I think ur just overanalyzing the context, honestly. Like who ever said masculine beauty is less valuable? the seme is literally showcasing masculine beauty and people drool over him, if anything it's the uke wearing women clothing and being feminine that seems to be drawing flak when it really shouldn't coz lots of gays irl are legit like that. Also I think you're forgetting the seme is bi, he can appreciate both men and women, realistically he's more drawn to women since all his past relations has been that, how is it surprising that he'll like it when his partner looks like something that he's intimately familiar with? how else should he react? disgusted? it's just clothes too, he's not asking him to transition + he already slept with the dude multiple times, even sucked off his dih and hole, we can safely assume he's not disgusted by same sex anatomy
i don't understand bringing up that a lot of gay guys are like this irl, we're talking about gender presentation, not sexuality. why couldn't we have the uke also dressing in cool traditional clothing for men, same as the seme? because he's not as masculine as the seme, it wouldn't have looked as good on him or what? the seme couldn't still find him extra attractive in that version of the costume? as you said, he was perfectly capable of being attracted to the uke when he presented stereotipically masculine, so it's clear he's more fluid with the gender presentation he likes. i guess ultimately the question is - what does it add to the story for the readers to learn that the seme finds the uke more appealing as a woman?
coz that's what he likes and the uke didn't oppose it, didn't you just read the chapters? so long as it's consensual, so what? no one's forcing someone to do shit-- seme would like to see uke in a feminine attire which is a break from his typical getup, and uke has no problem with it and even welcomes it, so they do it. It's just readers like you finding faults in it coz u internally have issues with things that are considered feminine
i think you're missing the point. we're not talking about two private people living their private lives and making choices. we're talking about two fictional characters whose lives and choices and reasoning are witnessed by the readers, which opens the door to scrutiny about what was the author's intent and biases. my argument was that this story development reinforces things that feminists have been pointing out for a while, which is that femininity is inherently seen as more sexual and aligned to beauty
Guys its manga about gay porn both of you have very interesting perspectives but it's literally "the plot" of yaoi T^T
No shade ofc, it's just funny to see you guys give such progressive and deep thoughts on manga XD
ofc ofc ofc ofc it's more than gay porn, it's a story with a lot of depth and character, but if you flatten everything out that's what that is basically XD
wat r u even talking about? a dude dressing as a woman makes him a woman? just coz he's smaller and taking it in the ass? that's still a dude! he just happens to be wearing feminine attire (which he can take off whenever); also u lots don't call out buff ukes who wear feminine clothes like this, nor pretty boy tops, it's always the twink ukes acting femme that u have issues with, I'm starting to think yall lowkey just jealous
my initial interlocutor has serious problems with reading comprehension, so I'm gonna reply to your comment, which i found more interesting. it's true that this is just porn and we're here for a good time ultimately. i think the issue is that everything is political and when we're reminded of that in our yaoi, it kinda takes you out of the enjoyment. i have another interesting example, where an MM romance author teased she was gonna write a novel with the Alpha x Alpha trope in an omegaverse scenario, but she ended up finding a loophole to make one of the Alphas actually an Omega. she got a lot of backlash for that. not because there's anything wrong with alpha x omega stories, but because she deviated from the expectations she created and she had a history of being unable to present couple dynamics that were anything else other than "hyper masc top and hyper feminine bottom" so even porn cand lead to very interesting and thoughful discussions :D
if if you're gonna throw shade do it properly, what are u some grade schooler who wanted to use technical words to sound smart? lol you just sound like AI. Also if that was you're preference anyway then you shouldn't have clicked on this work, the uke was literally drawn the twinkiest twink from the first story already with full acceptance that he's gay and fruity, and now ya'll crying acting surprised that he's acting full femme? And again, I ask why only call out twink ukes for acting femme? why don't readers like you show the same type of disdain for buff ukes and pretty tops who eventually do wear feminine attires in their stories? matter of fact, why do yall celebrate it saying they slay or they look bonita or some shit, it's giving very selective and prejudiced
You're killing me, politics is destroying our yaoi XDDDD
But you're completely right, this type of stuff happens in yaoi, and not only in the storyline. The art style also sometimes makes the not so feminine seme suddenly super feminine and petite after a few chapters.
exactly! the theme of the uke being into feminine aesthetics and hobbies, and feeling highly self conscious because of it, is interesting and can be very well written & handled by the author in some stories, but it's not easy to do imo. Yamada to Shounen is a wonderful example, it's so heartwarming while also having a nice level of sexiness
This is so made by ai, no one types like this
i've had a few experiences in the past where people tried to make me feel bad about myself by saying I speak/ talk like a pretentious academic. i guess that has now evolved into me sounding like AI, which is interesting. i'm curious to see if i'm going to keep getting this jibe in the future
Dang you actually type like that, thats pretty cool hahahhaha
I'm still upset about the crossdressing and the seme's reaction to it and it's not bc crossdressing is bad. it's simply because, in this work in particular, it fetishizes female gender presentation, reinforcing that it is inherently more visually attractive and desirable. it also reinforces that masculine beauty is less valuable by itself, it is seen as more plain, neutral, even the "default". i think the author thought she dodged something when she made the seme say "I don't want you to be a woman", but the emotional subtext still felt like: "But I like you more when you resemble one." it's uncomfortable because it subtly reframes the attraction away from "I like this man" toward "I especially like him when he aligns with a more feminine ideal." i highly doubt the same scenario would land the same way if it was a couple of gay women and one of them dressed up as a man. also, it's pretty sad that the uke got so excited to finally be able to be open with his man in public, but what it took was for him to literally come across as a woman. it wasn't a heartwarming or funny moment, just sad :(