2021-11-06 21:15 marked
I need to point out a trend I've noticed within the anime community in regards to BL which really creeps me out... I see it everywhere in conventions, articles, reviews and even the official dubbing and manga distribution. Things get changed or warnings are given to make it more consensual and less sexualised. The reduced sexualisation is due to avoiding fetishistic potrayal? But the same scrutiny does not exist in lesbian and heterosexual sex scenes in anime for some reason. However I want to talk about the other thing; CONSENT!
Now I'm not a big BL (or GL) fan; I've seen some here and there but stories focusing mainly on romance are not my thing unless they deliver in the comedy, tragedy, or crazy story department. But I've been around enough to pick up on the fact that in BL (or non-BL with gay male relationships like YOI), people go out of there way to denounce problematic tropes like sexual assault, harassment and pedophilia... I'm really happy about that but I'm also really pissed off by it too BUT not for the reasons you may think. Regardless of where you stand on blurred lines and flawed characters in fiction, why is it people never kick up a fuss when this shit happens almost as frequently if not more in shoujo, magical girl, josei, eichi, moe and R-18 anime than it's BL counterparts (I've done the math and the romanticism of the exact same tropes are more present) and less so but still there in seinen and shounen?
The industry itself goes out of its way to fix BL anime by changing dialogue, ageing up characters, adding warnings, or refusing to dub (all things that they have done) which actually costs them an active market segment reflecting how much public concern can make a difference. But these concerns only arrive when men are the victims of harassment and abuse but not when women have repeatedly been the victims and/or perpetrators, and this speaks volumes of the amount of sexism involved by absolutely everyone. I mean no one bats an eye when animes like Citrus & Diabolik Lovers (aka Rape Culture: the Anime) are released and swiftly dubbed without changing a thing to be less problematic or adding any trigger warnings at all!!!
I wish this was hypocrisy or a case of conservative straight male execs who just don't get the appeal of the BL genre even though they enjoy sexualised girl on girl anime. I really wish this was people not wanting to appear homophobic thus needing an ethical excuse to dismiss the genre but I was wrong. I have a male friend who goes out of his way to deride all the "toxic things in BL" like the sleeping kiss in Sarazanmai (I think) or the butt groping scene in YOI yet he doesn't care when Mamoru does the same to Usagi (Sailor Moon) or when Miroku does the same to Sango (InuYasah) and they all actually end up together. I gave him a rude awakening when I told him about a new "BL" which was me presenting a thinly veiled Kaichou wa Maid Sama keeping the romance verbatim to gauge his reaction (he ships Usui & Misaki). As expected, he went off on his usual tirade: "why does the genre always go the stalker/harassment route, and having an attempted rape rescue is unnecessary, this is why BL sucks". Then I told him I regurgitated his ship back to him and he was genuinely disturbed that he literally doesn't pick up on these things in other anime.
The more I analyse this, the more I find this is not a double standard, people are actually bothered by these abusive tropes. They just willfully ignore when it happens to women and/or is done by women. So in conclusion, this is blatant if not conditioned sexism, which speaking as a woman, is TERRIFYING! I want to reiterate: I'm not making a case for whether these tropes should be condemned in works of fictions or not, I'm just saying that doing so for only one gender, especially when the other is statistically more likely to suffer these tropes in reality, just really really really really sucks ....
BL may have a rape problem but I honestly think that's because anime has a rape problem which I would like to see changed. At the very least, I want the majority of the uniformed, non-introspective, anime community to stop selectively taking the moral high ground by being vocal on a genre that depicts abusive relationships relatively less than most if you actually add things up!!!
I guess its fine because all women are tsunderes right? lololololol
Sorry for the rant. If you read all the way to the end you are a much better person than I am <3
Now I'm not a big BL (or GL) fan; I've seen some here and there but stories focusing mainly on romance are not my thing unless they deliver in the comedy, tragedy, or crazy story department. But I've been around enough to pick up on the fact that in BL (or non-BL with gay male relationships like YOI), people go out of there way to denounce problematic tropes like sexual assault, harassment and pedophilia... I'm really happy about that but I'm also really pissed off by it too BUT not for the reasons you may think. Regardless of where you stand on blurred lines and flawed characters in fiction, why is it people never kick up a fuss when this shit happens almost as frequently if not more in shoujo, magical girl, josei, eichi, moe and R-18 anime than it's BL counterparts (I've done the math and the romanticism of the exact same tropes are more present) and less so but still there in seinen and shounen?
The industry itself goes out of its way to fix BL anime by changing dialogue, ageing up characters, adding warnings, or refusing to dub (all things that they have done) which actually costs them an active market segment reflecting how much public concern can make a difference. But these concerns only arrive when men are the victims of harassment and abuse but not when women have repeatedly been the victims and/or perpetrators, and this speaks volumes of the amount of sexism involved by absolutely everyone. I mean no one bats an eye when animes like Citrus & Diabolik Lovers (aka Rape Culture: the Anime) are released and swiftly dubbed without changing a thing to be less problematic or adding any trigger warnings at all!!!
I wish this was hypocrisy or a case of conservative straight male execs who just don't get the appeal of the BL genre even though they enjoy sexualised girl on girl anime. I really wish this was people not wanting to appear homophobic thus needing an ethical excuse to dismiss the genre but I was wrong. I have a male friend who goes out of his way to deride all the "toxic things in BL" like the sleeping kiss in Sarazanmai (I think) or the butt groping scene in YOI yet he doesn't care when Mamoru does the same to Usagi (Sailor Moon) or when Miroku does the same to Sango (InuYasah) and they all actually end up together. I gave him a rude awakening when I told him about a new "BL" which was me presenting a thinly veiled Kaichou wa Maid Sama keeping the romance verbatim to gauge his reaction (he ships Usui & Misaki). As expected, he went off on his usual tirade: "why does the genre always go the stalker/harassment route, and having an attempted rape rescue is unnecessary, this is why BL sucks". Then I told him I regurgitated his ship back to him and he was genuinely disturbed that he literally doesn't pick up on these things in other anime.
The more I analyse this, the more I find this is not a double standard, people are actually bothered by these abusive tropes. They just willfully ignore when it happens to women and/or is done by women. So in conclusion, this is blatant if not conditioned sexism, which speaking as a woman, is TERRIFYING! I want to reiterate: I'm not making a case for whether these tropes should be condemned in works of fictions or not, I'm just saying that doing so for only one gender, especially when the other is statistically more likely to suffer these tropes in reality, just really really really really sucks ....
BL may have a rape problem but I honestly think that's because anime has a rape problem which I would like to see changed. At the very least, I want the majority of the uniformed, non-introspective, anime community to stop selectively taking the moral high ground by being vocal on a genre that depicts abusive relationships relatively less than most if you actually add things up!!!
I guess its fine because all women are tsunderes right? lololololol
Sorry for the rant. If you read all the way to the end you are a much better person than I am <3
2020-08-03 14:46 marked
•✹Sexy stuffs✹•