aidan's Questions (2)

Money

your concept of bl as a rebellion in that way is pretty off the mark, unfortunately. while women making bl is trangressive in some ways as a hobby/subculture that goes against the grain of what is traditionally societally expected of women as adults with responsibilities and obligations to other people and society, it's not really a conscious or prinicipled transgression or rebellion to patriarchy in a way that makes the prevalence of rape in BL incompatible or unusual.
this is pretty long, but a worthwhile read if you're interested in the origins, history, and terminology of bl as a subculture and industry.
https://urresearch.rochester.edu/institutionalPublicationPublicView.action?institutionalItemVersionId=5822
more on taboos and whatnot (I don't particularly agree with all the analysis and conclusions here, but it's more material to think about)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/42771904

i figured my understanding was a little skewed, so ill definitely read these. thanks for this!

you're welcome! it'd be great if more people thought about and investigated these things more often, so I'm happy to help.

a bonus for you, if you care to read it:

I would say that BL(the genre/category) so often includes/is obsessed with rape as a result of rape culture, not that the creators making it are the primary source or originators of that culture even when they perpetuate and contribute to it in their stories. the prevalence of rape in BL(and romance/erotica in general) is a manifestation of rape culture in media rather than rape and the culture(norms, expectations etc.) that facilitates and perpetuates it being a separate, unrelated thing that creators are introducing out of nowhere. as in, we're all simmering in this cultural stew, like it or not, and this is just one expression of it as people deal with it in varying ways.
BL at large is a way for (maybe not) straight (maybe not) cis (maybe not) women to explore a bunch of feelings and topics regarding romance, sex, and reproduction. given that it's something people deal with irl, I think it's not inherently bad or off-limits for creators to incorporate abuse/intimate partner violence/rape in their stories, but I'd say many (the bulk?) of the series that include those things don't use them in a satisfactory way. it's often used shallowly and exploitatively for shock value, titillation, as a relationship catalyst etc. it's a convenient plot-streamlining device for authors since it establishes character dynamics and tension between characters, forces sex scenes without much setup, gives immediate sympathy points for the victim, and creates ongoing conflict for the story and relationship. so i can understand its popularity with creators working with short deadlines and tight page/panel counts, shortcuts like that are essential.
but even apart from that, people just find it sexually gratifying in itself, or it isn't an obstacle to their enjoyment on that front- and that's how it feeds into the broader culture that normalizes and even justifies rape. hot take, but i think women (everybody is?) are conditioned/taught to accept rape and violent sexual dynamics in a subliminal or unconscious way. even when it's "her idea" or "her sexual interests", it's seeded and nurtured by culture at large.
something something, how gender, sexuality, and the concept of sex itself are constructed under the heterosexual regime -> general rape culture -> sexual fantasies and kink as a coping/processing method/something people are interested in or fascinated by -> the prevalence of rape and dominance/submission dynamics in romance/erotica -> prevalence of rape in stuff aimed at women -> prevalence of rape in bl (which is more about heterosexuality than you might think)

rape (and general consent issues) goes without pushback from most readers (particularly in their countries of origin where there's a different history with women's issues and movements) because general culture isn't equipped to analyze and push back on it even as women face violence, sexual and otherwise - it's normal(ized) in the culture. in the US, feminist/women's movements and stuff like #MeToo prompted some reflections and raised awareness about things like coercion and consent, but the backlash to that and the regressive/reactionary turn in popular culture/the world and the more subtle/insidious messaging about sex(ual interests) and essentially "empowerment through submission" for women have shown their effect in the dark romance boom and the rapeslop boom in BL now. and to be fair, people are consistently fascinated by taboo and toxic relationships, so none of this is new (the bodice rippers and rapeslop of yesteryear) and I'm not sure it's something that ever really dies down in popularity. but it felt like there was more of a market or more conscious production of alternatives at one point.
around 2014-16 it felt like BL manga was getting more weird and variegated in a good way, and then when KR BL started gaining attention/traction among english speakers, there was more variety and less of the current rapeslop trend because platforms were just trying stuff out to see what stuck. rape was always present in things for both manga and manhwa/webtoons, but it seemed to be improving.

tl;dr: bl creators are interacting with culture at large, so you can't separate the trends from the current social and political moment worldwide as people cope/deal with it through what they eroticize or find sexually interesting.
(if you made it this far, here's a gold star! )

very insightful read, thanks so much for all this info uve given me! definitely opened up my eyes a little to the bigger picture/problem at large <3