BL or GL? What are your thoughts?

[Lev404]

What do you find yourself making more? I personally find GL easier since I don't draw men, simple lol
And what do you find yourself reading more?
Its a fact their is more BL content out there but what do you as a reader enjoy more?

[powerplantanimations]

I'm not really into this stuff so forgive me, but does it usually depend on the person's sexuality? Like for enjoyment value? I'm actually very curious about this stuff as well.

Also lol, I didn't take into consideration that female/male characters are harder to draw.

[NickRowler]

I don't really set out to write BL but I tend to advertise my comics as such because that is what pulls people in.

I tend to come up with dumb ships of my characters even outside of my comics. So technically the majority of my characters are bisexual or bicurious unless stated otherwise.

[EverydayWonderlander]

There have been a few studies on it (very small, self-reported studies; usually for fujin/BL enjoyers - if I can find it I'll include a link!) and it seems to be related both to sexuality and degrees of separation.

For example, a lot of people assigned female at birth (AFAB, for brevity) tend to gravitate toward BL because it allows them to explore relationships without the strings attached to het love stories, and also without the weird grappling of GL. The degrees of difference/separation make it interesting and enjoyable. This isn't to say that it's the only type of person or reason someone would like BL.

There's also a sexuality element. I'm an aroace person who tends to be more comfortable in gay male spaces, so BL is comfortable to me. GL feels foreign, because I've not really enjoyed being in "girl" spaces. I like it when it plays into the story elements that I already like. But I don't really seek out GL, especially if romance is the main genre.

TL;DR ? It depends a lot!

[EverydayWonderlander]

Okay, to answer the main question!

I find BL to be what I make more... Girls are a bit scary to me, and I tend to take more care when writing female characters because of how poorly they're handled in most media. I think that I've gotten better at appreciating GL over the years, though.

So my comfort zone is definitely closer to BL, both when it comes to reading and creating. Even so, I wish that there was more love and value put into GL. It's a really great genre that deserves recognition as well.

[NickRowler]

I think from my perspective, I enjoy ships with 2 female characters but I tend to have a hard time getting invested in GL narratives. I think part of it has to do with my gender identity and not always feeling welcome or comfortable in spaces designed for women.

However, I tend to be a bit on the fence about BL. I want to read a story about gay men, I don't really care about the fanservice or how attractive they look.

[Aleksei]

Well, its funny. My webcomic is a BL for various reasons. 1- I have read a lot of beautiful webcomics and I thought that as a first work it would be a good theme to tackle. Romance is hard to make, but I find harder to draw action, so I went with slice of life/bl to get a hang of drawing daily, making script, learning all I can until I can do other things.
2- I feel closer to that, because gay xd (or demisexual, I think really).
3- I found easier to draw male than females
4- Yes, also because people search for it, so it would be easier to find subscriber for a first work, and later that public can jump to new projects,
...but I am all about inclusivity, so I forced myself to do some GL couples on my comic. In fact, the first kiss won't be who everyone will be expecting, and I used that opportunity to practice drawing some kisses. Its awkard as hell I don't know why, I gonna die trying to do the MC!

So, that's my answer. I can do both, but its easier (for now at least) to do BL.

[EncryptedWriting]

Low-key don't care. Could be GL or BL. No preference as long as the story is good.

[C.L.G]

Agree. Having a story that BL, GL, or LGBT+ does not matter if the story isn't good. The story and character comes first. Anything else is an added bonus

[Swamp]

i like writing GL the most, but there's the least audience for it for sure. GL tends towards the super pure or the super horny, and, as somebody who doesn't really write either, it often feels like there isn't much of a market, but it's what I want to write!

I wrote more BL when I was younger because I'm also not super comfortable in 'girly' spaces, but also because writing GL felt a lot more emotionally vulnerable in a scary way that took me a bit to get around.

I'm also not much of a romance first writing. I like romance as something going on while the characters talk to ghosts or solve mysteries, not center stage, especially since I'm somebody who likes romances that develop slow best. I'll happily read m/m and m/f too (though I get pretty burnt out on all the bad m/f I have to read for work)

[Stargazer31]

I don't really mind what sort of relationship the main characters are in (whether it's bl, gl, poly or hetero) as long as they're all consenting adults and the comic doesn't portray abuse as being romantic.

[AnimeKitty]

For reading, I'm honestly interested in both. BL is just a lot easier to find, so I do tend to read it more than GL. I've always been surprised by that too! Seeing how popular BL is, I never understood why GL wasn't also as popular. For writing, I do have more gay relationships, but a majority of my characters are usually bisexual or pansexual. This is also because I write a lot of male leads. Their sexuality isn't a sole reason for my liking to read or write a story though. Personally, I enjoy romance as a sub-genre and like the couple to be doing other things than just falling in love. Regardless of their sexuality.

[AmandaJ-art]

I'm the kind of person that doesn't like when romance is in any other genres. I'm aromantic and just want something without it. But If I read romance stories I don't have a preference. Straight, BL, GL - It's all the same to me.

[darthmongoose]

I try to include a mixture of relationships and sexualities in my comics because it just feels more realistic. That said, my work definitely has romance as a secondary rather than main story element. There will be romance in Errant, and one of the relationships will be quite pivotal in the plot, but the plot is still more about knights trying to save the kingdom; the romance is just one of the obstacles and opportunities.

If I made a romance-focused story, it'd almost certainly be a GL, and I've never had any particular desire to make a BL. I'm a lesbian though so for me, it's a lot easier to relate to what a sapphic relationship is like, and I tend to feel like my attempts at het romance come across a bit forced. It's definitely harder for me to relate to looking at a man and thinking "oh man yes I want to kiss that person!" than a woman. I used to try to make that stuff back when I was deep in denial about my sexuality and it was just really bad because the only way I could imagine being in love with or attracted to a man was if the man was very soft and quiet and stayed out of my way and didn't expect anything so was basically like a friend but I guess sometimes there was maybe kissing if I felt like it (meanwhile every female friendship I wrote was incredibly intense and passionate, like they would die for each other hahaha).

I think it's pretty key when writing a romance that you have to understand how a person could fall in love with the person. Otherwise it feels like a collection of tropes or storybeats or just sexy images to look at with bare minimal context rather than a functional relationship that would really work after the story ends.

[hakei]

I like the BL genre because of various reasons:

1. I mostly grew up watching/reading shounen, and it's infamous how shounen authors will put the utmost careful attention in making complex male characters while the female characters get crumbs. So I'm more inclined to pay attention to the male characters.
2. I like looking at and drawing male/butch/androgynous characters.
3. GLs often include stuff about femininity, which make me very uncomfortable because of my negative experiences with mandatory femininity.

I DO like butch x butch GLs, but they're really hard to find as most GLs are either femme x femme or butch x femme.

[Breezy]

I write people in all sorts of relationships with varying sexualities and gender identities. When approaching a project, their gender has next to nothing to do with their personality. Although gender will affects the way they interact with the world around them and how they perceive themselves, I don’t write “manly men” or “girly girls”. They are all just people who are unique individuals. Maybe I write that way because I don’t feel like my gender really defines me? I also enjoy reading and writing all LGBTQ+ material, whether gay, lesbian, or straight or anything else, but that might just be because I’m so far down the bi spectrum I’m omni 🤣

[redfish]

I feel like BL/GL are very different from LGBTQ+ stories as BL/GL falls under specific tropes and fetishes

[redfish]

man I really feel you on the fact that shounen mangas only focus on making complex male characters. It made me want to give the female characters more care and attention in my life instead aha

[darthmongoose]

man I really feel you on the fact that shounen mangas only focus on making complex male characters. It made me want to give the female characters more care and attention in my life instead aha

Hahaha yeah this is exactly how I responded to the issue too. I was like "Okay, I like this shounen manga stuff, but what if it had a female protagonist and well-developed female characters!?"

[Lev404]

i agree, most people who read like GLs are Just old straight men which is kinda creepy