rights and all love is equal) they are more interested in the Guy on Guy On-page sex.

The hyper-obsession with Guy on Guy sex has driven me away from the MM Romance genre.. because many of them are not really romances stories any more than Porn movies are 'movies'.

So, I steer away from reading anything that is simply listed as "MM Romance". Because I know it means porn.
Oops, I mean "erotica".

Now if it says something like Science Fiction - Gay fiction, than I hold hope that there will actually be a plot line rather than a means to get the two guys doing the deed.

I really shouldn't be so blunt but eh, a few beers will do that. :-)

Heh, I don't mind bluntness! And I second a lot of your sentiments. I stepped into m/m at a point where there were already books with 60+% sex in them and the plot being more or less just a decorative measure. So absolutely yes, I see your point and it has been one of my complaints as well.

But then, there are still authors like Lanyon or Fenraven around, with their solid plots. I agree though, there is a huge wave of rather repetitive erotica washing over the genre.

I have some of Josh Lanyon titles laying around.
Give me your best recommendation of his work I will test out the solid plot. :-)

I do not know who Fenraven is.

However I will accept any recommendations that you offer which will illustrate a solid plot, that are available on Amazon. (I get most of my books there these days).

I am serious when I say this "I am Always looking for books that positively portray the LGBT community.

I raised two sons, and have three granddaughters.

I am always on the hunt to find books that I can give any of them and say, this is a book where the character being a LGBT individual isn't just a segue to sex, knowing that there is a 'real' story in there.

I have a handful of titles, but they are few and far between.

Most recently I read Asylum (Asylum #1) by Madeleine Roux, when my granddaughters are a bit older I will give them to read it's a bit too scary for elementary school children.
But that is off topic, sorry.

It just seems to me that we (the LGBT community) have fought long and hard to be treated as equals. As just 'plain old ordinary people'.
I recall not so long ago when the LGBT section of our local book store was three or four books and those were usually bibliographies.
Now there are thousands of LGBT titles released each year world wide. The greater majority of those are "MM Romance".
Yet for all those titles, I still struggle to find 'solid' plots, fully developed characters and limited on-page sex.
There times that I look at the titles being released on some of the well known MM Romance publishing websites and shake my head.
What has our "rights" "equalities" gained us if we are painting ourselves as sexual extremists. We are in fact letting ourselves be put right back out on the fringe.
Ok seriously I should shut up before I say more and curse myself in the Morning.

Off the top of my head:

Come Unto These Yellow Sands

Established couple, a mystery/crime fiction with loads of character development, little, very moderate sex integral to the story.

The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks

See above, a bit rougher in the writing (one of Lanyon's first), there's sex, but it's again integral and there is far more plot and mystery.

The Ghost on My Couch

Very sweet character study of two gay men, with one battling the hook-up culture he is caught in. Has very little on-page sex, and what is there is relevant to the plot. The greatest ugly kitten ever lives in this book!

Scrap Metal

Has more sex, but this is more or less the HEA. Lyrically written, great plot, great worldbuilding. Caution: super-British!

Bonds of Earth

Historical, some sex, but written according to the time and sparingly, great story and character development.

Shell Shocked

This is a tearjerker in parts of it! Has shellshocked war veterans, a true romance, very unconventional, very realistic. The men do have regular on-page sex, but it's part of the parcel here and not at all porny. Hefty topic there. Bruisingly written.

A Silence Kept

Another ghost story, minimal sex (I think two scenes very non-porny in the writing), but careful: I bawled my eyes out for the ghost!

Leather+Lace

This has again lots of sex, but it's not written as porn. It's integral again, and the whole is a story of recovery of an abused man and the plot is encompassing. Caution: there's lots of realistic BDSM in this!

I also think you might have a look at Angel Martinez works, haven't read much from her, but she is LGBT herself and comes across as very much interested in showing LGBT characters in scifi plots.

What's the link to the original "interview"? ..also you wrote kerfuffle....I think I lurve you ;P

I sent you a PM.