Storytelling with no Gay Stereotyping or Clichés
If you’re not satisfied with how gay men are portrayed in science fiction, you are not alone! Madeira Desouza says: I’m a gay male writer and digital illustrator. My illustrated science fiction Baja Clavius: Moon Men Deep Inside presents realistic gay male characters with no stereotyping or clichés.
My work is not like what most gay science fiction delivers. As one person wrote in response to Baja Clavius: Moon Men Deep Inside: “Gay science fiction can be a very hard sell indeed, which is why too little of it is published (that is, gay science fiction as distinct from the oceans of erotica being churned out by the m/m e-presses, most of which is barely recognizable as science fiction, and much more easily identified as erotica with futuristic props and set dressing!)”
In my opinion, gay science fiction of that kind (erotica dressed up with futurist props and set dressing with stereotypical characters) is not legitimate. It is not worth anyone’s time whatsoever.
I offer something else. I offer credible gay male characters in a genuine science fiction story about the unanticipated effects upon human beings of time travel and changing past events.
Another person who read Baja Clavius: Moon Men Deep Inside wrote this: “Madeira Desouza’s gay erotic tale of time-traveling agents raises a question I have never seen posed before: how do time travelers cope with the changes that have been wrought in their home world by their efforts to fix problems in the past. MMDI–which is both the title of the book and a play on the acronym for the agency–suggests the agents will have to be effectively brainwashed upon their return so that they are not traumatized by the consequences of their actions. So then, what if an agent can’t forget? This book is occasionally delightfully sexy. But the most intriguing parts of the story are the occasional recurrences where events are repeated with slight changes because the protagonist Time Travel Agent goes back and tries to change outcomes. The sexiness is fun, but the time travel is mind-boggling in just the way a good science fiction novel can be entrancing and satisfying.”
I gave Baja Clavius: Moon Men Deep Inside a masculine tone that I realize is not exactly what all or most gay men prefer. I fully accept that some gay men prefer men who behave or speak in feminine ways like females do. There are many chosen affectations and behaviors and speaking styles of such men who want to come across to the world as feminine rather than masculine. That is anyone’s choice in the real world.
I know that my stories and images of highly masculine men who are muscular are not going to appeal to gay men who prefer stories and images of men who choose to appear or behave or speak in feminine ways as females do. In my creative works I deliberately use the bara underground art genre which is well-known and well-established as a provocative storytelling style unlikely to appeal to gay men who prefer men who appear or behave or speak in feminine ways like females do.