itsinthetrees:

I am fine with slash fiction that:

1. Is respectful of gay sexuality and the fact that gay and bi/pan men actually exist and have actual lives that involve struggle and hardship but also triumph and joy, and that gayness isn’t just a genre, and that we exist for purposes other than sexual objectification and to act as tragic figures you can feel sad about.
2. Does not put homosexuality on some sort of pedestal, whereby it is the platonic ideal of romance.
3. Doesn’t rely on “we’re not that kind of gay” macho posturing that shits on gay culture.
4. Is not ostentatiously heteronormative in its gendering of the characters, particularly with regard to what they do during sex, and writes both male characters as men — this is always sort of difficult to articulate, because obviously there is no right way to be a man et cetera, and I would never claim to be the most typically masculine of dudes myself — but there is this strong tendency in slash fandom to write the ~passive~ partner (i.e. the one who gets fucked) as a feminine stereotype? Like, almost as an offensive caricature of a female. I don’t know what this is about. I blame yaoi.
5. Doesn’t shit on canonical female love interests.
6. Doesn’t center around a tender sensitive femme boi getting raped and then nursed back to health by a masculine partner.
7. Doesn’t do weird historically inaccurate shit where it’s like “well obviously these characters will be openly gay in the 20s and nobody will give a fuck.” Idk man, I just find that disrespectful and dismissive of all the real people who fought and were victimized and died.