the infamous "Okita wasn't gay, he murdered people!" debacle
Bwuh? What exactly does one half of that statement have to do with the other half?
Apparently a great deal, in the eyes of a certain Shinsengumi fanboy who for reasons of homophobia wanted to insist that a) despite the many texts and poems and so forth from the era which praise "manly love", samurai were actually almost never gay, and when they were they were duly socially censured as gays have ever been and ever must be for the sake of humanity's future... well you get it, and b) men who pursue Very Manly Occupations like killing other people for pay/idealism are for some reason immune from other Very Manly Occupations like gay sex. Something like that.
Historical fiction is a lot like fanfiction, in a way: you have a certain set of facts to work with (canon), a bunch of common assumptions and myths that haven't really been proven (fanon), and then you have your ship wars ("Jefferson slept with Sally Hemmings!" "OMG, no he didn't!" "Yes he did; we can prove it!").
It becomes even hairier when most people's only "historical" exposure to the character is in fact from fanfic! For example, I once met someone who insisted Richard III of England was a much better king (and Henry VII a correspondingly greater bastard) than is popular opinion... but most people haven't studied the era, they just take Will Shakespeare's word for it.
no subject
Bwuh? What exactly does one half of that statement have to do with the other half?
Apparently a great deal, in the eyes of a certain Shinsengumi fanboy who for reasons of homophobia wanted to insist that a) despite the many texts and poems and so forth from the era which praise "manly love", samurai were actually almost never gay, and when they were they were duly socially censured as gays have ever been and ever must be for the sake of humanity's future... well you get it, and b) men who pursue Very Manly Occupations like killing other people for pay/idealism are for some reason immune from other Very Manly Occupations like gay sex. Something like that.
Historical fiction is a lot like fanfiction, in a way: you have a certain set of facts to work with (canon), a bunch of common assumptions and myths that haven't really been proven (fanon), and then you have your ship wars ("Jefferson slept with Sally Hemmings!" "OMG, no he didn't!" "Yes he did; we can prove it!").
It becomes even hairier when most people's only "historical" exposure to the character is in fact from fanfic! For example, I once met someone who insisted Richard III of England was a much better king (and Henry VII a correspondingly greater bastard) than is popular opinion... but most people haven't studied the era, they just take Will Shakespeare's word for it.