‘Lesbian author’: What does it mean?
July 19th, 2010
“I hate labels. I’ve worked for 25 years to rip labels off. Once you’ve slapped a label on something you no longer have to look behind it and make your own mind up.”
Author Jeanette Winterson recently gave an interview to The Guardian in which she argued against being labelled a “lesbian author”.
But is “lesbian author” still a useful and valid description for readers, asks Lorraine Douglas. Is “gay/lesbian” a valid means of categorising writing?
Many bookshops continue to have a ‘gay/lesbian’ section, but what does this really mean? While these sections once contained authors like Winterson and Sarah Waters, these writers are now more likely to be found in the modern or general fiction sections.
The ‘gay/lesbian’ section now tends to be poorly stocked, poorly maintained and restricted to those books that the bookshop doesn’t know quite what to do with; things like lesbian erotica, or gay fiction that’s very strongly rooted in the gay scene.
It seems reasonable to assume that what’s happened is partly a parallel of how our lives have changed in a short space of time. We now have far greater recognition in the UK than before, including better equality legislation and an ever-increasing number of high profile people who just happen to be gay.
Mainstream media
As we move towards equality, our sexuality is becoming more mainstream, and it seems natural that depiction of gay/lesbian sexuality becomes more sophisticated.
Fifteen years ago, a gay or lesbian character in a TV programme would typically have had a gay or lesbian-based storyline, such as a difficult coming out or an experience with homophobia and, once this story had played out, the character would have run its course. This is no longer as acceptable or interesting, and characters have to be more rounded and have lives that extend beyond their sexuality.
Literature has evolved in the same direction; while early classics may have been about being gay in a society that wasn’t accepting of homosexuality, more and more literature now includes gay or lesbian characters whose sexuality is just one aspect of the character.
Treasure trove
Is there any validity nowadays in grouping books according to the sexuality of the characters within? It can, undeniably, be enjoyable browsing a well-chosen lesbian catalogue or reading a review section which gathers together literature that’s for, by and of interest to lesbian and bisexual women.
Perhaps this is even more relevant to those who are just coming out, or at an early stage in realising their sexuality; it can be a blessed relief to find a stock of books and magazines that reflect our lives as lesbian and bisexual women, and reassure us that we’re not alone.
At the same time, any decent ‘gay/lesbian’ list or catalogue will be further broken down into categories such as “thrillers”, “romance”, “non-fiction” and so on. These books have wider genres than the sexuality of the people they’re about, so perhaps ‘gay/lesbian’ is not exactly a genre of writing, but just a means of grouping together books that might be of interest to gay or lesbian readers.
Loyalty
The impact on an author of being labelled a ‘gay/lesbian’ writer may be a bit of a mixed bag.
On the one hand, lesbian readers tend to be fiercely loyal to writers whose books contain strong lesbian characters, so authors may benefit from a fan base that will pick up on every book, whether or not it’s widely reviewed and publicised.
On the other hand, the ‘gay/lesbian’ label could feasibly stand between the author and the wider audience, as it tends to mark the author out as a writer of minority interest books.
As Jeanette Winterson herself notes, it is easier to ignore something that’s already been labelled as being for a group of people that you don’t belong to.
It’s also interesting to note that both Winterson and Sarah Waters have gone on to produce novels that do not have lesbian characters and are not overtly about being lesbian or bisexual.
Winterson has written extensively about heterosexual characters and even characters whose gender cannot ultimately be determined, and Waters’ last novel, The Little Stranger, did not contain any lesbian characters.
For these writers to go on attracting the label “lesbian author” in the face of an increasingly diverse body of work, it seems that the label is becoming more about the author herself than the books.
It’s interesting, for example, that the writer Iain Banks is seen as being both an author of literary fiction and a science fiction writer, having established himself in both genres, yet to some Jeanette Winterson remains a “lesbian author” regardless of the range of work she produces.
‘Specialist interest’
So what does the “gay/lesbian” tag mean for writers, for readers and for the books themselves, and does it actually represent a genre of writing? The bookshops would seem to be indicating that it’s not a genre as such; although they may continue to have a “gay/lesbian” interest section, many of the more established gay and lesbian writers will find their work stocked in the main body of the bookshop.
In a competitive publishing market, in which authors can be dependent on their books making it into the main displays in the shops, this can be vital; it’s important that exposure for the book isn’t limited to a small, special interest section.
For readers, it can undoubtedly be an enjoyable luxury to pick from a well-curated lesbian catalogue, in which we know the books have been selected as being of special interest to us. There will probably always be a place for the lesbian media to select titles particularly of interest to its readers.
As for the books, thankfully we benefit from a culture in which we have a wealth of talented writers who happen to be lesbian or bisexual women. We have literary fiction, thrillers, humour, political books, history books, books by lesbians about lesbians and books by lesbians that aren’t about lesbians.
It would be a pity if, as Jeanette Winterson argues, we made these books easier to ignore by cramming them all into a minority interest section and denying them their place alongside other successful books.
5 unmissable lesbian books by lesbian authors
- The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls
- Spin Cycle
- Hen’s Teeth
- Diary of a Provincial Lesbian
- The Touch Typist
sexing the queer means not exclusively sexing the homosexual….
bravo Jeanette!!!
Bilitis ∼ August 14th, 2010 12:42 am