This morning while I was reading about the discovery of Maya artifacts in a cave under Chichén Itzá, another article caught me. Gender-bending fashion rewrites the rules of who wears what on the National Geographic website. Direct links to my morning reading are at the bottom of the page. BTW, the site doesn’t capitalize the first words of titles. I’m still hoping that my erotic gender-exploration book, All the Firemen will find its audience, so this article heartened me. Greater freedom for LGBTQI and non-binary, aka enby, expression is happening—and so is more personal flexibility for everyone. The clue train arrived: people’s lives don’t have to be restricted by roles assigned according to genitals or assumptions about genitals.
In this review of the Gender Bending Fashion exhibit at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cathy Newman writes:
“In an era of gender fluidity, all bets are off. As the binary of male/female falls by the wayside, fashion follows suit—and has done so periodically since 1507-1458 BCE, when the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as pharaoh wearing male regalia and a false beard. More recently, the Italian designer Alessandro Trincone created an elegant ruffled dress that so captivated rapper Young Thug, he wore it on the cover of his 2016 album: No, My Name is Jeffery. The subject of gender and fashion takes on particular immediacy in the current setting of LGBTQIA+ rights and the impact of social media in community building and self-identification.”
I’ve been fascinated with all forms of gender expression most of my life, and I have an obsession with clothing and accessories. One of my favorite exhibits featured antique underwear at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor. From ancient to contemporary, our choice of jewelry, foot wear, underwear, and outer wear signals details of culture, social position, life role, taste, and at times, erotic desires.
As an author of erotic books, I’m free to consider paying attention to fashion ‘research.’
Many of my favorite musicians rocked gender-bending looks throughout their careers. I’m delighted by stunning models who challenge traditional gender labels.
The gender-bending fashion article includes new trends toward removing binary labels from clothing and stores. It celebrates celebrities who make non-traditional fashion choices, and traces some of the history of non-conformist clothing.
There’s a lot of imagery in certain ancient cultures that doesn’t adhere to rigid male versus female roles.
As tempting as it might be, applying contemporary labels to other eras and other cultures risks over-simplifying and obscuring the context of different people and individual lives. Usually, we have no way of knowing if a person from the past would have identified as lesbian, gay, trans, non-binary, or had a role we may never discover.
Having just settled in to my latest Yucatan apartment, I enjoyed taking a couple of hours off to read about archaeology. It’s one of my passions, and even though the desire to see ancient Maya sites inspired this trip, writing, publishing, and marketing to afford this adventure leaves me little free time.
The gender-bending article gave me a lift. I’ve been spending a lot of time analyzing book categories in hopes of improving my visibility. My risky firemen menage series and its recent collection, All the Firemen, proved to be a financial low point. As I suspected while I was writing the erotic singles, it wasn’t a good business move.
Still, I’m glad I did it. Eve/Stevie is a courageous protagonist. I had a blast going all out with a Gothic haunted house, historical ghost story, diverse cast of hot-as-hell firemen, and an older fire chief capable of offering true love to a non-conformist younger beloved. If you’re curious, check it out.
If you’d like to support books about outsiders with heart, grab a copy of All the Firemen. This 200-page ebook is the complete collection of all five episodes. No cliffhanger, poly HEA for readers 18+. It’s on sale for $2.99 and available in Kindle Unlimited for a limited time.
I’m finishing a new billionaire and virgin book that should appeal to a larger audience. It’s a wicked book. I’m debating whether I need to create a separate version for a retailer that removed some Dark Romances from sale this year. As usual, the authors were unable to get any clear answers as to why those specific books were banned from sale.
As much as I enjoy writing dark books, I’m not going to risk my livelihood. My belated discovery that Dark Romance can be a risky category has cast a cloud over this book. After my fabulous first readers take a look, I’ll decide whether I can publish it in its original form.
It might work best to publish an unexpurgated edition on Smashwords—my favorite online bookstore, thanks to its clear guidelines for sexual content—and then release a ‘safe’ version for the other stores. Of course, five years into watching other authors have books dungeoned, banned, and recategorized, along with watching authors lose their publishing accounts entirely, I get a knot in my gut when I try to imagine what might be ‘safe’ this week.
As much as I wish it were otherwise, invisible policies about erotic content, my book sales, and reviews tell me what I get to spend my time writing this year.
What I read this morning:
Erotic Ebooks with Archeology (both spellings of archaeology are correct, BTW)
The Submission Island series, starting with Spanking. Spanking is free on all major online bookstores. My listing on BookBub has the links. Click View Price to choose your bookstore.
Q . Z a y n e B o o k s 
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