The pro and cons, to be or not to be...

[reviews_and_ramblings]

When wondering why and if I have to continue with this blog, I received an email like this one:

"Greetings and respect from a gay leatherman who finds your reviews truly excellent

Dear Signora Rolle,

I wish to express my sincere thank you and my profound respect for your wonderful and discerning reviews. I use your reviews to select what M/M fiction I will like best and you never, ever let me down.

You provide a wonderful service, taking your passion for M/M fiction and sharing it primarily wih female readers but also with gay men.

I also love the beautiful male images which you have collected.

You are a wonderful person, a wonderful and expressive writer. I both admire and respect you. Thank you so very much."

I received this email weeks ago, and also in a moment when I was a bit down. Then I read it and decided there was a reason for doing what I'm doing. Then again yesterday I wondered again; maybe I should let other people doing that, other reviewers with more experience... why a straight woman should read and review gay romances? but now, when I will wonder again, I have the above letter to give me a reason to continue.

My response to Victoria Brownworth: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1108364.html

Comments

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that you've been feeling as if you ought not to carry on, but I hope that that letter and the comments here have convinced you that you should. You know that your blog is read with pleasure by LGBT people as well as straight ones - that must mean you're doing something right, mustn't it? If LGBT people read your LJ and don't feel exploited or uncomfortable - if they write to you to say how much they enjoy it - then you must not be part of the problem.

That's my take on it, anyway. As long as I'm getting fanmail from gay men, I reckon I can't really be writing skeevy exploitative stuff, no matter what some people say. It's good to be kept on our toes, though, by articles like this, so that we can be thoughtful about what we're doing and try not to do harm. Not that you ever have!

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Thank you Alex. You are right, it's good if people arise a flag to tell us when we are doing something wrong, but it's also bad to read some generalistic assumptins without much foundation. I know that I shouldn't have not probably commented there, but saying that the majority of M/M romance are historical, chick with a dick style and about rape, that was way too much to read.

But yes, if from one side I read that, on the other side I know that there are people who think different, and they are the same if not more important.