I've been reading manga/ manhwa etc. for more than 10 years now and I wonder sometimes why rape is so romanticised and undermined in manga? Whenever a romance story features rape, I always think who in their right mind would fall in love with their rapist? And I'm not even counting chinese manhua because most of them are trash. Why is rape used as a starting point for so many romance stories? And why are it's effects so downplayed or dismissed entirely?
I think it's because
• women have little voice and the feminist movement is not as strong in East Asia, and the main victims of rape together with women are children and men in jail, which also have no voice.
• you can advance the story without bothering with, well, the story.
• the strong sex factor, sex sell, but people don't want their MC to look slutty, but they also don't want to push around, they want to give sex as quickly as possible to the reader so rape.
• the misconception of gay men, most yaois do not have actual gay leads but "gay for you uwu" who "turns gay" after being raped
• lack of sex Ed and rights for minorities
• the fact that most of the pornographic content is for men, and men couldn't care less for realistic display of women and the idea of force until she bends is played as something acceptable, same for the sexualization of the innocence
• women are sexually-repressed so the pornographic content made for women usually play a lot with feeling guilt over sex
• on the same topic, the name fujoshi means rotten women and there's no boundaries on how rotten it can be, just needs to give the D
It doesn't matter, Str8 or gay, sex sells, no matter the kind, it is in the roots of society and they are rotten
I mean I get that Alex is charismatic and Yessica feeling pumped up and in awe of his leadership. Meanwhile, I'm here remembering his parents, especially how charismatic Edna was. Even Cayden paled in comparison often.