the author knows how to draw men... but sticking to heteronormativity. as long as the story is good smh
Your comment reveals who you are…. Enjoy reading.
If you look at the uke and think "child" you are the issue here
Thats wild because he looks pretty adult to me, considering this is an omegaverse and omegas are presented to be weak and fragile its pretty on point
y'all are so annoying, he doesn't look even remotely like a child. go read your buff bottom stories instead of always whining about twinks
If the seme is drawn with the proportions of a 6’4 bodybuilder and the uke looks like he hasn’t hit puberty yet, that’s a massive disparity in character design. Acknowledging that one character looks significantly more like a minor than the other isn’t an issue with the reader, it’s a critique of a very real and repetitive trope in the industry. Ignoring the intentional use of neoteny in these designs doesn’t make them go away. It’s okay to want adult characters in adult stories to actually look like adults. PeriodT!
Calling me annoying and also telling me to read something else is just a way to avoid a real conversation about how these characters are marketed and drawn. If we want the bl industry to grow and move away from weird and infantilizing tropes, we have to be able to call it out when we see it. Ignoring it is how it became so common in the first place. Recalibrate your brain.
"infantilizing" learn the actual meaning of the words you're using a character having a skinny build or androgynous features is not the same as infantilization, skinny gay men very much exist in real life lmao. also, what do you think you're accomplishing by complaining about this on an illegal website? what change do you think your comment is gonna achieve?? it's not like the authors give an ounce of a fuck about what some illegal reader on mangago dot com says but keep pretending you're an activist i guess
Infantilization refers to the specific use of neotenous traits, large heads relative to bodies, lack of muscle definition and rounded facial features, not just being skinny. Skinny gay men exist, but they still have the bone structure and proportions of adults. If you can’t tell the difference between a slim man and a character drawn with child like anatomy, that’s a personal hurdle for you, not a lack of vocabulary on my part. I don’t need to be an activist to have an opinion on the media I consume. Calling out a weird trope in the bl community isn’t me trying to change the world(or maybe I am), it’s participating in a community discussion. The fact that you’re so pressed about someone pointing out the obvious shotafication of ukes says more than my complaining ever could. The platform is irrelevant, the trope is industry wide. Korean bl has a documented trend of drawing bottoms to look significantly younger/smaller than their counterparts to appeal to a specific and weird dynamic. Im critiquing the trope itself. If you’re fine with adult characters looking like children, just say that and move on, but don’t pretend it’s just androgyny. Trying to pivot to the legality of the site because you can’t defend the art style is a weak move. Skinny adults still look like adults and children look like children. If you’re comfortable with the line being blurred, that’s on you. I’m allowed to point out how creepy the trend is. Now go sit your bitch ahh down. Your true colours are showing. I work in the field with the vulnerable and I know what the F*** Im talking about.
Your arse got schooled
Last time i checked kids that havent hit puberty dont look like theyre in their twenties. Just cus theres a size difference dont make it a pedo thing. Thats like women who are 4 ft 6 dating someone and that person getting called a pedo.
If you look at these proportions and think this is just a short adult, you’re ignoring basic anatomy. Look at uke when he’s shackled. One is drawn as a hyper masculine man and the other is drawn using the exact same template used for children in webtoons and manga. It’s a trope that relies on infantilization for appeal and that’s exactly what Im calling out. My comments is not restricted to this specific webtoon, I’m calling out the illustrations of twink/infantilization of ukes in bl contents. Comparing a drawing to a real life person with dwarfism or a small frame is a reach, Im talking about a very specific, intentional aesthetic trend in bl that mimics prepubescence for cuteness. It’s a trope and pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t change that. A real person can’t help their height, but an artist chooses every line. When they choose to draw a grown man with a child’s body and face, they are invoking a specific trope that I have every right to find problematic and criticize.
i just measured it out with a scale and uke was an adult size as in, proportions werent that off. considering top is extra masc. top was not double the size of the bottom. if u r looking at him tied up like that obv you will think so. (btw measured the tied up panel). "prepubescence" u r talking about is all over anime media world if u think of it like that. u did not find any evidence that artist has used a child model to draw out the uke so why accuse like this? we get u dont enjoy watching twink bottoms but calling this out to be predatory behaviour is not a fact but an opinion of your own self. and saying that artist can chose not to draw adult real life example of small frame, why? they are real people too? the age and status is there n legal? if it was too too childish looking obv everyone would think there is smth wrong here. why would we not call it out?
I only skimmed the chapter, but, imo, this MC didn't really look like a child to me. I definitely know what you're saying tho. I'm hoping he doesn't get the same treatment that the MC in cry me a river did where he looked fine in the beginning but slowly started looking more like a child
:<
Im talking about an industry wide trend where artists use the specific skeletal and facial proportions of a child to represent the bottom. In these panels, the character doesn’t just have a skinny build, he has the neotenous features of a minor, large eyes, a rounded jaw and a frame that hasn’t developed adult bone structure that we see regularly in bl contents. Comparing an artist’s deliberate choice to use juvenile templates to a real life short adult is a false equivalence. They can draw a slim adult who still looks like an adult, choosing not to is a trope and that trope is what I’m calling out. You are protecting your guilty pleasure by pretending the problematic parts does not exist.
Thanks for the Cry me a river comparison. There’s this weird trend where the weaker a character is supposed to feel in a scene, the more the artist shrinks them down. That is my problem with some panels in this webtoon. It’s especially jarring in these panels because of the shackles on the uke and he’s illustrated as a child, quite smaller compared to the seme. It also makes the visual overlap with child abuse way too close for comfort. I just wish artists could portray vulnerability without relying on prepubescent aesthetics.
I feel like the "childish uke" wouldn't even be a huge problem or look that way if they'd try even a little bit to make the ML less hypermasculine, or at least give the MC a more "adult" personality.
And I agree! I wonder why people started associating size with emotion in these. It's like... the bigger you are, the less feeling you are. The tinier you are, the more "soft" you are. It's just weird to me.
Cry me a river was one of my first BLs, and I liked it in the beginning, but it's like... I think there was a mention where he "gained" weight since he was eating better, yet he was skinnier and more soft-faced than the beginning? Like I could tell he was in his 20s in the beginning, but if I saw the newer chapters with fresh eyes I'd think he were a character in a highschool romance instead (by looks, not context).
there no realism here in the art style so whatever u r saying about having "minor" features is based on assumptions who says an adult male cant have rounded jaws and big eyes wtf. saying otherwise is just being judgemental atp. i do acknowledge the problematic part where its need and its not need here cuz whatever point u brought up first for this manhwa isnt here. if he was half the size of the top ofc ur points would stand ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Acknowledging the trend is problematic while making excuses for it here is a contradiction. Art styles don’t exist in a vacuum, they use specific markers to convey age and vulnerability. When those markers overlap with prepubescence, it’s a valid critique. If ur comfortable with the line being blurred, that’s your prerogative, but stop pretending the visual cues aren’t there. I’ve made my point and clearly others in the thread see the regression too. I don’t have time to go back and forth. Continue reading and supporting your fantasy, it’s above me now
Exactly, that’s a perfect example. It’s that slow slide into infantilization that’s so frustrating. In this chapter, as soon as the shackles came out, the proportions shifted suddenly he has the ribcage and shoulders of a teen . It’s like the artist thinks the only way to show a character as submissive is to strip away their adult anatomy. We should be able to have dark themes or power dynamics without the character looking like a child.
Another twink/child looking uke
SMDH