very well-said and thank you for saying this. it’s so frustrating seeing the way people talk about characters who have experienced social / societal issues, i see it in so many comment lines on this site in stories i keep up with (here with Hamin being bullied so severely he developed body dysmorphia, criticisms about the MC from Ballboy Tactics [who is an abuse victim whose sense of self and relationships is kind of shot due to it and leads him to fumble a lot], criticisms of the ML from Pittosporum [who is a closeted teen with heavy sexual trauma that sleeps around in a n attempt at self-guided conversion therapy]), etc. it’s just kind of insane reading through stories that outline the struggles characters face and then going to the comments and seeing what little empathy people have while reading them. in this case it’s spelled out pretty heavily what happened to Hamin too, so seeing people either missing or dismissing that… it’s disappointing especially because Sweet Shot manages to be a rare case that’s not actually fatphobic about its presentation of the topic while managing to showcase just how severely Hamin’s being bullied for his being fat affected his psyche
as you said, it’s important to remember fictional stories can reflect real-life scenarios and how someone reacts to said characters going thru these scenarios does matter. (ultimately: BL is not exempt from needing to apply media literacy simply because it’s BL.)
well said! i think media literacy is very important when it comes to manhwas, cause some issues can get swept under the rug because of it being a bl and all, and it gets forgotten that some authors know these feelings and put these types of issues in the stories. so yeah! since i am also a victim (of bullying) i know that feeling rlly well
Finallyyyy! Someone said it!!!
I relate to this story so much and I've been furious about the comments. Usually authors who hint at body dysmorphia are low-key fatphobic themselves.
I was morbidly obese ever since I can remember, I was bullied both inside the house and outside, I was forced to go on diets and was publicly humiliated on daily basis. At a certain point I actually lost like 60-70kg and got very ill and had to gain some weight back on.
I said all of that to explain that one of the hardest things I had to endure was the fact that people were treating me "like I'm thin". I mean I was thin, but I couldn't see it myself. And it was also very hard to see that I had to let go of a chunk of my body and get deadly sick in order for them to treat me like a human being.
So yeah
It might not make sense to everyone, but people who suffer from this stuff almost never FULLY heal from it. That's why I really appreciate the stories with a neutral approach to mental illnesses and body image issues.
Sorry for yapping too much haha (￣∇￣")
First of all, bullying causes mental stress and cognitive problems to whoever experiences it, and it affects people differently; people can develop low self esteem, they can be very insecure about themselves despite already improving on looks, they can also be shy and may not be able to speak up for themselves because they are scared. The fact that some of you dismiss this and call it pathetic is actually quite sad and diminishes real social issues like bullying and homophobia, that actually affects people. It may be fiction, but please do remember that these stories can reflect real life scenarios and your reactions from the characters also matter.