BL webcomics...aren't they too much in the community?

[UrMom]

Eeeew, I knew a huge ton of readers went the "abuse/rape is kawaii" fujoshi route with it when the comic became popular. But the hosting site advertising it as romance is really gross. Like no, stOP. You're perpetuating really toxic shit!

[YaoiParadise]

KS is definitely one of the more ridiculous 'BL' comics out there which make me feel dirty putting the same tag on my novels >.> It's those unhealthy 'relationships' that make a lot of people feel like the BL genre is just a playing field for fetishes and abuse, it ticks me off.

As a horror story the concept is probably good, but I stopped reading as soon as the shippers started talking about how cute it was.

[UrMom]

Yeeeah, I actually kinda liked KS when it first came out. I'm into messed up stuff anyway, and legit abusive relationship are hardly ever explored beyond some contrived thing to make you feel sorry for the victim. But once I started seeing the BL ships started showing up it made me a bit sick to my stomach? The comic is so obviously toxic, it doesn't even hide it but... they still think it's cute? Nasty.
TBH I'm cool with people having a rape fetish, I know a lot of chicks who are into that stuff. Although I really hate it when they disguise that stuff as romance, it brings up so many problems.

[Croik]

Whenever someone says "There's not enough ____ !" plenty of people will reply, "Well, you'll just have to make your own." Well that's what we did, and we've made SO MUCH that now it's really popular here. Here, because it can be, and because like @LordVincent said, there are much fewer options for these kinds of stories anywhere else in the mainstream.

[LordVincent]

TBH I'm cool with people having a rape fetish, I know a lot of chicks who are into that stuff. Although I really hate it when they descise that stuff as romance, it brings up so many problems.

I agree with this. I've interacted with people who are as feminist and pro-consent as they come, who still have a rape fetish. Fetishes aren't something you can get rid of, and these people didn't choose their fetish.

With this said, the problem appears when stories try to do the "rape=love" thing. Rape. Is. Not. Love.
It never has been and never will be. It's not cute, and nobody rapes someone because they "love them so much they can't hold back". When this appears as much as it currently does in gay content, it becomes especially problematic because of the misconception around gay people that equates us to predators or people that fuck animals.

Which is another reason that the webcomic bl culture is a pretty positive thing. Most of the popular bl in webcomics is made by people who understand these issues and want to take part in a pro-consent movement.

[UrMom]

Fetishes man, they're weird, and you should be able to do you as long as no one is getting hurt... and you're not trying to pass it off as something else.

The "rape=love" thing is what totally turned me off to yaoi, there are so many of those stories, and they all instill a super unhealthy mindset of what a good relationship is.
I think my whole problem with this is that KS in itself is not a BL, the creator says it's horror, the victim in the comic is obviously going though Stockholm stuff, abuse, possible grooming, he's watching and being forced to help this creep murder people. (At least he was the last time I read the comic) All the people, including the hosting company, are putting romance where it doesn't exist. That's like calling any horror movie a romance because you think the antagonist and protagonist make a hot couple.

I'm not saying this as a general thing about BL comics, I could not care less at the moment. I'm literally just being perplexed about Killing Stalking legit being considered BL... because it's not even doing the "rape=love" thing. It is just downright someone kidnapping a weird stalker kid who broke into his house, physically abusing and manipulating them, and also murdering other people who come into his house. (The last time I checked, it may have advanced in a more disturbing direction since then)

[NickRowler]

I knew girls when I was in middle and high school who were into boy/boy comics and fiction and that was in the late 2000s. I don't think people (mostly girls/women) being into BL is a brand new thing, but I think the presents of webcomics have made these types of fans emerge to the forefront.

I think the large popularity mostly comes down to audience, similar to how pornography (which is mostly consumed by men) have a large presents of girl on girl.

And similar to that type of porn, some of BL content is problematic and has fetish elements. I think the best we can do right now is encourage positive BL stories. And when it comes to toxic fans, well stop giving the worse of the worse attention or a platform.

[NanettesClouds]

Also: Gay content being prevalent in indie industries is not a new thing! It's been a thing for quite a long time, before webcomics were big. It's been a thing for as long as... Well... As long as we've been pushed back hard by our own business. Go figure!

Wanted to ad to this point!

LGBT+ content has been a part of indie and underground comics for FOREVER. Forexample Here's a queer (NSFW) Tijuana Bible from the 1930s! Many of the earliest science fiction fanzines were effectively queer slash-fiction (things Kirk/Spock got their start in fanzines). One of the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority was on depicting same-sex couples, in addition to a bunch of other genres that still struggle today like Horror (I bring this up because queer comics, or at least queer characters in comics, had to have been prevalent enough to get banned in the first place). In the 70's/80's many Punk zines and comix were By-queer/About-Queer/For-queer. During the aids crisis, comics were some of the only media that took aids seriously. (I only read the abstract of this particular article, sorry)

Queer comics and Queer creators have been a staple of the Indie comics scene for as long as there have been indie comics. Even in the utopian (hopefully near) future where queer comics and queer creators are fairly represented in mainstream media, indie comics will still be a place for queer creators, just like it's a space for ANY creators.

I'm queer, but I don't particularly like most BL cuz I'm not really into romance, and I think queer media should move into a wider range of genres (not to say that it isn't). But even if you don't like BL, the fact that it's doing so well at all is something to be celebrated.

[Rochrok]

I'm more of the live and let live type. I love BL, almost all of it, rape, non rape, comedy, action, long beautiful stories, smut for the heck of it. Whatever I'm in the mood for is usually what I'll read. I'm not into policing what people like or create because it would be boring if every story was the same and had the same themes.

Overall, I don't see how there is any more BL than heterosexual romance comics. Romance is a wide genre that is very popular, it's only natural that its sub genres are going to be popular.