One of the easiest stereotypes to fall into with lesbian/feminist literature is the simple equation Men = bad, but I’m afraid life isn’t that simple any more than women automatically = good.   It’s also tempting in lesbian literature to write as if men barely exist or at least that it’s possible for lesbians to live in a world from which men are virtually excluded.  Once again for most of us at least, this is simply not possible.  Men make up almost half the world’s population and it’s amazing where they turn up.  So I’ve tried in Saltbury to build a realistic world.  It might not be quite our world, as it says in my web site’s section on the ‘Saltbury Universe‘.  It’s a slightly kinder, more tolerant place.  But it still has its problems and prejudices, and it has to contain male characters, so here are just a few of who we’ve got.

First we do have a classic crop of obnoxious, sexist, misogynist and just plain lecherous creeps.  There is bar-owner Reggie Trimpton, who books all women band Fauld, than proceeds to try and teach them how to use their equipment and makes suggestive remarks to guitarist Roisin that if she’d like to come over when the bar is closed he can teach her properly, along with anything else they might think of to do!  There is Wilf Quentin, the sleazy Dowchester photographer who tries to trick or browbeat models into doing porn work.  There is Joseph Stewart, Debbie Stewart’s authoritarian father, who thought a daughter was simply a lower form of life and no substitute for the son he longed for.  And then, there’s Paul (we never learn his last name) a fellow student who seduces a very drunk Hazel.  He’s the only man she’s ever slept with and proves to be an utterly selfish lover who never even bothers to ask if she’s on birth control and so risks getting her pregnant.  Alternatively, we have weakling Jeff Pontefract, the door keeper at the Saltbury University concert hall, who tries to boost his sad little ego by making other people’s lives, especially women’s, more difficult.

Other male characters are more nuanced.  For example, what are we to make of handsome young Geography teacher Gerald Whistler, who is caught having sex with one of his final year pupils in his classroom after hours.  He’s clearly breaking every professional rule there is and gets fired on the spot, but the two are genuinely in love and remain a couple ever after.  Or we have John Inger, the singer/bass player with Debbie Stewart’s band ‘Xeroed’.  He is a friend and great fan of Deb’s, but one who in their youth had tried to use sex as a means of establishing power over her.  Luke Drymen becomes a terrifying figure.  He is the father of Tina Burns’ first girlfriend, Rosie, but becomes violently mentally ill and homophobic.  For years he makes his daughter fear for her very life if her sexuality becomes known.  But his trouble is an illness, not ideology, so can we really hold him responsible?  Even Debbie’s long-dead and beloved husband, Nicky, had feet of clay at times.  He once beat her up when he thought (wrongly) that she’d been unfaithful.

There are pompous men, such as Mr. Bromyard (we never learn his first name), a sharp dressing record company suit who is barely out of his teens, but tries to patronise Debbie Stewart.  There are worried men like Gavin Blantyre, a loving father trying desperately to understand a daughter who seems determined to go to the bad.  There are ineffectual men like Lambert Popperwell.  And, of course, in a series where a gay club, the ‘Gemini’, looms large, there are LGBTQ men, such as teenage sweethearts and Rugby fanatics Mark and Brendan: mountains of muscle who call each other ‘Baby’ and pretend to be terrified of Hazel.  We have classically camp barman Paul Brammer, plus Doug Taylor, the trans-man who owns and runs the club.  We also have Derek Tempting, who is not really a man at all, but a brilliant sax playing drag artist whose real name is Shona.

Lastly, we have a number of deeply nurturing male characters.  There’s Dennis Granby, Hazel and Brenda’s school art teacher who is hugely supportive of their talent.  There is driving instructor Arthur Tootlin, whose unflappably patient mentoring gets a very nervous Hazel through her test.  Devoted Rock fan, Gerry Keeling, becomes roadie, minder, friend and number one fan to Hazel and Roisin’s band ‘Fauld’.  But four names stand out above all.  Charlie Hides is the brilliant and versatile drummer with both of Debbie Stewart’s bands.  He is also her daughter Hazel’s godfather and when he realised that even as a small girl she had genuine interest and serious talent in drumming he spent years teaching her until eventually telling Deb quite sincerely that she was now a better drummer than him.

Desmond Burns may have been slow to catch on that his young daughter, Tina, really did want to join him in his law firm one day, but once the penny had properly dropped he was thrilled and he probably spends as much time teaching her as her university does.  Johnny Sherwin, Debbie’s oldest friend and now her manager is utterly devoted to protecting and nurturing her career.  Everyone assumes he is in love with her, but he always dodged becoming a couple when they were younger and he’s now a huge admirer of Debbie’s wife, Martine.

Above all though, we have Gordon Baxter, the former Olympic athlete: a macho man you might expect, but who is now his daughter Carol’s devoted coach.  It is not, to say the least, an easy job.  Carol is a difficult, irritable character given to tirades of invective when she’s angry.  Gordon gives as good as he gets.  Tina Burns describes his training method as ‘hurling abuse until she goes faster’.  But that’s just their way and for years, come sun, hail or pouring rain, Gordon is up with the larks to go running with the fire-breathing daughter he calls ‘Chick’.  Later in the day he trains her at the track and spends evenings with her at the gym or the pool.  It’s never him pushing her to follow in his footsteps, though.  She has running in her blood and he never once questions why it isn’t his son, the older of his two children, Gareth, who wants to be trained.  Then when Carol acquires a girlfriend and her mother virtually goes into panic mode, Gordon is welcoming, delighted that Carol is happy and, of course, gives her flame-haired new love an affectionate nickname: ‘Red’.