Guys, I need to vent for a little bit. There’s a theory I’ve been thinking about for a very long time and I don’t mean to hurt anyone by saying it. It is a known fact that these authors/artists only prioritise the opinions of Korean readers. I don’t know if any of you ever asked yourself why is there barely any form of cheating in these bl stories between the main characters? Well it’s because Korean readers are heavily against it, they even boycott it if cheating is involved. This is why authors don’t include storylines like this and it’s understandable, nobody wants that. But why not rape? Why is rape always acceptable and mainly only international readers are against it ? Well here is my theory. In South Korea misogyny and discrimination against women is still very much present, just like in so many other countries, but what’s different about SK is that even tho it might look like a country that’s very progressive, if you claim that ur a feminist, u will suffer consequences, in ur personal life, in ur work life, in relationships. That’s why the 4b movement happened. There’s many women in that country that are oppressed daily by the patriarchy and they can’t even talk about it. And here comes the all mighty bl genre. Most bl stories are very stereotypical, it’s like a straight relationship, the top is this manly protective guy while the bottom “acts like the woman” in the relationship, fragile, helpless and all that (stereotypes!!) but at the end of the day they are still men. So these women find comfort in reading these bls in which the relationships are portrayed as the straight ones but in these ones the bottom gets abused and raped. They find it comforting to see men get abused by other men the same way they abuse women in real life. It’s like an escape from the real world problems they face just because they are women. We all need to realise that this kind of stuff runs deep, it’s not just on the surface. We can’t have the conversation “why is there always rape” without finding out the root cause of it all. I think we as international readers are powerless. I regret the time and money I spent on most of these bls that seem consensual at first and then boom RAPE (ye I do buy most of the shit I read but I can’t express my opinion on official platforms cuz they will flame my ass over there, I still remember the time I said “what a nothing burger chapter” and they all jumped me lol)
Guys, I need to vent for a little bit. There’s a theory I’ve been thinking about for a very long time and I don’t mean to hurt anyone by saying it. It is a known fact that these authors/artists only prioritise the opinions of Korean readers. I don’t know if any of you ever asked yourself why is there barely any form of cheating in these bl stories between the main characters? Well it’s because Korean readers are heavily against it, they even boycott it if cheating is involved. This is why authors don’t include storylines like this and it’s understandable, nobody wants that. But why not rape? Why is rape always acceptable and mainly only international readers are against it ? Well here is my theory. In South Korea misogyny and discrimination against women is still very much present, just like in so many other countries, but what’s different about SK is that even tho it might look like a country that’s very progressive, if you claim that ur a feminist, u will suffer consequences, in ur personal life, in ur work life, in relationships. That’s why the 4b movement happened. There’s many women in that country that are oppressed daily by the patriarchy and they can’t even talk about it. And here comes the all mighty bl genre. Most bl stories are very stereotypical, it’s like a straight relationship, the top is this manly protective guy while the bottom “acts like the woman” in the relationship, fragile, helpless and all that (stereotypes!!) but at the end of the day they are still men. So these women find comfort in reading these bls in which the relationships are portrayed as the straight ones but in these ones the bottom gets abused and raped. They find it comforting to see men get abused by other men the same way they abuse women in real life. It’s like an escape from the real world problems they face just because they are women. We all need to realise that this kind of stuff runs deep, it’s not just on the surface. We can’t have the conversation “why is there always rape” without finding out the root cause of it all. I think we as international readers are powerless. I regret the time and money I spent on most of these bls that seem consensual at first and then boom RAPE (ye I do buy most of the shit I read but I can’t express my opinion on official platforms cuz they will flame my ass over there, I still remember the time I said “what a nothing burger chapter” and they all jumped me lol)