I'm cranky today...maybe I should blame hormones, I did start this morning (I know TMI), but I'd rather blame the patriarchal educated society we reside in for blowing my day to hell in a hand basket.

First, I wake up to Forum Drama over censorship by moderators...whatever...I share my two point five cents and get on with my day.

Second, I open AOL and the headlines blaze Palin's Church: You Can Pray Away The Gay. I argued with myself all afternoon that I was not going to blog about it. I even had my mantra going..."I will not contribute to the negativity, I will not..."

I blogged.

Third, I went through my revision requests. I have two outstanding manuscripts that need some work before they will be accepted by their targeted publishers. I've put off the revision requests because I was a little irritated by both on first read through.

I try to wait, breathe, reevaluate. It keeps me from screaming at someone for wanting to change what I'm trying to say before I realize that I might just agree with their opinion. I've waited...a week...I'm still not convinced.

So, I wait until the day I start my period and I'm already cranky. Brilliant.

Ms 1: One of my editors hates the word pussy. She REALLY hates the word Cunt. And the word twat.

Try writing an erotica that doesn't include a reference to the female anatomy beyond vagina and labia. Really. She doesn't have a problem with dick. Or cock. Or prick. Favoring them equally with penis. And phallus.  Or at least she didn't, until she read my latest ms. Try to write erotica about two women and one strap-on and not use the word Cock (or pussy.) I need to breathe a little longer before I address that one.

Ms 2: I have been requested to turn my FF scene into a FM scene or a menage with a man (although they'd prefer a menage with two men and one woman) or flip the whole thing to MF. Why? The submission policy clearly states LGBT. I emailed back, "Can you tell me what LGBT is the acronym for?" (I know, you would never know that on occasion I can be quite the smartass.) A general discussion ensued but the final consensus is that women do not read lesbian erotica. However, women do read gay cowboy, gay vampire, and really, really love to read about a woman watching two gay men fuck...

I'll try to keep that in mind for my next ms. Or not.

It took me a moment to realize that it isn't the revision requests that are making me cranky or even that we live in a prejudiced patriarchal, fundamentalist society, or the censorship drama that actually started my day. It is that all three rolled up into a little ball is eating away at my guts.

I feel censored. (Even though I received two acceptance letters in the same week MF and MMF respectively.)

In this day when I should be celebrating my sexual liberation my sexual expression is being limited. My female characters who are strong and opinionated will never have a voice because their sexuality is seen as taboo and their love story incomplete because there isn't a man in the house. (I'm not sure what the editor read but one of my character's was packing...I'm just saying.)

But because two hot guys (Hollywood Heros) put the sexy in gay cowboys...gay is now the new cool relationship material and lesbian is just taboo. Gay erotica is celebrated. Lesbian erotica is censored, hidden away...

Ugly.

That's how I feel. That the world we live in is trying to make lesbian and bisexual erotica into an ugly, dark thing.

Well, screw that people!

I put together a new list of publishing houses. Ones that list specifically Lesbian not just LGBT...so I'll let you know how that works out for me. Until then, I'm writing what I want to write...I sure hope you'll support the cause and purchase lesbian literature every chance you get.

Latest posts by Roxy Harte

• On The TOP TEN LIST! - March 29th, 2010
• The Bitchin’ and Moanin’ Is OVER… - February 17th, 2010
• Lesbian Erotica Rejection Letters - June 10th, 2009
• Writing Lesbian Erotica... - March 16th, 2009
• Woman Prime Minister Is Also An Outspoken Lesbian - January 29th, 2009

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