Queer Creator Tired of BL

[somekh]

I cannot be the only one who is exhausted with BL as a genre that is front-and-center on both webcomic platforms available. As a transmasc queer person, it hurts to see BL lauded as “representation”. It’s always, inevitably, two skinny white cis twinks, and the content is almost always catered to straight people.

Fujoshi, for example, is a homophobic label. The term translates to “rotten woman”; implying that a woman who reads yaoi/BL (enough pretending they’re any different) is sinful or dirty for enjoying homosexual content.

I tagged my comic as LGBT+ because the protagonist is a nonbinary WLW who ends up in a relationship with a trans woman, and the other main character is MLM. But if I view other LGBT+ comics... it’s always, inevitably, a ton of fetishistic BL thrown back in my face. Where are the WLW? Where are the ace characters? Where is the non-romance representation? I want fantasy stories with queer protagonists - I want sci-fi where transhumanism has taken over and everyone isn’t cis or het. I want sideplots and casual rep! I want trans characters! I want diverse body types! Give me fat queers! Disabled queers! BIPOC queers!!!! Dammit!!

I’m honestly starting to get disgusted with the prominence of BL, and how it is the ONLY major representation. Enough cis white gay twinks catered for straight people and kids to flood the comments with “eeee so gay!!” and “uwu my gay babies!!”

Gay people exist IRL! We are real humans! And we are EXHAUSTED of only being seen as valid when we can be easily marketed into cutesy gay relationships.

[TAMAnnoying]

I’m constantly confused as to how we’re supposed to feel about BL on this site

[somekh]

Given that there’s another thread that says “show me your LGBT characters, I need some cute”, probably bad. The genre contributes to negative stereotypes and overall homogenizes LGBT+ people, who are an extremely diverse group in real life.

[scribesunlimited]

Didn't we just go through this conversation...?

I swear we did.

[HGohwell]

Assuming that is the thread I believe it is, it was created by and LGBT+ person who had just created and been involved in a long discussion about Tapas' LGBT sensitivity and about the issues with how BL is presented, many of the issues you're not bringing up again, and wanted some LGBT characters and comics to cheer them up with some representation after that stress. And the thread is diverse and full of far more than just BL characters. And there were many issues discussed and brought up in the thread they created. These issues are pretty well acknowledged and discussed.

[TAMAnnoying]

See that’s the thing. I agree that there’s a lot of harmful stuff in BL but when i make fun of it and call it out I’m usually called a women hater as apparently women are the highest number of people who write BL and that’s “the only way” they can break into the market as writers/artist. And some such things like that- I like making fun of bad tropes and harmful things in all genres but when you make fun of BL suddently your also making fun of marginalized people even tho.... no I’m making fun of the trope but ok.

On the other hand I also think people can write whatever makes them happy? Especially if they got like 5 readers that enjoy it? I’m only ever concerned when it reaches a large audience and even then I mostly just ask for disclaimers of “this got potentially harmful tropes beware” And that’s about it?

Imma be honest I think there’s a lot of double think when it comes to BL In this place, but I pretty much agree with your criticism on it

[alexlcuri07]

Food for thought... maybe make a story or comic with these features. You took the time to make a thread, so maybe we can help you outline some more conceptual ideas.

[scribesunlimited]

So maybe @ratique or @joannekwan could drop by and close this.

[somekh]

Did you miss the part where I have had a comic for over a year that already features everything I mentioned

[alexlcuri07]

Whoa. Calm down, sparky. I'm just trying to be more productive than posting a rant.

For examle: Are you actively seeking other creators with comics and novels that are diverse like yours? Are you encouraging others to be more diverse and providing resources for them to do so? What exactly was the intention here?

Edit: Just complaining isn't helping and there was already a thread (very recently) discussing the misrepresentation in the BL genre on Tapas.

[joannekwan]

Most creators will agree the ones promoting/perpetuating stereotypes are bad, of course.

But then there are people (who are part of the lgbt+ community themselves) that are trying to reclaim the label, inject positive representation into the BL category, include more diverse characters, and trying to move the subgenre in a better direction. So simply saying "all BL" is sweeping them under the rug.

[BlairFujin]

Fujoshi, for example, is a homophobic label. The term translates to “rotten woman”; implying that a woman who reads yaoi/BL (enough pretending they’re any different) is sinful or dirty for enjoying homosexual content.

just cause I'm tired of people spreading such misinformation...

"Where did the term originate?

“Fujoshi” was coined on 2channel specifically to complain about inclusivity in newer series, and lack of male gaze, ecchi, pantyshots and harem shows in the current lineups, blaming “fujoshi writers” for the ‘increase’ in gay anime shows. [source]

I thought Fujoshi meant rotten women, because they fetishize gays!

Fujoshi is a pun on the word “婦女子” (also read ‘fujoshi’) - which means “grown women” - where the “fu” character for “wife” is replaced with the “fu” character for “rotted/ruined/moldy”. The implication is that if a woman is not a wife or eligible for marriage, she is ruined and worthless. (kifujin, in contrast, is the term for a female BL fan who is married, despite this)

Fujoshi itself is always seen as ダメオタ (useless/broken/not serving its purpose geek) - the fact that they happen to like m x m is what makes them bad and unmarriable (because their interest in m x m means they have their own mind/fantasies and will not be a submissive, chaste, heterosexual housewife that exists only to please her husband, thus they are not serving their purpose and are broken). [source] [source] [source]"

from https://jjblue1.tumblr.com/post/615686562823503872/himedanshi-archive-whats-a-fujoshi-fujoshi/amp

[Dysis]

I think a creator should have the freedom to create whatever they want. This world is full of diversity and it's not within a creator's ability to include them all. As long as they are devoted to making quality work and not stereotyping and hurting a community that they have chosen to represent in their story, it's alright.

[TAMAnnoying]

I think there talking about the ones more likely to be promoted on the front page tho? Unless I miss understood

[somekh]

But why does BL have to be the one form of “rep” that has its own genre? What about WLW? What about trans literature? What about BIPOC queer literature? Why is MLM the only thing worthy of its own distinction?

I’m exhausted of it - BL should not be it’s own genre unless other forms of rep also get their own genres. Let it fall under the queer umbrella.

[joannekwan]

Personally I think there should be a distinction between the imports and home-grown community works, but OP didn't make such a distinction so I took it to mean the entire category.

[skicoak]

Personally I think there should be a distinction between the imports and home-grown community works

Not my genre, so can you elaborate on the difference between the two for those not familiar.

[joannekwan]

For the purposes of the site itself. They made BL its own genre because so many titles were bloating the Romance genre. The audience demand was high enough to warrant it as well.

[TAMAnnoying]

I mean I agree? I think the community grown BL is usually much less.... problematic, then the imported ones but tapas has been trending to push up the import ones more as of late. That would still be tapas own fault but... yeah I donno. Like I said I get a lot of double think when BL gets mentioned

[joannekwan]

The discourse the past month is that the imported/translated works are out of touch with the western market and promote negative stereotypes and harmful content.