Would you buy a 'Gay Tarot' book?

fairyhedgehog

I would like to read it

I would be interested in a gay tarot book, although I would be even more interested if it included stuff about sexual stereotyping generally.

I've never been happy with the idea that male should be one way and female another to 'complete' each other. When I see things like 'men are from mars ....' I wonder what universe the writer comes from, as I don't feel I fit the stereotype for women at all. That is nothing to do with sexual orientation either, my friend who is lesbian is more 'feminine' than I am and I identify as straight.

I think such a book could be very enlightening and as those of us who use Tarot are perhaps more open-minded and interested in learning new things than the general population (perhaps) I think it might sell.

All the best,

FH

PS Sorry to hear that you are leaving :(
 

Tarotbear 2

8)
You all must realize I have posted this question of several tarot sites, and also on Yahoo!'s 'Pagan Bears (yes, there is such a place). I did get this interesting response for a bear identified as 'Mo':
On the subject of explicitly gay friendly tarot packs there isn't much that I can relate to. The Cosmic Tribe tarot is very beautiful, but it's attempts at gay-friendliness fall flat for me.
It's very well done, it has three versions of the lovers cards for different combinations of Lovers, but looking at the figures on the cards, there is not one mature male figure, nor a female crone anywhere for that matter. Just about all the characters look ultra-trendy, styled, shaved, buff, hair dyed , young, all men are slim and pretty much boyish to youthful, and almost all are very smooth.....the drift seems to be "Here's a gay friendly pack and here's the trendy, hip types you identify with"....Looking at the two lovers on the gay mens lovers card, I'd never see myself or my partner in them."


All you people out there are wondering why the gay community seeks 'validation'.

Another interesting letter took the argument into a delightful direction; the bear wanted to see an all-bear deck and came up with an entire Major Arcana of large hairy men! Interesting, but really just a parody of the Rider; it does not address the reading for a gay clientelle; it merely substitues Bears in the Rider imagery - for example:
MOON: instead of a howling dog and a wolf on both sides of the Moon, you could put a (real) grizzly bear on one side and a naked bear man on the other, both staring into the Moon.

If I could get all these concepts working at one time....boy! What busy year I'll have!
 

Pollux

HEY!

I don't know if I am the biggest supporter...
But I'd be interested... :p

GO FOR IT!
 

Tarotbear 2

Re: I would like to read it

fairyhedgehog said:
I would be interested in a gay tarot book, although I would be even more interested if it included stuff about sexual stereotyping generally.

O.K.-- what does that mean? In a positive way, or defusing negative stereotypes?

Incorrectly handled, there is not much difference between an archetype and a stereotype in most people's minds.

Although the Hitchiker in Kayne's 21st Century tarot 'works' in the concept of the youthful Fool, it is still a stereotype of the young, slim, gymbunny that most other gays call 'twinks'. (Sorry kayne, not trying to put you down here)... What differenciates it as archetype, stereotype, or charactature? And to whom?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
 

fairyhedgehog

Hi tarotbear2,

I'm not sure exactly what I /do/ mean. My post was more of a though-in-progress than I realised at the time, so it isn't very coherent.

I was thinking about how I don't know what it's like to be a gay man, or a lesbian. I think I kind of have some idea of what it is like to not be validated by the culture you are part of. Then that led me to thinking about men and women generally and the roles we can be expected to play. My mind wandered from there onto sexual stereotyping - and I never quite got to the point of asking myself the question where does stereotyping end and archetypes begin.

I really don't know the answer to that. I wonder if there is a place for a new kind of Tarot, with different symbols? Can you just cut and paste two gay men (or two lesbian women) onto the Lovers and that is enough? But how much can you change the Tarot and it is still Tarot?

Sorry this is still very tentative,

Regards,

FH
 

Tarotbear 2

The problem is not so much the physical image of having two naked men as the lovers or two naked women. It's more of the dynamic that makes two men or two women a couple. I would not want to create yet another Rider Waite Clone deck, with images merely a parody of the same old stuff with picture pasted over the images. That is the wrong way to go entirely. I would want the book to be about what goes on in gay people's heads, why a description that only refers to the male/female dynamic falls short. I am not expecting to write this book overnight, nor rewrite my own book. This will be an entirely new manuscript.

I now also have 3 different designer/artists with three different visions of what a 'gay' deck should be vieing for my attention. Could be busy writing gay books for the next 2 years! All of them are different; all of them fill the artist's concept of what they would like to see -- Ah- Diversity!
 

fairyhedgehog

Tarotbear 2 said:
I would want the book to be about what goes on in gay people's heads, why a description that only refers to the male/female dynamic falls short.

That is a book I would like to read :)

FH
 

Kimon

Hello,

surely it will sell.
Not just for gays; as I have feminist tarot books, too, to learn about another point of view on tarot.
Besides, I have a proposal for you in respect to this topic; could you write me at kimon@tarotline.com?

Greetings,
Kimon