At first, when you mentioned Neal/Diana I was hoping for female!Neal/Diana ;)
I mostly agree with you. In my opinion what you say applies to making Diana "casually straight." Like what you mentioned in a comment on Lj, a story from Neal's PoV with little or no attention paid to the fact that Diana just changed her sexuality.
I also completely agree that changing the sexuality of a queer person in fiction is completely different from changing the sexuality of a straight person, similarly with race and religion. Writing Diana as not-lesbian erases one of the very few canonically lesbian characters we have, and one should pay attention not to do it carelessly.
But I think it can be done in a thoughtful way. A fic that deals extensively with Diana's sexuality crisis when she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to Neal Caffrey (while the focus stays on her and not on Neal), or an AU in which Diana is bi (and the fic shows how that may change certain things in her life and how she relates to others) - I'd love to read that, because human sexuality is complicated and our fiction can reflect that.
(Btw, another character who canonically says they are straight is Kenzi from Lost Girl, who I discovered recently. Bo, the main character, is happily bisexual <3 )
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-09-07 10:06 am (UTC)I mostly agree with you. In my opinion what you say applies to making Diana "casually straight." Like what you mentioned in a comment on Lj, a story from Neal's PoV with little or no attention paid to the fact that Diana just changed her sexuality.
I also completely agree that changing the sexuality of a queer person in fiction is completely different from changing the sexuality of a straight person, similarly with race and religion. Writing Diana as not-lesbian erases one of the very few canonically lesbian characters we have, and one should pay attention not to do it carelessly.
But I think it can be done in a thoughtful way. A fic that deals extensively with Diana's sexuality crisis when she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to Neal Caffrey (while the focus stays on her and not on Neal), or an AU in which Diana is bi (and the fic shows how that may change certain things in her life and how she relates to others) - I'd love to read that, because human sexuality is complicated and our fiction can reflect that.
(Btw, another character who canonically says they are straight is Kenzi from Lost Girl, who I discovered recently. Bo, the main character, is happily bisexual <3 )