I hope I'm making myself clear enough that your friend will find the comment helpful.
Aside from getting the sexual mechanics working more or less effectively, I really don't think there's much difference writing the essence of boy/boy, girl/boy, or girl/girl romances. Contexts can influence a lot, of course - boy/boy in ancient Sparta is way different from girl/girl in a medieval monastery, which is again different from girl/girl in suburban North America in the 1950s, which could be very similar to girl/boy in an alien SF society where the exchange of genetic material required for sexual reproduction occurs in some manner totally unrelated to love and sex, and while there is a physical distinction between people who are equipped to bear children and people who are not, everyone is expected to have have romantic relationships only with members of the same sex, and all other relationships are illegal, furtive, or confined to the "shocking classes" such as artists and the very rich.
But I think, based on my own experience, that once you sort of screen out the overtones of societal proscription and prescription and what that does to your head, there is more difference in relationship dynamics based on personality than there is on whether your partner is male or female.
But then, I'm more of a social constructionist than an essentialist when it comes to gender, so I'd be more likely to interpret my experiences that way anyway. ;-)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-07-12 08:17 pm (UTC)Aside from getting the sexual mechanics working more or less effectively, I really don't think there's much difference writing the essence of boy/boy, girl/boy, or girl/girl romances. Contexts can influence a lot, of course - boy/boy in ancient Sparta is way different from girl/girl in a medieval monastery, which is again different from girl/girl in suburban North America in the 1950s, which could be very similar to girl/boy in an alien SF society where the exchange of genetic material required for sexual reproduction occurs in some manner totally unrelated to love and sex, and while there is a physical distinction between people who are equipped to bear children and people who are not, everyone is expected to have have romantic relationships only with members of the same sex, and all other relationships are illegal, furtive, or confined to the "shocking classes" such as artists and the very rich.
But I think, based on my own experience, that once you sort of screen out the overtones of societal proscription and prescription and what that does to your head, there is more difference in relationship dynamics based on personality than there is on whether your partner is male or female.
But then, I'm more of a social constructionist than an essentialist when it comes to gender, so I'd be more likely to interpret my experiences that way anyway. ;-)