“When Gay Became Okay”
by Ines Johnson
Shonda Rhimes recently tweeted that there are no gay scenes in her shows, only love scenes. I agree with her. I see character motivation and plotting over sexual preference.
Now.
But not before.
I learned homophobia through microaggressions. Kids calling others names on the playground when a little boy went off to play with the girls, or when a girl choose to ignore the offensive advances of a boy. Grownups commenting on a young boy with too much switch in his walk or a young girl who preferred a baseball cap and sports to frilly skirts and dolls. From the name-calling and sickly-sweet comments I learned that being gay was not okay.
As a teen growing up in front of media screens, I saw these micro aggressions continue. The gay male in movies was always the butt of jokes. The lesbian was the outcast who didn’t fit in with the girls or the guys. But I didn’t laugh when I met Ricky Vasquez on the television show “My So Called Life.” Ricky’s hardships on that show opened my heart. Ricky didn’t have a lot of screen time, but his tears from being bullied, beaten, and cast aside gutted me. When he was welcomed into the home of his English teacher (who looks so familiar), I cheered -on the inside. Moral lessons often cause a local, internal shift, but don’t often shift the entire world off its axis. Outside, in the real world, gay still was not okay.
Years later, the closet door was pushed further open on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” when Willow and Tara kissed. I had stopped watching the program by then, but I felt the aftershocks of that show of affection. Gay characters became a gimmick in the media, with lesbian kisses pulled out to boost ratings for sweeps. I assumed this was what was happening when Dr. Callie Torres and Dr. Erica Hahn hooked up in the fifth season of “Grey’s Anatomy.” I would soon learn that I was wrong and my worldview was coming to a turning point.
At the start of the season, neither of these women identified as lesbians. Callie thought that she and Erica were just fooling around. After their intimacy, Erica saw something that transformed her worldview. Laying in bed with Callie after their first time together, Erica recalled the first time she put on prescription glasses as a child and saw that the big green blobs on trees were actually leaves. “You are glasses,” Erica says to Callie as she realizes for the first time that she’s a lesbian.
That line resonated with me. There were no aggressions. There was no moral statement. There was no sweeping sensationalism. What was there on the screen was gritty, messy, human emotion that naturally evolved from that character’s development and motivation.
Other than the word lesbian being used, that scene had little to do with sexuality. It was a scene about identity and self-discovery that ended in rejection and heartbreak. Erica became an underdog, my favorite type of hero. I cared about her storyline; her sexuality was secondary.
I love the friends to lovers trope. When the vampire warriors Qhuinn and Blaylock of JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series began their rocky transition from best friends to lovers, I was captivated at the perfectly-paced, heart-rending, uplifting love story between boy next door, Blay, and bad boy, Qhuinn.
Squeezed in-between the pages of Courtney Milan’s historical romance, “The Suffragette Scandal”, is an ugly duckling to swan love story between a bookish young woman and a stylish lady of the ton.
I could go on, but I hope you get my point. I’ve spent a lifetime witnessing micro aggressions, morality lessons, and sensationalism for and against homosexuality. As a writer I’ve learned that the pen is mightier than the sword, and it’s the storytellers who win in the end. Screenwriters and authors are casting LGBT characters in new roles with storylines that transcend their labels. Kids on the playground, grownups around the kitchen counter are sitting quietly in front of the television or curled up with books in their hands and finding bits of themselves in these characters.
A young monk is given the chance to redeem himself from scandal when he is called upon to train a young woman and her two bonded mates in the orgasmic arts. But what starts as a simple ritual soon turns carnal when the monk’s heart begins to yearn for the woman, and hers for his.
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Interview with Ines Johnson
Are you a plotter or pantser?
I love plotting. Its my favorite part of writing. I love to go into Scrivener and use the Outline tool to plan the journey of my characters. I can recite just about any plotting structure you can think of. The Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat, Romance Arc, Relationship Arc…I could go on.
Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
I’m a very bad Buddhist. I sit each week in sangha, which is similar to sitting in a church pew on Sunday. In a sangha the teacher, think preacher, will lecture on spiritual teachings and guide the group in mediation. During meditation when I’m supposed to be getting my zen on, my mind always wanders back to the teaching and turns it into a story.
What are your favorite research resources?
I’m reading a nonfiction book called “Sperm Wars: The Science of Sex” by Robin Baker. The title reveals the subject matter. Its about what goes on inside a fertile woman’s body. Did you know that less than 1% of sperm is designed for fertilization of the egg? There are Terminator sperm that engage in warfare with enemy sperm from the Part-Time Lover. Its fascinating! Its research for my current WIP.
Would you tell us about your latest release?
Last year, I was given an ARC of Kele Moon’s paranormal, ménage romance, “The Queen’s Consorts.” I’d never read a polyamorous story before, where not only did the men fall for the heroine, but they fell for each other as well. I craved more of this world, but couldn’t find anything to satisfy my needs. So I wrote my own.
“The Pleasure Hound” is a polyamorous romance set in a dystopian future where a young monk is given the chance to redeem himself from scandal when he is called upon to train a young woman and her two bonded mates in the orgasmic arts. But what starts as a simple ritual soon turns carnal when the monk’s heart begins to yearn for the woman, and hers for his.
What makes the hero “The Pleasure Hound: Part One” hot?
There’s a preponderance of books where pain is pleasure. And that’s okay with me -when I believe that there’s actually pleasure being had. I’ve read too many books where women are getting spanked just to get spanked. Its not clear how the act satisfies a need in them, nor is it clear that the man understands and is acting to fulfill that need. That understanding is the sexy part to me: a woman who knows (perhaps subconsciously) what she needs and a man who knows exactly how to give it to her.
My book, The Pleasure Hound: Part One, came into being out of this frustration. I wanted to read about a heroine who was eager to explore pleasure. I wanted to encounter a hero who was skilled in, and solely interested in, that woman’s pleasure. My hero, Jian, studies women’s bodies like textbooks. After thorough perusal of, he emerges ready to ace the examination.
Would you give us a sneak peak of your upcoming release?
Just in time for Disney’s new Cinderella movie, I’ll be releasing my debut fairytale retelling in March. Its called “Pumpkin: a Cindermama story.” Here’s the blurb:
Single mother Malika “Pumpkin” Tavares lost faith in fairytales after she fell for a toad. Now she believes she’s not cut from the storybook, heroine cloth and searches for Mr. Good Enough amongst the sidekicks and supporting men of the town. Love at first sight isn’t a cliché for town royalty Armand “Manny” Charmayne because for generations the Charmayne’s have spotted their soulmates be seeing a golden aura around them the first time they laid eyes on them. When Manny meets Pumpkin he sees…nothing, but sparks fly off the Richter scale. The more he gets to know her the more he considers defying fate, if only he can convince her to take a chance on love again.
Where can we visit you online?
I’d love it you write with me on Twitter or Facebook. I like to post my daily word count on both using the hashtag #amwriting and/or #fastdraft. My Twitter handle is @ineswrites. My Facebook page is /ineswrites.
How long have you been writing?
I come from a family of storytellers. My mother would talk your ears off for hours and my father is a songwriter. I began my storytelling career in television, where I still dabble from time to time. A few years ago I’d written a script that I thought would make an excellent book, only I didn’t know how to write a book. So I took a couple of classes and started querying. I never received a single rejection letter. Instead, I got no responses at all in the beginning! But I never gave up and I never stopped writing. Wait, isn’t that the definition of insanity?
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