#to demonize and portray a misunderstanding of gayness

[hometownrockstar]

Something i could write a video essay on: the cross-section of sexuality and violence in novels. Most every book that is from the perspective of a murderer tries to untangle their motivations, why they do what they do and what their view of the world is like and how its different to us. thats where the core of the horror is, to see someone who can justify such awful actions to us. But i have noticed it has a different way of presenting itself depending on the sexuality of the killer and the author. I have read several books from the perspective of straight men with female victims & gay men with male victims, and i know a few books i have yet to read that are straight women with male victims, but as far as i know ive seen none with gay women.

Books with straight men killers treat their sexuality as an immutable trait, like a heterosexual misogynist worldview taken to its furthest extreme. Patrick Bateman from American Psycho views all women in his life as the same, girlfriends and sex workers and secretaries, they are all just objects to be used for sexual gratification then methodically killed and taken apart as casually as the rest of his lifestyle. Straight male killers almost dont seem to have an attraction to women, so much as they are simply acting out the regular course of action of control, sex, and murder.

How this differs from books with gay male killers is that the killer's gayness exists outside of their murderous urges, and that they are still attracted to men in a distinctly gay way. I should note that the books i have read that fit this were written by gay male authors as well. I am talking about books like Frisk by Dennis Cooper and Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite. Whereas for straight male killers the straightness and gender of their victims is an afterthought to their murder, for gay male killers the gender and sexuality is put first. it is often written as an extension of their love of the same gender, where they have gay partners who they love and do not want to murder, but where the murderous urges are shown within them as an obsession and love of men, wanting to appreciate every aspect of them. in these books essentially every character is gay; the victims, the murderers, and any and all side characters. the stories are drenched in gay culture, and the contrasting of gay sexuality to forms of it taken to its extreme is the point i believe.