What do you think about thumbnails with "bl" label?

[LordVincent]

I have considered seeing the movie. I probably should, but I just watch movies all too rarely... they can rarely be properly understood by just being listened to, and since I am constantly drawing that is how I enjoy all my entertainment.

Well, there is that (referring to your edit now) and then there's the fact that I saw complaints in this thread about bl thumbnails having guys cuddling or kissing. To me THAT part of the whole discussion looks more like someone just wants gay people to shut up and put their sexuality back in the closet where noone has to see it really. News flash: STRAIGHT LOVE COMICS DO THIS TOO. The thumbnails are all people kissing, cuddling or being cute together. As well as lesbian ones. How DARE people put the subject matter into the actual thumbnail! I should just go put a bee in mine. Very telling.

[Alli]

I don't tend to read stuff with the BL label, but it's not quite for the reasons one might expect.

When I was in middle school and high school I had a lot of friends that were really into shounen ai and yaoi. I borrowed some of their books but I honestly never really understood the hype. I have absolutely no problem with boys making out with boys. It can be hot. The books they fawned over just made no sense to me. It was mostly fanservice with cookie-cutter characters. One boy is the petite and girly bottom while the other is the (kinda rapey) top. They never switch. Often times the stories made me uncomfortable because the bottom boy seemed unwilling, but somehow because they were both boys that was ok? It's not. That's not a fair representation of a gay couple. That's a rapey guy on a person that might as well be a girl. If the top isn't rapey he's at the very least a downright ass. I like to see romance, crushes, broken hearts, and cuddling. I don't want to see one main character treat the other badly and only get more attention for it. When I see the BL label, I tend to assume that the creator is heavily influenced by shonen ai and yaoi manga and will create a story similar to the ones I read back then.

To be completely fair, shoujo manga is also heavily guilty of glorifying jerkhole boys. Oh, he's edgy and has a dark past but goes to high school in a first world country. Yeah, I bet his past is so dark.

I am, however, subscribed to Lex Normaux. Seb and Elia are just the cutest little creampuffs.

[joannekwan]

You summed up the top offending trope in BL (and shojo romance) @lunox99! This is exactly what I'm tired of and is so harmful to the gay community.

I'll admit, nowadays I'll click on anything labeled BL just to see how bad it is. Haven't seen anything truly rotten on Tap at least. But I have noticed a lot of cutesy sugary stuff that'll give you diabetes. Gay, straight, lesbian, or whatever, I personally am lost on all that affectionate fluff. I've never been one for uber-romantic "kawaii" relationships. lol

[TsarLenaSunLit]

I have clicked off some comics that put up BL on the thumbnail. To me its a "HEY! Look at me!" flag that I find annoying. I have read some BL comics that didn't do that, I am not usually a fan of BL but if the story is good and the characters interesting I keep reading.

Another thing I find interesting is after all these BL thumbnails popped up. I have not seen one GL pop up in response. Not that they have to now, just making a note of it.

[TsarLenaSunLit]

I have seen a few comics put a warning at the beginning that there is blood and gore in it or if there are tiggers. If people are doing the BL as a warning why not put it at the top of the first page saying that the follow content is male/male?

[Caelestie]

I would agree with you completely! eh I hate Romanization of rape.

[Caelestie]

Artist freedom is like freedom of speech, it doesn't mean you can actually say everything especially if it is defamation of character or misinformation. It is disgusting when pull that card when they know they are doing something wrong!

[Caelestie]

ehhh I have you seen the author trash this film because it was so male gazy. The film was based on a graphic novel by a lesbian and the straight male director decided to make like a 10 minute long sex scene that made most lesbian be either baffled or uneasy. It was mostly guys that liked that scene.
Also the actresses that did the scene were not treated well in that scene.

[WednesdayAsh]

well i thought it was thought provoking, i can only speak to what I thought about it tho.

[camillabluejay]

That's always the way I've kinda seen them as too @Savannah. I think not only do they manage to find the audience they're looking for right away, but it keeps the people who wouldn't be interested from wasting their time as well. So, while I find it a little frustrating that they gain a large audience very quickly from people willing to read anything with BL on the title, I don't necessarily blame them. My own comic will have strong lgbtqa themes, and I kinda wish there was an easier way to find my audience just like that. But, because it's not romance, there's not point labeling it with BL- I'd just bug both sides haha.

[Caelestie]

hmmmmm well a lot people would disagree with you and I usually dislike when straight men fetishize lesbian and bi women. It isn't a great thing to do.

[LordVincent]

I can't stand yaoi/shounen ai that works like that... Makes it difficult to find good stuff to read, when the gay side of the whole manga industry is FULL of that shit.

I don't want to see one more fucking yaoi try to play rape off as something romantic a la "I rape you because I love you". No. You rape him because you're a sick piece of shit, mr seme-guy-thing.

[LordVincent]

There is one comic... called What-Sexual. They mark their comic with lgbtq. It's not the first time I see it... It doesn't have the type of marketing effect that BL probably has, but what does that matter really? It will definitely catch an eye for lgbtq people looking to read about things they can recognize and sympathize with on another level.

What-Sexual might actually be one of very few comics I read ONLY for the story actually, and I would never have looked at it weren't it for the lgbtq label. Usually the thing that catches my eye is the artstyle of something, and the artstyle of this one isn't really my thing. But the story is really interesting.

So yeah, you could totally put that on your thumbnail if you want to add an extra hint of what the story contains. There is only so much you can tell people with a thumbnail... Considering changing my "BL" one for an "LGBTQIA+" one myself.

[WednesdayAsh]

Oh no, i didn't mean the fetishization XD yea that's sucky. But that's my personal opinion, and I'm not afraid of going against "a lot of people".

Nor will I go to bat for "Blue" haha, it was an example of a sex-positive, sex-intensive work that's supposedly literary, and supposedly not porn.

Your view, a valid one, is infact similar to the BL discussion this topic is having right now. "Lots of people" think BL is a porn-like ghetto, while "a lot of people" would argue the genre tag shouldn't matter as a description of literary quality.

And I tend to be a seperate art from the creation and creator type person.

Did you know David Bowie was a child rapist? He also inspired an undeniable amount of science fiction and video games.

Can someone be terrible as a person in the past (or present), and inspiring as an artist? Bowie implies yes.

Should we muddle the discussion of artistic merit with moral bankruptcy, I think no.

In this case we're purely discussion the BL label, which lead to a discussion of the legitimacy of the Palme D'Or winning "Blue is the Warmest Color" example. A film that led to my appreciation of the nuances of the LGBTQ world, and led me to a more tolerant and appreciative worldview.

All of the above muddles the discussion of BL labels on Tapastic.

But again feel free to disagree tho.

[camillabluejay]

      Oh, I'll have to read that one too! Thanks for pointing it out, I'll look it up :D As for my own comic, I feel like I might still have the same problem? I'd wanted to make a comic that had lgtbqa+ characters, but I didn't want the story to be about that. I wanted a story about other things, that happened to have lgbtqa+ characters and themes. So I'm afraid that if I mark it as such, I might annoy people looking for a story ABOUT that. I'm afraid they might be like, "What the hell? It's been 20 pages, and no one's even identified themselves yet." And I'd be like, "Yeah, that's because people are trying to kill them. They're busy."
       I do have story arcs, about one of the boys and his problematic ex-boyfriend, about a boy being asexual but NOT aromantic and the trouble that causes, and a boy trying to deal with being straight in a world where there aren't alot of women. But those don't come til later, and they're in between the action and magic.
      I'd read online that people were tired of everyone making a big deal about lgbtqa+ characters in stories, and just wanted a 'normal' story that had lgtbqa+ characters in it. And I was excited, because that's what my story was, but then I don't know how to market it, haha. But at the same time, I don't want some jerk stumbling into it by accident and going, "Ew, your main character is Bi? GROSS." >: [ 
So, yeah, I feel like I'm kinda trapped in the middle! XD

[zwebb90]

ill tell you why i do it....cuz its popular, people can deny it all they want and say that they get harassed for showing forbidden love, but that..shit..is...IN. its loved and obsessed over by the mass majority of web comic readers, i uploaded a BL comic as a joke just to prove it, stupid vampire comic is doing better than my real stuff. i'm over here spending years trying to write a serious comic with good art quality, interesting plot and likable characters (trying)...and all this time i could have just slapped a big BL on the cover. meanwhile you got these artist/writers acting like they fighting the good fight by writing BL and complaining about harassment, when they're sitting there with 2K followers... maaaaaan give me a break...yeah anyways, bottom line, it's POPULAR.

[LordVincent]

I get your struggle, buddy! In the end, it's your decision as an artist and nobody else's business to decide. Either way works nicely in my opinion.

[AffectedMind]

stupid vampire comic is doing better than my real stuff

Lol, hope it's not about me.
Unless you mean some BL vamps, then no, it's not me xD
But yea BL is pretty popular, subs will be growing fast as long as it have BL label on it, no joke, it's actually happening. It doesn't really matter if it's good or bad.

[FixerTheWise]

It kinda goes to show that on Tapastic at least, subscriptions don't mean shit. Tere's a pretty huge chunk of users who subscribe to things they don't even read. This is what the BL sign exploits. As I said, pretty braindead.

[zwebb90]

no i was talking about MY bl vampire story, XD i started uploading it like a month ago and its already doing a lot better than my other stories that have been around for much longer