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I want to ask something, genuinely curious what people think. Do you guys believe that not wanting straight side couples in BL/GL is inherently misogynistic? I came across a thread where a girl said exactly that, she didn’t like straight side couples in her BL/GL, and the response was cruel. People called her every word in the book. Misogynistic, fetishizing, generalizing, basically anything that ended in “ize” or “ic” got thrown at her, whether or not it actually applied.

Here’s my take, I don’t think it’s misogynistic. Not even a little. If I’m reading a BL or a GL, I’m there for queer representation. That’s the reason I picked it up in the first place. So when a straight side couple gets inserted into the story, it’s not that I have a problem with hetero romance, I read plenty of it and enjoy it, it’s that it’s not what I came for. Wanting the media you turn to for representation to actually represent you isn’t a problem.

What bothers me is how casually people throw around words like “misogynistic” and “fetishizing.” These aren’t just insults you get to deploy because someone has a preference you don’t like. They mean something. And when you use them this loosely, you drain them of any weight for the situations where they genuinely apply.

The part that really gets me is that it’s usually the same people making these accusations who don’t actually care about gay men being fetishized, and don’t actually care about misogyny. They’re not defending anyone. They’re using the language of social justice as cover for what is, plainly, homophobia. Calling someone a “gay fetishizer” for reading BL, or “misogynistic” for not wanting heterosexual relationships in queer media isn’t concern about representation, it’s an excuse to be upset that queer stories exist without needing to justify themselves to people who dislike gay people in the first place. What’s your opinion on this?

Pink, turquoise, or green?