switchbabes's Favorite

http://ninjazl0l.deviantart.com/journal/Why-is-rape-so-prevalent-in-yaoi-manga-292643402

To whoever that says such rape fantasies are for exploration, I respect that. But, when rape; a serious issue; is nonchalantly used in most of yaoi books, it gets very fishy. For example, for small insignificant issues such as misunderstandings or having a crush, rape gets unnecessarily dragged in as the cliché trope to move the plot along. What happened to things like talking? I wouldn’t be commenting in this thread if not for the fact that is what happens in most of the yaoi books where it feels like it is not just a select group of books exploring rape fantasy but the prevalent redundant use of rape as a touch and go aspect because they’ve run out of other sound ideas to move the plot along! Throw a dart blindfolded and it will 90% land on a yaoi with rape themes and usually rape happens because of insignificant reasons and the rape gets forgiven easily. This is probably pretty irresponsible and far from mature exploration of the fantasy. Like what some of the comments say, it becomes a reinforced and normalizing force when it is repeatedly used without much consideration. We are all used to it in a sense that we become so uncritical of why the rape happens and its partly the fault of too many books among the 6007 featuring the glorified fantasy of rape in relation to books about normal healthy relationships and the consequences of rape.

The next point I have is about how many people say BL is a safe spot for women and not for the LGBT. But it features the relationship of homosexual men and they are humans as well so it is advisable that there should be some level of respect there is for an already discriminated group. If yaoi is an escape for women from the male gaze, sexualisation, and objectification of women, I don't see the fairness in taking out the same thing on another (and maybe more discriminated) group especially in this reinforced, overly used and mismanaged rape trope. For a genre centred around one group of actual people, this one sided perspective of Rape = love is all that is common throughout.


In terms of being a space for women to explore sexuality without being subjected to patriarchal notions of gender, yaoi has mostly revolved around a 'seme' and an 'uke', with equality in relationships being rare. This is a problem found in the majority of 'romance' novels too, but then we act as though it is some kind of rule. For mangas trying to veer way from patriarchy influenced media, this repeated fixed relationship theme seems to be just patriarchy where the woman has a dick instead. The male gaze is still there when we portray ukes who look like just stereotypical submissive girls with dicks. As for this, I am hoping that the bara community has gained a good ground with the yaoi community because 77 works against 6007 is still not enough for change.


I've met girls who comes off as patronizing and weird out my gay friends with their own fantasy and their reason for "liking" gays and why their actions are justified is cos they've read yaoi and therefore makes them automatically LGBT friendly. But when most of yaoi is misrepresented, though it gives sexual freedom and excitement to women, it is fueled upon the sexual exploitation of another group and thus results in cringe worthy treatment of others by so called 'supporters of yaoi'.

This is important because for decades, women have went against the male gaze, sexual exploitation of women and the use of controversial fantasies by men in things like pornography and other media and it is still a battle today. But when the women themselves are so dead set in doing that same thing in such a prevalent manner to another group for insignificant reasons they lose the credibility in the argument against representation of sex in the media today. And I don't want the kind of equality where genders are trying to compete in unnecessary sexual exploitation and objectification and violence towards each other. I'm not saying that the kinks and sex need to go, they are the key part for exploration of the female mind. Just that freedom comes with responsibility so tone it down with the rape when rape is not needed and possibly not justified. In caste heaven its some what acceptable for rape to happen because of its context and the role it plays but if it's those repeated cliche romantic plots where misunderstanding and other small things are the "legitimate" reasons for rape, no. Future Yaoi in general need to be less about rape as a touch and go device to show affection. Rape can be a theme if written responsibly, but not the overarching vague umbrella term of Yaoi.