It’s hard being a straight, white, has-been young adult author. Just ask S.E. Hinton.
Hinton catapulted to fame half a century ago with her coming-of-age YA novel The Outsiders, which she wrote when she was just 15 and which went on to sell over 14 million copies, making her a ton of money. She wrote a few more books after that, but was never quite able to match her earlier success. Her last book, a collection of short stories, was published 10 years ago. These days, the only writing she seems to be doing is the crap she spews on Twitter, including this recent tweet:
Huh???
The tweet was in response to one of her 43,000 followers asking if she could ever consider including any LGBTQ or POC characters in any of her future writings.
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Naturally, people didn’t respond well to the comment, which only caused the 68-year-old to double down on her opinion and begin turning on her own fans:
At one point she tried using the whole “I can’t possibly be homophobic, I have gay friends” defense:
At another point, she tried using her gender to defend her actions:
When one fan said they loved her work but were disappointed with the tone of her tweets, S.E. tried blaming her two-hour Twitter tirade on that fact that she was having a “bad day”:
Then she promptly fired off a general “fuck you, world” tweet and went to bed:
Heywood Jablowme
I’ve never totally figured out what Twitter is, and I have no interest in doing that, but it seems to get a lot of people in trouble.
But is the headline wrong? – where does she mention whiteness?
Kangol
What is this “straight,” white dingbat talking about? Nearly every book on the NY Times bestseller list is by a straight white writer, many of them women! She’s nuts. Straight white women run the publishing industry, BTW. Not gay men, not people of color, but STRAIGHT WHITE WOMEN. She’s out of her f*cking mind.
sfhally
@Heywood Jablowme: AS usual, this is a click-bait headline carefully edited. She got jumped on when she denied that any of her characters in the book “The Outsiders” were gay despite some fanfic that said so.
She wrote them and she should know. SOme over-hormonal queen went off.
AND–this happened some time ago. Not a new story.
ivanw222
In all that volley of Tweets I didn’t see her attacked at all. People simply asked why she never included a gay character. For this she went nuts?
He BGB
She got all defensive and turned the tables. Just say you don’t have any gay characters in your stories right now. It has nothing to do with her being straight unless writers are supposed to go from experience and she has no gay friends but then she says she does… All those diets making her cranky. Oooooooo. Can’t believe I went there….
brandon
lol. that final tweet tho
captainburrito
She could have handled that better.
Truth-is-Truthy
@Heywood Jablowme: It’s implied based on the fact that part of the twitter stream included people asking why she didn’t have people of color (POC) in her books. She then went on a bit of a rant that results in her indicating that being white and hetero are just as much a struggle as being black or gay.
batesmotel
She could have probably handled it better. I wrote a book with gay characters and while some loved it, others took issue with the fact they were all white. The next book I wrote was filled with diversity and was very limited on the white. I didn’t have a cow that others were not pleased about that aspect of the first book. Director Jonathan Demme had that issue with The Silence of the Lambs. Gays attacking him. So his next movie was Philadelphia and all was forgiven.
zipperzone
Probably being attacked for being so f**king ugly.
Oh I forgot – she was born that way…..
Jimlibrarian
To a gay young man reading The Outsiders after seeing the movie, it was obvious that Ponyboy was the only real straight boy of the bunch. He was hung up on Cherry Valance who could not get over her poverty prejudice, even after he spent all those nights cuddling with Johnny in that cold church. Johnny was in love with Ponyboy, Dallas was in love with Johnny, Soda and Steve were polymorphusly turning tricks at the DX (when they weren’t doing each other) and Darrel was handling rough trade. Poor Two Bit was stuck in asexuality as are most hardcore alcoholics. Hinton clearly does not know what she wrote.
okbye
I don’t think she was saying anything against gay people or POC, it sounded like she was saying she couldn’t write those characters because she wasn’t one of them. Which is just as stupid, but in a different way. She’s never been an adolescent boy either but she created a book full of them. I can’t imagine how you could call yourself a writer and only be able to write about people just like yourself.
Does she still write? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything by her except The Outsiders.
homogenius
Wow, most writers are smart enough to READ and LEARN about all kinds of different things in order to become better writers…then you have this clearly butt hurt, bitter woman who claims to be a “writer” and clearly has never learned about HETEROSEXISM!!! As in the fact that default, for just about everything is heteronormalized (or; straight=”normal”) every book, movie, play, story, etc , features all or mostly hetero characters aimed at breede…oops! Err heterosexuals. People like her just dont get it, look at the “religious freedom” b.s whose logic is; since they arent FOR us, they must be against us and therefore must be “destroyed.” Sadly, people like this monsterously lame STRAIGHT woman (she wont stop reminding us of her str8 pride) will always use some lame ass excuse for their repugnant behavior and archaic views on that which is not like them. People like this woman will always stand up for adversity and cry over diversity.
My words for Ms. Hinton….grab your ipad and do a seaech for “HETEROSEXISM” “Heteronormative” and finally “IGNORANT, BUTT-HURT JACKASS!!!” the one you should know very well
Transiteer
So, a “has been”, angry and bitter now bordering on hateful. If no ones reading your books Honey, the reason has nothing to do with gays. You are not a victim here – you’re just burnt out and angry. Stop blaming others for your problem – get to work to fix it and pick yourself up. Stop whining. And do something with that hair … gawd….
DannX68
Funny to see all those gays attacking Ms. Hinton on her looks and hair. Mature. I am beginning to think the reason I am single has nothing to do with me, other than I don’t want to put up with that bitchy crap so many gays are full off.
Also, why SHOULD she write about gays? Does it matter?
MaxTaste
Never heard of her. From her Twitter rants she seems rather unhinged and bitter.
alanballs
How, exactly, has she been attacked again??? Perhaps for being a loud-mouthed, bigoted, fat, old, ugly, irrelevant has-been? That would be my guess.
Neonegro
The woman write a book and the SJW (social justice warriors) think they know better than the author.
Then they question why she does not include a gay or “person of color”…. as if white is not a color…. in her stories.
Well, write your own damn book and make it as gay and colored as you want.
This constant whining is quite tiresome.
scotshot
S.E. Hinton should have invested her money better. Some writers have one good book in them. *
Stop whining and grow up.
*See Harper Lee.
Kheft
Not sure what to make of this “news” item. I guess if you’re a dull boring old has-been the struggle for attention is real. I feel as though thinking/commenting about this is a waste of time, to say nothing of dwindling brain cells.
Sluggo2007
She forgot to mention UGLY! Straight, white and UGLY!
TomChicago
@Heywood Jablowme: that is a good point. I don’t see the “white” stuff. Sounds like a critique escalated her and that hijacked the whole discussion.
jkthsnk
The Outsiders was good. The rest were crap. That’s what she should get flak for. And yes I agree, she turned it into a thing with her condescending tone announcing her unexamined cis/het normative privilege
SnakeyJ
For those calling her a has-been, at least she has some major accomplishments. I devoured her books when i was thirteen. They’re still selling well now and making her money. Also Queerty needs to report the actual story. There was a question if two characters in the book were gay. She replied, no and asked what in the book made the reader think that. The reader can interpret the characters any way they want, it didn’t seem like she cared about that, but people didn’t like her answer. The writer of this article needed to do some research, which wasn’t difficult to do, and get the real story. Instead they’re just ruining the reputation of someone who was actually supportive of gays.
Kangol
@Neonegro: Please go back to Breitbart with that “SJW” crap. If you are a public figure you should be able to deal with criticism. She’s written some popular books, including *Rumble Fish,* and received praise and criticism for them. It comes with the territory. If she didn’t want it, then she should never have released her books publicly in the first place.
Herman75
I remember reading how silly men would head out to Annie Proulx’s ranch with a re-write of her story Brokeback Mountain expecting her to be impressed with their revised versions with their more titillating sex scenes or happy endings. Of course she was ticked off. So I kind of get how S.E. Hinton would be sensitive to people suggesting she should include lgbt characters in her work. Besides, she is from another time and I believe she is in Oklahoma. Expecting her to shift her mental gears and even know how to write about lgbt characters is a bit much. Twitter can be so ridiculous. I wonder why people like Hinton bother paying that much attention to each and every tweet.
Jason G
@Truth-is-Truthy: Not really. She implied that women struggle as much as people of color or people in the LGBT community.
cutterq
She should ask her son and his partner what they think
mhoffman953
Why is it a big deal if she doesn’t have gay people in her books? Does every single book, movie, or show have to bang us over the head with “diversity”? Can’t there just be good story telling without the need to heavily force in various groups of people just because?
Neonegro
@Kangol: Who said she should not be able to deal with criticism? You have a right to criticize and she has a right to respond in any manner she sees fit.
In this case, the criticism is quite asinine, it is the author’s decision on the color, gender and sexual preference of the characters in her story.
John
For a community that has whined, cried and pouted about being bullied and hated we seem to have taken lessons and the mean, vile hate and bullying seems to be something many in our community have mastered. The woman wrote/writes about what she knows. You want stories and books about gay people? write one, it is what you know.