I’d really like to know why Asians, in general, romanticize rape and sexual abuse so much in their works. Out of every 30 manhwas I read, 29 have some kind of unjustifiable abuse in them, from stories considered more “soft” to the more “edgy” ones. I honestly believe this reflects their reality over there, and that they genuinely like and normalize these things. I feel like my brain has turned into a chicken breast from being so smooth after putting up with these stories for so long. And I don’t even think this is the worst of them.
100% agree with you, my brain feels the same way
i think part of the reason might be that creators think including extreme themes like rape or sa in bl stories bc they perceive them as less controversial when the characters are both men or dont really take male sa victims seriously. in het stories, it would trigger much stronger backlash so using male to male relationships becomes a way to explore taboo or shocking scenarios with less public scrutiny. combined with audiences that are often desensitized to these tropes, it ends up getting repeated a lot. i wish fujos werent so desensitized
Yes, I understand that, and I also think there is initially that intention behind this kind of scenario. But what about college or high school stories where the MC gets drunk and falls asleep, and for some reason the other guy suddenly gets insanely horny and shoves his dick into the sleeping guy’s mouth? It ranges from non-consensual kisses to these kinds of abuse in stories where there is no reason to include or explore that type of concept at all. On top of that, they eroticize, fetishize, and romanticize sexual abuse. Because in most cases, they always end up falling in love or forgiving those abuses.
That’s why this specific manhwa isn’t one of the worst ones to me, precisely because of what you said. But I saw another comment here saying that now it’s going to be the “era” where, after seeing the MC all hurt, he’ll start taking care of him. Which makes no sense. At least not if it’s poorly developed.
I think anyone who gets into this kind of content, especially early on, like through manga—or even if they come into contact with hentai—will inevitably become desensitized to it. A person would need to be very well educated, informed about the subject, and somewhat outside of internet culture to develop that kind of critical thinking. That’s why I said Asians in general, because I think that even though these issues are discussed, they are still heavily suppressed because of patriarchy. So yes, they are the main creators of content involving things like sexual abuse, pedophilia, incest, and similar themes in the collective imagination. Unfortunately, women are not exempt from this either.
tbh i dont get it either and im so sick and tired of it. ive been a fujoshi since around 2014 and sure, these themes existed back then but they were usually toned down or at least not in every story like they were usually less extreme or less frequent. now that bl is getting huge, more people are reading it and almost every new manhwa seems to have sexual assault, rape or abuse. its super alarming especially with tiktok and social media exposing younger ppl to it and it just keeps feeding harmful stereotypes about fujoshis, queer community and gay men. its so bad for the bl genre
right and a lot of this comes down to the fact that the majority of bl creators are cishet women. im not blaming them but their perspective and the way they write these stories heavily shape the genre. many of these extreme tropes like noncon, sa and abuse reflect fantasies or ideas that appeal to them rather than realistic depictions of gay relationships. i really wish we could do something about it. also, on twitter, non-bl readers automatically lump you in with misogynistic, lesbophobic fujoshis who are mostly cishet women which makes defending the genre even harder
The same stuff happens in western smut. My grandma had a whole bookshelf of smut. It was all pirate kidnappings and cowboy rapists. There's always a market for it tbh.
Ah, yes! Western literature is full of that too, but it is more predominant in heterosexual romances for the most obvious reason. It’s no coincidence that the fastest-growing literary genre is Dark Romance. But since this is something within the LGBT community, we always expect these issues to be discussed a bit more. And because they are comics, the graphic aspect makes everything much more explicit.
Well, the reality is that these things have always been around for years. My only question is why they use this in every single narrative. And especially whether this isn’t some reflection of their relationship ideals over there, since it appears in almost every romance. In the end, we always have to pretend not to see it in order to validate the story.
But I also think these same female authors idealize this kind of thing in a heterosexual relationship as well. Even if you’re writing about two men, when you read a romance—regardless of the genre—you put yourself in that position; there are studies about that. So it’s a mix of what they imagine men are like, what they wish they were like, and the idealization of romance regardless of gender. All of it taken to the extreme of romanticization. Hahaha, it’s wild. I’d really love to talk to at least one of these authors about it without any judgment at all. I genuinely just want to understand.
Actually, it's more normalised and accepted in heterosexual stories , the roots of the rapist/overposessive troupe came from straight stories, its actually very normalised and audience fantasise/look for these type of troupes, I mean they literally created a genre for it (dark romance) just to excuse reading about rape/forced sex and abuser x victim relationships.
It might seem to be very coated in the bl genre, but that's not completely accurate, the yaoi genre is still 60% safer, you can still find a handful of manhwas where the characters are realistic and have good relationships, its just most overly mainstream works have these problematic troupes, so it makes it seem like the genre has alot of works that includes these troupes but it's just another case of trashy popular works that make the genre have.a bad image.
To answer both of you and the commentor's question, rape gets included in stories (straight/bl) because as much as we hate it, it does has a big audience that likes these stories, this is precisely why trashy porn stories are most likely to go mainstream, authors don't include it because they enjoy rape between two men or a straight couple, its usually a marketing strategy to boost their work faster, plus lazy writing since they don't want to go through the effort of building a connection between the main characters so it would lead to normal sex that's why it usually jumps to rape.
Korean ppl are the main audience, not us, these troupes are insanely popular there, so this means the more unhinged the work is the more it will go viral, it doesn't matter if its morally wrong, the fact that users clicked on the chapter and brought it, means the author is getting money.
There's really no escaping it, considering they're popular in the manhwa category, gotta ignore these works and move on with your day.
Actually, it's more normalised and accepted in heterosexual stories , the roots of the rapist/overposessive troupe came from straight stories, its actually very normalised and audience fantasise/look for these type of troupes, I mean they literally created a genre for it (dark romance) just to excuse reading about rape/forced sex and abuser x victim relationships.
It might seem to be very coated in the bl genre, but that's not completely accurate, the yaoi genre is still 60% safer, you can still find a handful of manhwas where the characters are realistic and have good relationships, its just most overly mainstream works have these problematic troupes, so it makes it seem like the genre has alot of works that includes these troupes but it's just another case of trashy popular works that make the genre have.a bad image.
To answer both of you and the commentor's question, rape gets included in stories (straight/bl) because as much as we hate it, it does has a big audience that likes these stories, this is precisely why trashy porn stories are most likely to go mainstream, authors don't include it because they enjoy rape between two men or a straight couple, its usually a marketing strategy to boost their work faster, plus lazy writing since they don't want to go through the effort of building a connection between the main characters so it would lead to normal sex that's why it usually jumps to rape.
Korean ppl are the main audience, not us, these troupes are insanely popular there, so this means the more unhinged the work is the more it will go viral, it doesn't matter if its morally wrong, the fact that users clicked on the chapter and brought it, means the author is getting money.
There's really no escaping it, considering they're popular in the manhwa category, gotta ignore these works and move on with your day.
This Manhwa remided me of Verity