In which LOGO doesn't care about women

[x_los]

...and I get a bunk in the morgue next to Iago in the wing for people who've suffered heart attacks and died from Not Surprised.

Now, I know LOGO's raison d'etre is gay and bi men, but if I were going to make a list of ten important, memorable bi and gay characters of sci-fi, here's what I wouldn't do:

1) contend that, in addition to being AWESOME, "Zorro: the Gay Blade" (a tale of Zorro's out and proud twin brother* donning the Mask and kicking ass/going shopping therein) was science fiction,
2) include Andrew from Buffy as my no. 10,
3) have no women or other-gendered characters of -any- kind (LeGuin's coming over to smack you with the Pimp Hand of Darkness, y'all),
4) make smegging Jack Harkness my no. 1,
5) pretend sci-fi is a genre entirely without books. I love my graphic novels, don't get me wrong, but your top ten? Should admit the *existence* of the interesting gender and sexuality dialogue that's taken place in non-graphic speculative fiction.

I think my f-list could come up with a better list standing on their heads while forced to hear disquieting production rumors about what M. Night Shama-llama doing to the Avatar film, personally.

Have Neil Gaimen reading you Blueberry Girl: that's more female-positive, right?

*Incidentally, I love the possibilities of taking the hyper-machismo of Zorro and just... making him gay. Chincano? Chica-yes.** I am not even sorry. Even if it's just played for cheap camp, look at the institutional example of textual reclamation! Official!slash!

**So earlier today I was watching a Four-era Doctor Who episode (you too can have a bed in the Not Surprised wing!!) and there was a singularly beautiful line from T. Baker, who'd just escaped from a yoke by thrusting it at the guards who'd captured him:

Four: I suppose you could say "the yoke's on him", if you were the sort of person who said that sort of thing, which fortunately I'm not.

Reader: I loved this deeply.***

*** Also today, I was thinking that if I were polyamorous, Aishwarya Rai could totally be the Mistress of my Spices, and congratulated myself on getting in both a movie title joke AND a polyamory-community slang joke in one pun. Any day where this is accomplished is automatically a fantastic one. 

Comments

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Evidently a list made by the sort of people who really mean "popular characters we like" when they say "great."

Frankly, if I were GLBT, I would be ashamed to have Constantine on my list. He is memorable, yes, but...my god, he's a monster in that arc. He's not being bi, really, he's being a predator, and sex just happens to be the way he gets what he wants (made only vaguely better by the fact that the other guy deserves it and John's doing it for a friend). I'm not sure I'd want to be represented by a guy who only happens to agree with me because he has a lack of empathy and boundaries bordering on the psychopathic.

Four is beautifully worded LOVE. Other Doctors appeal to me for various reasons, but the language whore in me is head-over-heels for him.

[x-losfic.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Constantine, actually: as a general comics fan and Sandman reader, I hear good things, but there doesn't seem to be a ready entry point into that universe for the uninitiated than... the film.

I love the way several of them use langue different? There's a whole love-post about the way the Doctors use language, sifting around waiting to be written.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

'The Hellblazer: Original Sins compilation is a great place to start--both a self-contained, self-explanatory arc, and one of the finest of all Hellblazer stories.

There is, but I may not be the one to write it. I'm usually too busy feeling gooey when they speak.

[x-losfic.livejournal.com]

Great to know, thanks!