Light Haired Uke Stereotype - Agree or disagree

I do want to clarify that I see seme/uke/switch as just s*x positions and has nothing to do with behavior or physique. Also I am not talking about seke here (though I do see most seke being light haired as well).

its hard to say, i for one, do not care about hair colours or stuff, to me they are just hair

I think I should add more context in this case. Hair is just hair, but hair says a lot about a person's ethnicity. Since these BL are mostly Japanese, Chinese and Korean, genetically they are supposed to have black hair or dark hair (majority). There are special cases where a small ethnic group in china has blond hair. Now consider who actually has light hair.. and what these ukes mostly go through in these manga.

Firstly I don't understand why such a huge amount of people have light hair in these manga living in these countries. Are they ALL magically mixed race with countries which have light haired people (I have read BL where the seme has dark hair as foreigner, which is understandable. But uke has light hair being a pure Japanese. Where's the logic in that?). Or did all of them dye their hair. Asian countries are somewhat strict with uniforms and such. Since many BL showcase students and salarymen, how are they able to even dye their hair and continue schooling and work?

Warning - The following has sensitive content.
Thing is I don't see this restricted to ukes. Cases where seme was r*ped as a child or even shonen manga with child rape. 50 to 60 % of the time they are blond or light haired. Just to clarify I condemn Child abuse of any kind.

Well with manga it’s a bit different since they usually use the „blonde“ hair to distinguish the two and often the hair is not supposed to be blonde or white but not black but a shade of brown. Also I think with these stories you have the suspension of disbelief effect aka it’s fun to have different hair colors and it is not always supposed to represent reality. Then we also have the „yankee“ and „delinquent“ characters who dye their hair. While I think your observation is quite interesting I am not sure if it has any cultural meaning that can be applied to stories with lighter haired characters.

I hope it is clear that this is not me criticizing you, but simply an explanation of where it may come from.

Classic example of my case for "Light Haired Uke Stereotype".

Heat and Run manga - 2 brothers are in relationship with another pair of brothers. Each pair of brothers has an uke and seme (omega and alpha).

Joo brothers - Joo Ian has blond hair and Joo Jihwan has black hair
Ro brothers - Ro Jaeho have dark hair and Ro Miho has blond hair

Joo Ian is omega/uke and Ro Miho is omega/uke. Both blond hair. Being the uke.

My understanding of genetics says that brothers would not have such complete 180/ opposite hair colors. Ok assume that due to some rare strong genes, one of them might have inherited a different color (extremely rare chance of this happening). How did only the omega/ukes inherit this trait? And not just one but both the omegas from the 2 pairs of brothers did. Where is the logic in this?

And this is not the only BL. I have seen this in others as well. Though I don't recall the names at the moment.

Just a quick fyi. The light haired people in manga are still racially meant to be Japanese unless specifically stated as a foreigner. The different hair colors simply serve to differentiate characters (similar to Japanese anime with green, pink, purple, blue hair etc. It’s simply part of the art style). One shade may be seen to represent a more dark brown hair vs jet black black, but they aren’t meant to be considered blonde again, unless stated (eg in some delinquent stories, they will be in trouble for having bleached hair).

Apparently for shading in the B&W manga, it’s easier to have black or white hair. The few times you find a character with mid tones, I read from a mangaka a while back that’s more challenging to consistently produce. Same with brown skin.

Finally, in response to the “do more ukes seem to have the light coloured hair?” Yeah, I can agree that the numbers seem to roll that way. I can think of several explanations that fit within the usual stereotypes for that. But there’s plenty of mangaka that mix it up

Shade of brown is still depicted as white. Also brown is still lighter than black :P
Still does not answer my question about why the guy with lighter hair has to be uke in most cases. And this obsession of some authors and readers leads to manga like Heat and Run, where there is no logic.

I don't see any part of what you said as criticizing me. You just have a different view point than mine.

Another viewpoint is men are dark tall and handsome. Women are fair, pure and innocent (often represented with white). The truth in this stereotype is highly debatable, but there are many people who blindly and religiously follow this. So the seme (men) are dark haired and the uke (women) are almost always lighter haired.

I personally do not attribute personality traits to gender, even if some hold true that's mostly social conditioning.

I do fully agree that they are not foreigners and hence my point.

I do understand the need to differentiate, but most authors majorly choose the light haired guy as uke, which is again my point. I have seen plenty of authors just blindly going with this stereotype (like the reverse is not possible for them). Even the ones who mix it up do not find a balance. They still lean heavily towards this stereotype.

Well I think your point about the stereotypes about women and men explains it really well. Tons of ukes are indeed portrayed with very “stereotypically” female traits. A lot of times it feels like they just changed the gender of the bottom to male to get more readers. Not all of course but I do think what you said fits very well.

Same

I feel that this is deeply problematic. The thought that women are seen as weak fair pure and innocent just because they are women. I know plenty of strong women ( irrespective of other traits), so this is just disrespectful. :( And the thought that men are forced to always stay strong..

Welcome to Asia, there are so many problems about this but there are always very clear tendencies. Even when a woman is portrayed as strong in the beginning she will become clumsy and stupid as soon as the male lead arrives (every kdrama ever). And yea it goes both ways, it is ridiculous how men are portrayed as well. I try to find the stories that are more nuanced and break away from this. And while I don’t mind reading about a weak woman/ uke and a strong top I hate that it is the norm. But we are also talking about a culture (japan) where it is expected if the woman to not want sex and say no no no until it just feels like rape.

Perhaps because light tends to signify innocence, sweetness and is a more vulnerable color than darker shades that we tend to see as more intense and.. well dark. So it’s a quick way to convey a concept about a character, and as the uke is the one perceived as in the more vulnerable position a lot can be conveyed just with hair shades. I think it’s why so many people love a story with a “power bottom” because of the reminder that preferred position doesn’t define your personality traits.

Anyway, it’s not a bad thing. Just another tool in an artists bag to convey a concept without words.

That's just sad :( And it's not just BL, Shonen as well has the same issue. And as you pointed out Kdrama.

I am Asian as well, so I do understand.

I don't know about others, but when something is overused like this innocence trope it just becomes boring. Nothing fun about it.

And based on the men/women stereotype, the perceived notion that light haired or short men are not handsome or black haired women are not beautiful is just...

And as I said uke/seme is just s*x position. Why do people attribute personality traits to it. Like what does personality or physique of a person have to do with if he prefers to be uke or seme or switch.

Here's my opinion about this, and honestly it's something I'm pretty sure about. So hear me out, hair color in manga/manhwa has A LOT to do with the characters' personality. That's the main reason for the hair color, really. Everything depends on the kind of dynamic that the author wants to portray. The main point is that dark hair visually represents "seriousness", while light hair represents "brightness". A character can have a dark or a bright aura based on the hair color (note that there are many variations, but the "aura" will always fall into either one or the other of those two categories).
Basically we have 2 main categories:

- dark hair "top" x light hair "bottom" : the dark haired one is the more serious/calm, or the more dominant (one example among many, is the CEO top who will always have dark hair). The light haired one is more fluffy and soft, can be innocent and also a bit of an airhead. As I said, there are many variations, but in this kind of couple the top has a "dark aura" while the bottom a "bright aura". [Note that dark aura is not something negative, it depends on how it is portrayed. Many authors can't do it right which leads to asshole characters]

- light hair "top" x dark hair "bottom" : the light haired top is fluffy, soft, maybe innocent, maybe airhead etc ---> one of the most common case of this are our beloved puppy semes [Note: the personality traits are fundamentally the same as the light haired bottom of the previous category, but only in the case of the bottom those traits are perceived and/or portrayed as "feminine"---> the hair color doesn't matter, unfortunately it's a problem with the representation of "sex roles" which shouldn't be seen as something that affects the personality. Maybe someday more authors and more readers will understand this...]. The dark haired bottom is more serious/calm (for example megane uke will always have dark hair). Usually dark haired bottom can also be the more dominant one in the realtionship. Again, in this case the top has a "bright aura" while the bottom a "dark aura".
Dark haired uke is actually really common, especially in Korean manhwas but there are plenty in mangas as well. I have noticed that it usually goes together with a super fair skin, it's the classic ideal of Asian beauty (there's a lot to say about this but I'll stop here).

There are two more categories, less common and that can ultimately be brought back to the two above, but I'll list them:
- dark haired top x dark haired bottom: Both have a "dark aura" It's probably my favourite dynamic. Usally one of the two will have dark brown hair and the other jet black, so it can still somehow fall into one of the previous two, but it's still a bit different because we don't get "bright energy" here.
- light haired top x light haired bottom: Probably the rarest combination ever, usually one of them will be something like dark blond or light brown and the other light blond or white. again it can fall into one of the previous two categories, but still different because we don't get "dark energy".


Sorry for the long rant, but I hope my explanation was helpful!

Maybe it’s coz of twinks and bears? Brats and daddies, Maybe coz even in the real world the stereotypes exist to some degree in some groups ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Whatever an authors reasoning, the thing is you are likely to get a 50/50 choice light or dark hair in manga, and from there a smaller chance of a mid tone if the author doesn’t mind spending the time on the shading. They are going to pick a body type reasonably consistent with the plot and personality that they have chosen and if it’s just a regular guy, that will be a regular build, if it’s a sporty guy, an athletic build, and if it’s an introverted bookworm a leaner build. Unlikely to get plump ones coz culturally that’s not usually encouraged so that would be a specific choice.

So just saying, this is why it doesn’t bother me if a uke is dark or light haired and same with seme. I have seen serious semes with light hair, they are often portrayed as icy and controlled though, maybe the type that melt for their partner. Pretty common in Omegaverse, maybe it’s the symbolism with alpha wolves and white wolves?

I don’t tend to let things like hair colour or builds bother me. If I want something different then I just search for and choose those stories. Let me share a couple that aren’t your average tropes for your potential enjoyment. It’s been an interesting debate (●'◡'●)ﾉ

https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/norainu_no_yoru/

https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/lion_and_venus/

But that's the thing right. I would not be even creating this topic if not for disbalance. If it was 50/50 chance it would still have been ok. But that's not the case 8 to 9 out of 10 manga have Light haired uke. Which is exactly why it bothers me so much when these come out of countries with predominantly black hair.

So far from the comments on this topic, the likely hood of it being because of uke being considered a women is more.

In the first place Tall, Dark and Handsome for men and Weak, Fair and innocent originated from the west. So the idea of this being implemented so thoroughly not just in hetero manga (I see this trend there as well) but also in BL from countries predominantly having black hair.. It's not Racial Domination but Racial Fetishism（￣へ￣）. For me this is as bad as the one before.

I watched a few interviews from Japanese on their views on people from US. Many clearly stated that they prefer blond hair because it's beautiful and black hair does not make them feel beautiful. The thought that these stereotypes have actually penetrated so deep in the minds of people, so much so that they can't feel confident in their skin is just plain sad.

I mean I know many people might feel that me bringing up Light haired uke as a stereotype is just plain rubbish and some who actually like this stereotype might be against me for bringing this up. But I fell this trope is most often seen (80 to 90% of the time) but NEVER acknowledged as a stereotype.

I've been thinking about it a lot too but never decided to actually discuss with a lot of people since I'm afraid I might receive backlash from it, also because I'm not good at phrasing words just like you. My vocabularies are very limited and I can't explain things that would make sense.

So to keep it short, I disagree. It's on me, it's my personal opinion. Though not only in BLs but also in straight manhwas/manhuas/mangas.

Most I've seen is light haired female leads and dark haired male leads. It would also go with BLs as well. When I noticed these small details, I started ignoring it. To feel satisfied, I would rate 1 star and leave, regardless if the storyline is good or not. It is also to avoid causing arguments and/or misunderstandings.

I would read stuff that would be the opposite like dark haired female leads/ukes and lighter haired male leads/semes since it's so rare to find them. Still I respect if someone doesn't have the same thoughts as me.