The Dragon Keeper "Controversial?" Hobb and sexuality. *Major Spoilers up to RWC!

[Nightchade]

I'm currently reading DK (not to worry, I love spoilers..never spoils it for me..I would have been on the floor if I'd come to FF completely cold. Before I got the Kindle I was a dreadful peeker ahead) but I'm loving Sedric's musings on the lands far to the south of Jamaillia where two men could live together openly without censure. Was this where the Fool was from? It always seemed evident that for him gender wasn't such a big deal and this seems to hint it was indeed a cultural thing rather than a 'white' or 'Fool' thing.

Some thoughts from reading the posts.

I haven't read a lot of fantasy before but sci fi has played with boundaries (Ursula le Guins left hand of Darkness, Marge Piercy in the wonderful 'Woman on the edge of time'.) although tis true that for the most part heroes are hetero. For me it has to be a good thing if gay/lesbian characters are depicted and that the relationships are shown as being as fulfilling or as flawed as heterosexual ones. Its also important that the characters do sometimes buck the stereotypes so its good to see a 'manly' 'tough' type character such as Carson(because there are plenty 'manly' gay men). If the goal is to have believable characters despite a fantasy setting then really, failing to show this huge slice of human life, pretending it isn't there ,can never achieve this. It reinforces prejudice and further isolates gay/lesbian/TG people even more. I haven't finished the books yet so things are still to develop but there seems to be a suggestion somewhere that the amount of gay relationships in the books is disproportionate. My view is that a more open society would enable many people to feel free to explore that side of themselves if they wanted to so perhaps not so unusual. If everyone who had ever fancied someone of the same sex 'came out' ..well.. I think it wouldn't be classed as 'abnormal' anymore. A gay friend of mine was fond of pointing out (a few years ago now) that 'most gay men were married'. I'm also thinking that the rain wild keepers/hunters appear to have been largely self selecting. Maybe they felt their 'differences' were more than their rain wild adaptations and so they wanted to leave to be with others they thought might be more tolerant because they were also persecuted. Maybe they are more open to dragons and each other because life has taught them the importance of acceptance of difference and being true to oneself. Just some thoughts. I'll climb off soapbox now...