Can Fiction Really Teach Us?

The other week Bill O’Reilly—who I really do want to slap—hard—complained that Glee! encourages young people to experiment with “alternative lifestyles.” Where to begin? In case you missed it, the episode he was referring to featured a transgendered (gender dysphoric) teen, and was, in my opinion, one of the best episodes they’ve done. The young man, Wade, confessed to Kurt and Mercedes that he had an alter ego—Unique—who was bold, confident, secure, and female. Now I will admit I find the whole transgender concept puzzling. Well maybe not so much puzzling, as hard to understand. Maybe because, like most men, I have a morbid fear of losing my boy parts. The very thought of voluntarily separating from them makes me dizzy.

And a Seven Year Old Makes it Clear

I follow Amelia’s Huffington Post blog. Amelia is the mother of a 7 year old self-identified gay son who has a crush on Blaine. He watches the show regularly (after his parents preview and edit what he will see). While watching this episode, he asked his mother why Wade, a boy, was wearing a dress. She explained: “… some boys, like this one, feel like they are girls on the inside , so they are more happy and comfortable in girls' clothes.” He responded: “I’m a boy on the inside and the outside.” Now here was a 7-year old I could identify with. I, too, am a boy on the inside and the outside. I’m also a boy who likes other boys. And suddenly because it was clear to him, it was clear to me: He was this; I was this; Wade was that. And that’s okay. I don’t have to understand gender dysphoria, I just have to accept it and support everyone’s right to be themselves. Seeing Wade transform into Unique, heels, dress, wig and all and sing the hell out of “Boogie Shoes” reminded me: it is only when we are our authentic selves that we can soar.

And I have to keep learning. And remain open to new experiences. The other day, a reader in the U.K. who’s been a great supporter and is rapidly becoming a friend, posted on her blog about her experience reading my book. While it’s always nice when a reader loves a book, what really caught my attention was her declaration: “I really hate romantic novels. I had enjoyed the excerpt immensely, although if I'm honest, I was at that stage also thinking 'this isn't my kind of story'.” Yet she read the book and loved it. ( Read her review here) Had she not shaken off her prejudice against romance, she wouldn’t have read the book and had the great experience she had.

Another reader wrote she almost didn’t read my book because she couldn’t wait to read another book: “This book was an afterthought purchase. I bought it on a whim while buying a book I couldn't wait to read…I didn't get to the book I couldn't wait to read…So, I went to buy a book I couldn't wait to read and found a book I had to read! Now, Larry Benjamin is added to the authors I cannot wait to read!”

So you see it is sometimes only when we step off the main road and stumble into the undergrowth, that we discover something new. Both Glee! and my book are fiction, but in fiction there is often truth and for that reason fiction can teach us. And it can open to up us a world of possibilities, to a world different to our own.

Perhaps Bill O’Reilly should step off his rather narrow path and watch that Glee! episode again. Maybe then he will understand what that episode was really about. Maybe then he will be able to shed his hatred and fear. Maybe then he will soar.