Emery and I have been reading some interesting discussions about misogyny in M/M fiction this week.  Some of it is as blatant as the horrible bitch ex-wife/boss/whatever, but some of it’s more subtle and yet more pernicious, following the idea that the woman in question actually deserves “better” than the man involved, and so moves on and out of the story, leaving a clear field for a men-only story.  This rightfully got us thinking about our own stories, and the women in them.

We like women.  Probably a good thing, since we both happen to be female.  But we like writing them as well, enjoy creating strong, believable yet imperfect female characters to play off the men.  We are comfortable with the fact that not all male/female relationships are inherently sexual.  Yes, Virginia, it is possible for men and women to “just be friends”, even straight men and women.  That’s why Scotty exists, because Carver needed a sounding board and an awesomesauce chick with a brain seemed like the perfect foil for him. 

And gay men and straight women flirt.  It happens.  Really.  I’m fortunate enough to be friends with a number of gay men as part of a larger, tight knit, mixed sexuality community.  None of the guys are insecure about their sexuality, all of them are out and open, and many of them I would put up to my own sons as role models.  And some of them flirt outrageously.  With the women in the community.  Women they aren’t interested in sleeping with and who aren’t interested in sleeping with them, but who nevertheless flirt right back.  Flirting and fucking aren’t the same thing.  And so you get Alexandra, a character we got a bit of grief over but who we adore.  She’s strong, she’s playful and she and Carver have an odd rapport that includes a bit of sexual teasing.  Carver’s not sexually attracted to her, and Alexandra isn’t looking for more.  They’re just playing, and it’s safe.  The presence of a female character who is actually sexual is not a threat to the M/M story line.

The world most of our characters inhabit are equal parts male and female.  The idea that you could write a M/M story and not have a female presence is alien to us.  We understand that our readers are looking for the same sex interactions, but sometimes it’s hard to write to those expectations.  Scotty is a prime example of this.  Here is a smart, sassy, sexy lady with a great boyfriend and an inappropriate attraction for her female partner.  But we can never play with that relationship, because the readers of the Creatures of Sin series aren’t looking for F/F or F/F/M stories.  (To be fair, we’ve also wanted to hook Miranda up with Alexandra, but again with the F/F issue.)  We’re professional writers, so will we or nil we, we do take our readers’ preferences into consideration.  But there will always be strong women in all our stories.  Because there are so many strong women in the world.