#queering literature

[enbycrip]

I was discussing with a mate what actively makes a piece of media Queer as opposed to just featuring same-gender attraction.

I am a big fan of Queer being a verb as well as an adjective.

I wouldn’t call Romeo and Juliet queer because while it’s transgressive within the frame of the narrative, it’s *not* transgressive within the wider cultural framing? A young hetero couple from different sides of a conflict being married was so incredibly acceptable that it was a long-established practice for establishing peace - to the extent that the Friar even mentions that within the text as part of his reason for facilitating the marriage outside the strict norms of parental consent and acceptance?

Plus the whole framing of choice-led marriage as a force for societal harmony was such an influential trope at that particular period, particularly within Elizabethan England’s newly Protestant culture? Virginity was no longer prized the way it had been in a more Catholic culture, nor was the remote idealisation of courtly love. Instead you get a young different-gender couple who choose *married love*. In the context this was written, this was almost the *opposite* of Queer.

I’d say that, for a text to be Queer, it needs to not only transgress both norms internal and external to the text, but also flip those norms in a way that actively invites the reader to reconsider those norms in a new light? It’s why I’d call so many of Shakespeare’s comedies queer in a way Romeo and Juliet isn’t, because, even though everything goes hetero at the end to fit theatrical conventions about comedies ending with a marriage, they are this space where gender becomes fluid and playful, and *that’s* what you walk away with the impression of from the play? The hetero endings are so enforced it’s kind of deliberately ridiculous?

It’s why I feel Queerness includes readings and depictions of disability that aren’t any of the standard boxes that it is so often shoved into in media. If a disabled character isn’t “inspiring”, or “pitiable”; if they’re not artificially helpless, or completely unaffected by their disability, and, more than anything, if *they* are the centre of the text, with genuine agency, and the text is about *them*, not about their effect on abled characters, that definitely queers a text to me.

And *more* so if it centres their desires and their desirability as a character. Not that they can’t be asexual; asexuality is *very* queer, but if they are not *artificially* desexualised, as disabled characters so often are.

[sleeplessv0id]

what doesn't kill you makes you weird at intimacy

[virginwithasthma]

"Modern retelling" and it's a blatant misinterpretation of the original text

[nekhcore]

HEY YOU!

Yeah, you! Are you trans? Do you like reading books? Or watching movies?

Do you like media about trans men/transmasculine characters but don't know where to find it?

That's sooo crazy because I have this little spreadsheet I'm working on where I'm trying to document all media with protagonists/major characters who are FTM or transmasculine.

The spreadsheet currently has 300+ entries spread across the following categories:

Books

Manga

Memoirs and non-fiction

Movies

TV Shows

Graphic novels / Comics

Webcomics

Audio dramas

Books and movies are also sorted by:

Which character is trans (MC, love interest, antagonist, etc)

If the trans character is POC

The trans character's sexuality (Because I saw lots of transhet guys sad about only being able to find gay romances)

If the author/actor is also trans (if we know for sure)

It's free to use, and free to add to as well! Editing permissions are on, and I check on the spreadsheet every now and then to make sure everything is in order and to clean up.

If you know something that isn't on the list, please add it! You don't have to fill in every single column, but fill it to the best of your abilities.

If you don't want to use the big ass long link below, you can also use: bit.ly/FTM-protags

I made this because I want it to be a community resource. So even if you're not a trans guy or transmasculine person, please reblog!

[spoonsbutbetter]

please laugh, it’s 4:17am here and i’m GIGGLING

[that-butch-archivist]

"rockstar" by Chloë Brushwood Rose, 2000

source: Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, edited by Chloë Brushwood Rose & Anna Camilleri

[everyponie]

transreads.org is a fantastic resource for queer literature and history, and the best part is that it's FREE! There's no excuse to be ignorant when the information is being handed to you like this.

Leslie Feinberg also has all of hir works free online if you are particularly interested in lesbian history and literature. They are available as downloadable PDFs, and I believe they are on the internet archive aswell.

transreads.org also has a great section on Palestinian queer literature if that's something that interests you, it's important that we learn about queerness outside of America. I've dabbled in a few of these books and essays and poems and they're very cool! I really do enjoy learning about queerness in other cultures, I hope you all can find joy in that too!!

if you have any good queer resources that you'd like to share pls comment or add it to a reblog!! I'll probably make a bigger masterpost later, or perhaps a Google document.

[elainiisms]

*me at the club* so does anyone wanna discuss queer undertones in classic literature?

[channary]

EXCUSE ME?

[floral-ashes]

Remember when I published this in a serious journal and everyone thought it was very funny?

Well, Gender/Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body is basically where I stake my claim at being a depraved freak. 😉

Don’t wait! Get your copy now! Available on Bookshop and plenty more.

[degenderates]

— Tony Kushner, Angels in America

[icarus-archives]

lesbian pulp fiction from the 1950s

[amalasdraws]

IT’S HAPPENING! Aran and Tao are coming to a bookstore near you in 2026 🎉

Suzanne Samin and I are so happy the boys have found a home with Putnam (Random Penguin House) and Ruta Rimas, thanks to our agent Jennifer Azantian at Azantian Literary.

We can’t wait to share them (and their cat friends) with all of you. More to come!

(THIS IS A MOCK COVER AND NOT THE FINAL BOOK COVER)

[cloudofbutterflies]

Benoit Blanc & Sherlock Holmes both prove that the best detectives aren’t actual trained detectives but nosy gay men who drink their respect women juice and hate the rich.

[bi4bihankking]

The Locked Tomb Series Summary:

The “Lesbian Necromancers in Space” book series

The Murderbot Diaries Summary:

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

[that-butch-archivist]

"Passion" by Chloë Brushwood Rose, 2001

source: Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, edited by Chloë Brushwood Rose & Anna Camilleri