This is a brief interview with Cecilia Tan, conducted by Ava Perry. For the
right to reproduce this interview in print, on other web sites, or any other
use of this material whether for commerical or noncommercial use,
contact ctan@circlet.com. These
rights can be granted but must be asked for in advance.
Cecilia Tan Speaks Out on The Life of a Bisexual Erotica Writer
by Ava Perry
Cecilia Tan's business card reads "writer, editor, sexuality activist." The
first two I know all about: her erotic fiction has graced the pages of Ms.
magazine, Paramour, and Penthouse, including a current
appearance in Best America Erotica 1996 edited by Susie Bright and
Best Lesbian Erotica 1997 edited by Tristan Taormino. She founded
Circlet Press to publish works of erotic science fiction and fantasy that
had no market elsewhere, and has edited over twenty anthologies under
the Circlet imprint. So, writer, editor... but "sexuality activist" I had to
know more about.
AP: Where does erotica fit into activism?
CT: Well, I write a fair number of political essays, for newsletters,
journals like Sojourner, books like Bisexual Politics, and more often than
not I'm writing something about sex, erotica, the feminist sex wars,
women's freedom of expression and sexual freedom, stuff like that. But I
feel like my real "activism"--that is, the way I'm trying to actually
change the world for the better--is through my erotic fiction. People who
read my stories are affected by them--moved, touched, aroused,
compelled. Next to coming out and being a living example of a happy, sex-
positive, polyamorous bisexual, portraying characters with alternative
sexual lifestyles is one of the most effective ways to open people's minds
to different erotic possibilities.
AP: Do you promote certain sexual agendas or types of activism in your
erotica?
Most of the characters in my erotica are bisexual. Sometimes this comes
up in the story, other times it doesn't, depending on what the story or plot
calls for. Once in a while a character is straight or gay as required by the
story. Other times it is in a science fiction or fantasy context where there
is no bipolar division of sexualities, and so folks are "bi" (or "omni") by
default. I try to extend this "bi" sensibility into the stories and the
characters so that it will seem natural, not "a weird kink", and more likely
to affect the reader positively. So, as my reasoning goes, if I am exposing
readers to positive vibes about bisexuality, I am doing some small part
toward making the world a more accepting place for bisexuality.
AP: Do you think it works?
I think so, in some small measure. I opened the eyes of my mom to
acceptance of my leather lifestyle through my fiction--that seems to
indicate a lot of possibilities for other people in my life.
AP: That seems to imply that you have to be writing sexually-oriented
fiction for it to work. What about bisexual characters in non-erotic
literature?
Well, I write that, too. But in western literature there have always been
characters with "alternative" sexualities, from same sex attraction to
S/M-style kink. What is often NOT mentioned is the fact that these
characters are usually villains, or secondary heroes who die a tragic death
in the course of the book. To me this is neither sex-positive nor erotic,
equating sex with evil or with tragedy and death. This is where erotica
comes in: erotica, which should ideally be "erotic" in the sense of arousing
sexual interest and in the sense of celebrating life and creation. Erotica,
as I write it, revolves around sex as an enjoyable, often transformative,
experience. So, yeah, the sex has to actually be in there. Otherwise, how do
you show in a compelling way that a character has a certain
sexuality?
AP: What do you consider some of your most "active" stories?
It was great fun to be in a book edited by Carol Queen and Lawrence
Schimel called "Switch Hitters" from Cleis Press. The premise is lesbians
writing about gay male characters, and gay men writing about lesbian
characters. The one flaw in this premise is that a good number of the
contributors identify as bisexual, but it was still great fun. I wrote a
story about a young gay college student trying to come out that was
loosely based on my own experiences coming out as bi. I wrote a story
about a young leather dyke and an old gay leather man in "Looking for Mr.
Preston"--the John Preston memorial anthology--which is very erotic for
me, but not on a genital level, more on the level of unquestioning love and
loyalty. It challenges definitions of what makes a person "acceptable" and
whether they are based on genitalia or not. There was the gender dysphoric
vampire in "Tale of Christina" from Dark Angels, who had passed as a man
in the 1800s, but now finds it difficult to do so with the trend for women
to wear pants, short hair, and so on...
AP: What other erotica writers do you enjoy? Who else puts out this kind
of sex-positive stuff?
Oh, there's tons of stuff coming out now. The pioneers of course were Pat
Califia, whose MELTING POINT and MACHO SLUTS collections are great. In
Pat's footsteps there seems to be this whole cabal of
bisexual/pansexual/omnisexual writers who can do it all, straight, queer,
bi, transgendered.... Carol Queen of course, Thomas S. Roche, M. Christian,
we all pop up again and again in these anthologies together. There's a lot
in anthologies now, like the HEROTICA series, which I like a lot even if I
don't like every story in the book. I like the books that mix gay, straight,
bi, etc... stories together, like NOIROTICA edited by Thomas Roche and
BACKSTAGE PASSES edited by Amelia G. I have to admit though, that I
don't have time to read as much as I would like to, so most of what I've
read are anthologies I'm actually in. After all, they send me free copies of
them.
AP: Do you have any advice for young writers out there who are thinking of
going into the erotica field?
Yes. Write what turns you on. Let your imagination totally go, what are the
things that make you drip, that make you try to type with one hand and
hold the vibrator with the other? Those are the things that are worth
writing. Making writing financially rewarding is hard, so it has to be
rewarding to you in some other way. Don't write what you think other
people will want to read. Write your thing, and then try to sell it. In my
case, I wrote something with no market and had to create the market
myself... it worked, though, didn't it?
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