Call me a hypocrite bc I still read this but lowkey a bunch of comments on this thread hav...

As a long-time yaoi reader, I separate fiction to reality. Sometimes, some comments are concerning, but I remember that I sometimes think like them too , but only in fiction, it's messed up when applied to reality. Hopefully, the readers are mature to separate reality and fiction as well.
At the end of the day, I just ignore the comments, lol.

it's just as you said. we still read despite the presence of rape and abuse in the story. are you reading because you condone rape irl? no, right? because this is all FICTION. some readers express disgust, which is understandable. if they don't want to read stories like this, that's their preference.

but it's not about becoming desensitized to rape; it's about enjoying the recent fuckin chapters, which are obviously very far from rape, without having these puritans in the comments screaming that it is. that's the point of all those comments'. we can have constructive discussions about characters' behaviors (abuse/rape) in the past, and be disappointed if they do the same shit again after the redemption. but that's not what this is. some readers nitpick everything and label it as rape, even if it's obviously not. now, isn't THAT what's watering down the seriousness of rape? (if we disregard the fact that these characters are not even fuckin real.)

I was actually scared that someone's going to comment about rape stuff, because back then, nobody gives a fuck. Now, everyone's trying to connect it to the real world, which is weird. If you know it's fiction, why question it? Learn to separate both worlds.
Obviously, we readers know that it's fiction, hopefully we all do, lol.

Beautifully explained!!

Also, this would be a whole lot different if it were something based on a true event. That would be an actual reflection of rape irl because it actually happened and it would no longer be fiction. All in all, the bottom line is, fiction ≠ reality. I read this manhwa and I truly sympathised with the uke and I'm also loving how the seme has been changing for the better. In the real world, I'm always, always afraid of potential danger. Would any of us ever forgive and forget actual rapists? Never.

everyone is responsible for the media they consume

Small correction: there is no forgiving fictional characters. They're just...characters in a story. You love them, hate them,judge them. Real life rapists don't get any damn redemption. They should just die the worst death possible.

Exactly.

exactly istg. If these people read the things in the past they would go crazy. Like it is just a fiction

“separate fiction from reality” seems to be the main argument here
Then where do we draw the line on other morally ambiguous content?
Do we support adults who consume pedophilic content, because drawn anime characters are fictional?
I somewhat agree with the claim but the reasoning doesn’t really hold up I feel
If it’s true that continuous exposure can affect people’s preferences (sexually) then the same can be applied to attraction to rape, considering it’s been connected to porn and continuously promoted and consumed as “normal content”
And considering a large portion of this audience is minors (esp young girls) who are more susceptible because they are still developing
Just something to think about. Because just cause you feel you can morally separate fiction from reality doesn’t mean your brain and body feel the same way.

But also to clear things up, the original post was directed towards people that were going out of their way to justify Taeju’s actions

Thank you bestie, finally someone says it out loud! I enjoy the art and find some things enjoyable in this story. But tbh, I still find the seme a forceful creep (I won't deny he genuinely loves the uke) who uses his money to help AND bind the uke to himself. I really wanna like the seme, but I only like the uke and his little brother.

that’s the best comment here! i wish it was pinned up for all the “it’s just fiction” people to read

That is exactly why unikalluto said that people are responsible for the content they consume. You can't really compare one bad thing with another, especially when it's stuff like rape and pedophilia. Can't say one is worse than the other.

And about minors are being influenced? Minors shouldn't be reading this kind of thing in the first place. We can't really police everything a minor watches either. And this is where proper sex ed comes in.

End note is, there's no way to defend a character's crimes, so if there's anybody justifying earlier Taeju's actions, that's on them. Thank you for reminding that THAT was the topic.

Why not? The argument was that you should be able to separate fiction from reality. According to this, people who like content with kids can read it but claim they only like it when it’s drawn. What’s the problem?
Would you not argue that the fetishization of legitimate rape in media is also somewhat concerning?
It’s not a coincidence that most rape in yaoi happen with the victim being a slimmer, more submissive, more feminine character (esp omegaverse)

It’s true that we cannot control what kids do on the internet, but we as a society are consuming so much rape content that at least 50% of the featured content here is explicit rape most of the time. And even ao3, one of the most popular gateways for young kids after they start consuming media with fandoms, TWO of the top 5 fandoms have at least 25% of the explicit media being pedophilia & underage sex. 25% is also rape. In one of the other top 5 fandoms, 25% of the explicit content is incest.
The first filters in ao3 under violence is if you want to include rape and underage sex/pedophilia (I used ao3 as an example of what is popular in society since they can provide pretty accurate statistics. Mangago not much so)
I get that we as individuals are not responsible for children going on these sites, but are we not somewhat responsible for popularizing and normalizing this content to the point where the very first things you see in media (and almost the majority) are explicit rape, pedophilia, and incestuous content? There’s a reason why there’s so much of this content… because it’s in demand… until when can we evade responsibility?

Also FYI in my country sex Ed starts in late elementary to early middle school. Most people I know have been exposed to graphic porn in early elementary school.

why do you read this story despite its depiction of rape and abuse? are you endorsing or glorifying that? please answer this because it raises the question that if you're a normal person, what other reason is there for consuming this type of media, if not because you can differentiate it from reality?

personally, I have no issue distinguishing fiction from reality because I understand it doesn't harm anyone. except for porn, which exploits real people—that's a different matter. the characters in this story are just lines on paper.

regarding your point about media influencing real-life behavior, do you believe playing violent games or watching violent movies leads to people becoming shooters or murderers? I consume this type of media myself, yet I firmly believe that rapists and pedophiles have no place in society and should d1e the worst possible death.

I'm not defending TJ's past behavior in my previous comment. people are entitled to their opinions about characters, whether they love or hate them. but the constant outcry in the comments about every little thing being labeled as rape when it's not is frustrating. that's what everyone is discussing in those comments.

if this type of sexual content in media isn't for you, you can simply choose not to read it. it's not that complicated.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I think it's good to have this discussion. while I am firm about my opinion regarding fiction ≠ reality, I still want to hear other people's views on this topic.

I never claimed any of that first part lol
Violence in video games doesn’t have any scientific evidence to back up the idea that it makes people violent. However, it is scientifically proven that associating one thing continuously with sexual pleasure causes people to develop a fetish for it. You’re literally training your body and brain that the subject is something sexual and pleasurable. It’s not my opinion it’s just science. They use this info to help rehabilitate criminals who commit sex crimes. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone who develops a fetish for rape is a rapist. Just whether you like it or not, this type of porn 100% affects your brain and subconscious.

And yeah I did say to call me a hypocrite lol I don’t think I should be consuming this type of content either. I won’t share the reason why because that’s my personal info, but I’ve seen how bad it has affected me too. I plan to hopefully quit soon.
But do you think developing a fetish for rape and fetishizing rape in general is not harmful? What about those that develop a fetish for incest? Is that okay? They aren’t affecting anyone.
And this clearly affects people’s rationality surrounding rape.
For example, many people argue that Taeju had consensual sex with Euihyun this most recent chapter (which is what I believe you’re claiming? Don’t wanna put words in your mouth tho)

“Stop”
“I don’t want to”
“I want to stop now”
“I said I don’t like it, didn’t I?”
“I said no.. why do you keep… you said you wouldn’t do things I don’t like but…”
“you only think about what’s good for you” “enough”
“I’m not doing it anymore”
“hey I said enough!”
“now take it out!”
“My legs!”

How in the world is this consensual at all??? I’m genuinely curious as to why people think so. Because Taeju said his scent didn’t hate it and his body felt pleasure? So what if Euihyun liked it? He said no. Whatever the reason is, it doesn’t matter. he wanted to stop so it’s literally noncon. The last time I checked this couple doesn’t have a safe word either (it would save us all pain if they normalized this shit smh). And Taeju literally coerced Euihyun to move in with him through sex. I get that Euihyun wasn’t totally against moving in given his reaction in the morning, but it would’ve been an excellent start to Taeju beginning to respect Euihyun and make amends if they just had an actual talk instead of settling things over sex.
The fact that people think this is consensual genuinely concerns me.

But yeah I didn’t originally post the comment to frown down on everyone that simply reads this story. That’s none of my business. I just thought it was wild how everyone was defending Taeju when bro is literally a rapist. And using reasoning that real life rapist defenders would use (ex; his body proved he liked it) just saying how dangerous this POV is to spread
I kinda got a little off topic in my previous comment but this is the point I wanna nail in

I agree. Thanks for clearing that up- helped me correct myself. Sometimes I can get a little tooo passionate lol

Welcome to Yaoi world. There's nothing you can do actually because people will either ignore or explain fiction and reality, etc., to you.

If it's mentally affecting you, avoid reading these stuff and maybe avoid the community, because they will be more hard to handle, and it may affect you easily if you're a sensitive (which there's nothing wrong).

Well, for me, when I read fictional stories, I try to detach it from reality, unless it's meant for it to be applied to the real world. For this one, I see it as fiction. Though it was a bit concerning with the forced part, I just scroll through it because I know that for the next chapter, it'll be okay. We understand your concern though, we've all been there, we readers just grew up to see it as fiction in the end. And thankfully, still sane enough to know fiction and reality.

(No one (on this thread at least) is saying it was consensual sex, I don't know how you reached that conclusion lol)

There are several studies which have reported more aggressive behaviour from people who play violent games etc. Since you are bringing up stats, please search that up too.

If this was pwp then you could easily equate it to straight up pornography. But this manhwa has a story. It's still yaoi, which heavily focuses on sex between men, so a majority of it is still sex (and rape). As I was saying, there is no justifying the rape/rapist. And I was talking about liking the recent chapters and would you call all that non-consensual etc? Everyone is different and is used to different things. Some people like bdsm and some like vanilla. I've seen people shudder with terror with the very idea of bondage.

I just like this particular story. I don't read all the rapey yaoi out there. What you said about the smaller, feminine uke is true tho. I like size differences, bigger bottoms, same size, everything a lot but it's also annoying sometimes when it's almost like the uke is a girl. It's different to just being a character trait. That I don't advocate either. I don't think Euihyun is very girly tho, but reminder that this is still omegaverse lol he can literally get pregnant.

FYI there is neither formal nor informal sex ed in my country :( I learned by myself, which is why I know it is so important since not everyone is me. If this kind of content influences you or someone else in such a way that you end up fetishising it, then there already isn't much to do, don't you think? I hope you succeed in leaving yaoi.

Also man I started reading yaoi when I was in 6th grade. My friend, who is aroace, introduced it to me. The idea of sex itself made me gag back then. The recommended manga had fully consensual sex. And I still initially recoiled back aggressively. And now I'm here, over a decade later.

I agree too- this is a very good discussion.