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Should contemporary M/M fiction promote safe sex? I posed the question to a group of authors and got varied responses. Most agreed that safe sex was important. I also posed the question to a group of readers and got a very different response--nearly all of them thought it didn't matter, since it was fiction.
When I'm writing a scene, I often dither about whether or not to include a condom. When do the MCs reach a point in their relationship that it's okay to bareback? And where do blow jobs--not to mention rimming--come into play in the scope of safe sex? Since unsafe sex does happen in the real world, is it all right to write it or as authors, should we be using our writing as a means to gently educate readers about safe sex practices?
It's a lot to think about while you're in the heat of the moment, so to speak, and I'll admit that I usually omit the condom on the first draft of a sex scene. They haven't been a part of my own sex life for over a decade (has it really been a decade since college ended? Yikes), so it's difficult for me to work them into a scene naturally. I do think it's important, though, and that's why I always try to make my characters as safe as possible, even though it often involves editing condoms in during revision.
That can happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes it's a committed, long-term relationship and I can throw in a comment about how glad they are that they made the decision to stop using condoms. When it's a first-time encounter, condoms are always discussed, even if they don't use them. But is that "I've been tested recently and I'm clean" discussion a cop-out?
What's your opinion on safe sex in M/M fiction?
