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May 2019

To be honest the idea that there isn't a demand for GL or wlw in fiction is fairly ridiculous. You only need to look at things like Madoka Magica being lorded by men and women for having implications of such relationships (highly ambiguous and unimpressive as they are in PMMM) and how it was considered one of the greatest things about it to know how much people enjoy it.

I'm kinda neither here or there on the tag, everyone's been saying for ages subtags and more categories would be more than welcome, I just think the idea that there isn't the audience is fairly ridiculous when any lesbian time it turns up in anything mainstream it's a huge hit. And there's merit to the people saying that because there's no sign of it anywhere on the front page 98% of the time it feels slightly unwelcoming to those fans and creators, especially if a new creator comes in and sees BL as a tag and not GL. I understand the reasoning, I just think that the idea that we just won't bother even though people are asking because we're not seeing the demand is kinda saying "we're not going to take the chance people might like it if we offered it". Have a chart on my thoughts on the matter.

And to add to the whole idea that fans and creators can go to other places: Webcomicsapp has a GL genre.

Frankly, I would love to see a GL category and even if there's not a demand for GL stories, it would be nice to see that they're at least equally regarded as BL. I'm not good at articulating but I believe that it's better to say something than to ignore the issue at hand especially when there's feelings had about it.

The Romance section for the most part is considered to be predominantly het-romantic. There is a whole BL section which from what I know is called "Boy's Love", and any GL stories are left in the wing around a predominantly het-romantic base. Why not just give it its own tag or for that matter, let there be a LGBT+ tag. At this point, it isn't the 'there is no demand' for it that's bothering me.

It's the fact that it feels as though a category of writing is being ignored or fostered off into something else and isn't even being acknowledged. Now, I may be wrong. I may just be looking at this from a different perspective or misunderstanding the information presented. But reader demand or not, GL and BL are both valid, LGBT+ stories are valid, and they deserve representation in both comics, novels, and in the site's directory.

Thanks for letting me get that out.

Most webcomic artists seem to be woman, so it makes sense that there will be more straight and gay romances than wlw. Doesn't mean it doesn't still suck for there not to be a tag for it, though I see the website's reasoning as these comics are such a small percentage of the whole.

It's like a positive feedback loop, too.
The popularity of BL means more writers choose that genre, which increases the popularity. GL has the reverse effect.

Also what just occurred to me this morning, and yes I'm aware that it's conflating two issues of very different sizes, but isn't "there's just not a demand" and "not one would watch it" the same excuse the mainstream media and movies use for the reason they don't want to produce LGBT or otherwise "niche" content. And look how well it does every time they take that risk and do it. Build it and they will come, after all. And, unlike movie companies who spend millions and will lose that if no one watches, if there's really is no demand, what have you actually lost in gaining good will? This isn't the first time this thread and question have come up so clearly there is at least some demand for it.

... yay? ^^

Starved to death but at least the sandwich was pretty. ^^

Either way, this did inspire me to take up some of the ideas that I had waiting in the wings. So in a way, this was productive.

As a BL writer I fully support an LGBTQ category. Mostly because I have other LGBTQ characters and technically my main characters are in fact a NB pansexual and a Cis boy demisexual.

Likewise, though my MCs aren't NB or demi (yet—another protag is in fact on the ace spectrum), but I feel like BL as a genre doesn't really offer the freedom to explore your characters? Does that make sense?

I remember asking in the forum recently if I should even tag my fantasy story BL at all because my MCs are waaaay older than the usual demographic, both character- and audience-wise. Plus, while one focus of the novel will be a romance between two men, what REALLY is important to me in my world is the fact that there's literally no concept of heterosexuality or homosexuality and so on, because people just... are. (Including multiple ways to express your gender, or being gender-fluid etc.)

So a standalone lgbt+ genre would offer a lot of people on here a way to really mark their stories the way they should be marked. BL really is just ONE way of expressing the myriad of lgbt+ people's experiences.

As an aside, have there already been discussions about the subgenres? Like, premium creators can mark their stories with two genres, right? Are there movements to open that for regular creators as well? If that were possible, then I could easily mark my novel "fantasy" and "lgbt+" (if it were a genre lol), and I feel like many of us could need that. Like... really need it. xD It's not often a story really has just ONE genre these days, after all.

It would be great if we could choice at least 2 genres. My story is manly Fantasy, but I decided to put in the BL category to show that BL stories can have more plot than the romance between the two main characters

Veering slightly off topic, but a downside I foresee with letting everyone choose two genres is the possibility of really popular series dominating spaces in more spots than would be beneficial for smaller series.

In my opinion Tapas needs a GL category if they want new visitors (and current ones for that matter) to perceive them as a platform where equality in regards to gender and sexuality is important.

I would argue that, going by Tapas current userbase and a lot of the content on the site, the site itself is already this way. It just needs to be the initial perception of the site.

TL;DR: regardless of the current amount of gl content, tapas would be best off having a gl category if they're going to have a bl one.

I would agree, and I hate to be so negative, but the genres are already dominated by a few really popular series. Whenever I go on popular or trending or look through genre it's very rare to see any new names. It's the same comics all the time. And good for those people, I'm not saying they don't deserve it at all, they're pretty good comics the ones I've read from the top, but the fact remains that I don't think it'd have any impact on smaller creators. What would be good is more focus on smaller creators but I'm not entirely sure how.

Yeah, that was part of my thought process when I asked around, too. But then, I didn't want to be "reduced" to BL, since that is NOT what the story is about, but it just happens to feature a relationship between two men. Genre decisions are a mess. xD

@joannekwan that's a fair point, haven't thought of that.

It wasn't a big issue for me when series WERE able to pick 3 genres on tapastic before they took that away from us.

I actually read a lot more comics on this site when they had multi genres, the stories are just more appealing to me. Comedy won't even get me to look at it, same with Action, an Action/Comedy though, just fuking sign me up. Same with Drama, drama alone, boring and to try hard to be emotional, drama/comedy though, yes, now.

Since they changed it to only 1 genre it's been increasingly difficult for me to find a series that will be appealing to me under a blanket term.

If we're sticking to the exposure abuse angle and not taking to account just having clearer labels, right now the only series that can have multi genres and the premium series... and.... they don't really need it it terms of exposure????

Maybe we should discuss that further elsewhere so we don't derail the GL discussion too much (even though it plays into it—and I kinda started it). I fear we'll be taking away from wlw creators again then, and they see that a lot outside of here already;;

Do any of you remember a thread where this was already a topic maybe? Haven't been active too long here, after all. ^^