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Hello! I haven't been active here in a while, but I'm posting today because I'm worried about stereotyping my queer main character.
My character is a flamboyant effeminate gay man, but I'm afraid of that coming as his sole personality trait, And i wonder how it can write a character that doesn't feel like a offensive one dimensional stereotype.
I am personally not a gay man, but I believe I can help with this. I think the main thing is just taking those flamboyant traits and taking them seriously, as in like, “He expresses himself in this way and that’s valid and okay,” and also giving him other traits that deepen his character. Like maybe he’s a teacher, or he likes to play chess.
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Listen, I'd say either have him have a good reason to act this way on his backstory, or develop his backstory totally unrelated to this mannerisms. I said to go for the extremes bc what happens is that most of our mannerisms were either aquired due to a certain experience that had an impact on us (positive or negative, up to you!), but our mannerisms can also have been aquired just bc we see someone we admire/our social group doing it, so we end up doing it ourselves. I'm not gay, nor a man for that matter, but my main tip would be, have the backstory relate to it, but not the plot, avoid making all the jokes about his mannerisms, all his reacions tied to his mannerisms and add a pinch of paradox (for example, have him like mostly affeminate and flamboyant things, then a random manly man cishet dudebroski kinda guy is listening to heavy metal and he joins him, having these few tonal breaks help avoid making a character too stereotypical). Another example would be a super dark, manly killer-for-hire widowed doberman dude I created, who actually likes to have cook and be in sunny places and picnics and had his wife propose to him. Still, this might be personal preference, so take my advice with a pinch of salt. I hope this helps somehow! :)
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I mean, the EASIEST way is to get a sensitivity reader. A sensitivity reader is a person within a minority group makes sure you portray their minority accurately and inoffensively. If you have any friends who are LGBTQIA+, you can ask them to read. Preferably, you'll want to have more than one. If you don't have LGBT friends, you can always ask somebody (who you trust) on this app or another to be your sensitivity reader. (It's always best to have a sensitivity reader, even if you're extremely sure of yourself)
Personally, I would say he can have those traits, but don't make it a defining character. Most writers make the mistake of taking stereotypes and making it the only trait a character has. Maybe he is a bit feminine, but he's also easily bored and has a short temper.
And, I agree with @The-Dyonisia. Having some of your friends proofread would be great! Or even on here!
the biggest thing is just not letting those stereotypes control your character :)
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Also, to avoid tokenism, make sure there is a diversity of characters. You don't want just one to diverge from the norm, to make good representation, you have to have more than one kind. Have multiple characters be POC, LGBT, disabled and/or religiously diverse. You don't have to have EVERY type of rep, but you should have more than 2.
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Hello! I haven't been active here in a while, but I'm posting today because I'm worried about stereotyping my queer main character.
My character is a flamboyant effeminate gay man, but I'm afraid of that coming as his sole personality trait, And i wonder how it can write a character that doesn't feel like a offensive one dimensional stereotype.
In conlusion: Write him like any other person but he like men ez
