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Feb 2017

imo its... complicated.

on one hand, BL is a genre has large problems with homophobia (yes, really) as well as misogyny and racism and abuse romanticisation - but on the other hand its a genre predominantly consisting of girls. both are reasons people hate it, the former being justified and the latter being shitty.

BL comics do, also, get far more popular far faster than comics of higher standard, which can leave a really bitter taste in people's mouths.

i also think readers do care - if i werent a creator, id still loathe BL and its popularity over comics with healthy, fully fleshed out gay relationships or (gasp, God Forbid) lesbians. not all readers care, sure, but its not like its only comic creators that have an opinion on this.

tbh im on the anti-BL side pretty firmly - but mainly because im a lesbian and hate the way straight BL fangirls (so, most of them) treat my community.

im sure a lot of people dislike BL because of homophobia - but most of the people ive talked to about it are actually, like... gay. and annoyed at how the BL genre portrays LGBT people. look at how many people complaining about BL are gay, and create comics with lgbt themes.

let's face it most comic artists don't give a shit about yaoi/BL. It basically is a genre to make fun of and laugh it. It's just fap fics for chicks basically that get all the views. No it's not homophobia to hate BL... jesus christ. Stop with that. BL is swamped with millions of shit comics and having an opinion against a mediocre genre doesn't make you homophobe. I mean after all don't you people think BL is homophobic because it's just a straight women's view of gay men? Make up your minds lol

Anyway enjoy what this genre really has to offer:
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Some people can't accept the fact that BL comics are trending more and more on tapastic because they fear their work will be eclipsed if it doesn’t include a gay relationship at the core of their story.

In the end some will get use to this new trend eventually and realise that they can keep doing their thing. They should just focus on making their comic the best they can and promote their work. Audiences will come eventually.

Put a''NOT BL '' sign on your comic then see how many will confuse this as a bl and give you some views , ahahahahahah

That mangaka has never even been popular. If you wanna go laugh at Yaoi hands, atleast pick something by Nakamura Shungiku (literally anything of theirs). Their comics atleast are relevant.

Here's what this genre actually has to offer ( by someone who actually reads this genre)

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BL is the same as any other genre. There are good ones and there are bad ones. Shitting on it is pointless.

I wouldn't say hate against bl comics is anything new. The same topics were being made over on smackjeeves during its heyday.

It doesn't bother me at all that people don't like. It's fine. But the complaints just sound immature. Confidence and a drive to write a story should be your motivators, not popularity. And it's not as if all bl creators/readers only read bl. You're chasing away potential readers by ostracizing then.

mate do you realise that the 'you people' youre referring to are.... two very different groups of people... who are these 'you people'.... the hivemind of simultaneously yaoi fangirls and anti-yaoi fangirls....

I am a lesbian, and I personally am not a big fan of the genre. Most of the time it's straight girls fetishizing gay relationships, and it's really gross. If you are going to write a comic about LGBT relationships and you are not LGBT, you should do your research. And I barely see that happen at all with these comics. Most of the time all they do is read other BL comics and manga, and those barely get it right either.

I get upset seeing these kinds of comics becoming popular because it's not good representation for the community, but it's the most popular medium.

And I know there are good ones! You don't have to rec me any lol. I know there are comics that portray gay relationships very well, but they are rare to see. As a lesbian, I don't like my sexuality to be used as a fetish. And I think a gay man would say the same :/

I have no issue with BL comics; I havent read any, but then again I havent come across one that has piqued my interest either.

My only issue with the BL hype is that you have creators with the mindset of wanting their comic to be popular, so they make their comic to be the "trend of the current moment" so they can ride that & milk it for what it's worth. In no way am I saying that BL is a "trend" but given its current surge in popularity, I cant say it isnt. To those who genuinely enjoy writing, creating, & reading BL- I appreciate what you do because I want you do be able to do it without regrets...but for those who use it to gain popularity(like the folks who craved Hunger Games/Twilight type material some years back)- stop exploiting the genre. That's not cool at all.

Preface: I am 100% in favour of LGBTQ+-spectrum characters in comics. In fact, I want more of it. I want characters on the LGBTQ+-spectrum included in everything as a matter of course, because, well, they exist, and you should be able to tell stories about them, whether it focuses on their sexuality or not, the same way you tell stories about straight cisgendered people. I draw comics with LGBTQ+-people in them, and am myself one of them (I'm on the asexual end of that spectrum)

I also read a handful of BL-comics, so the label itself doesn't scare me away.

But I do have very large reservations regarding it, and I am very critical of the "genre" (putting quotation-marks around that, because it's really a subgenre of romance at best, and more of a nebulous label).

Of course! I am not going to sit here and tell people to NOT draw comics about boys kissing other boys! But "make what you like" doesn't preclude you from justified criticism, and it shouldn't mean that you unthinkingly replicate a bunch of problematic tropes and storytelling mechanisms.

BL tends to come with a large set of accepted clichés and tropes that get included and replicated across a wide variety of stories, and a lot of those clichés and tropes are deeply troublesome. Some of them are rooted in homophobia, some of them in racism, some of them in misogyny, some of them in unthinking adoption of cultural thought-models that are not your own (a LOT of people who draw BL are not Japanese and are not familiar with the culture, even though a lot of BL-clichés were born out of a Japanese cultural context).

I don't want to shame teenage girls into not doing what they like - but those same teenage girls are also kind of shouldering in on territory they need to be careful walking on. A lot of BL-creators are straight, and are glaringly unfamiliar with gay culture in its various forms. It makes for a kind of jarring disconnect, because many BL stories aren't stories about gay men; they're stories about straight people's stereotypical idea of gay men.

So, part of the "salt" directed at BL and its creators is, as you say, whining from people who don't like seeing someone be "undeservedly" popular. Part of it is legitimate criticism of the problems the genre does have; and part of it is people on the LGBTQ+-spectrum upset at being stereotyped by straight people.

  1. Dissent and critique is healthy, and consensus isn't always a good thing. If we can't be critical of something, it won't ever get better. But I do agree there is a line between critiquing something, and making personal attacks; the former is good, the latter usually isn't.
  2. Some readers most definitely do care (hi!).

I'm not sure that I can add anything to the conversation. Pretty much everything's been said that can be. I read some BL, though not much, as I tend to like romances, and romcom's and there simply aren't that many on Tapas that feature a straight couple, so I have to get my fix somewhere. The ones that don't use tired tropes from Bernice Smalls or Jane Austen are non-existent.

Yes, I'm a straight man that loves to read romance. Deal with it. But, what I consider to be a great romance doesn't necessarily jive with what most people presume when they think romance. The meet cute is great and all, but the meat is in the emotional fervor and hero paradox. The ethics questions that surround relationships fascinate me. And yes, 50 Shades of Grey would have been a police procedural had the main character been poor.

And so, I may see BL differently than some, or most, I don't know. But, and this is only my half-formed opinion, it seems to me that the popularity of BL in general has to do with the very real social constraints placed on women. It's much like female singers in the west, they're allowed to be emotional, broken, and wild. Men are not allowed in the west to display their jelly-belly. I think, as a rule, in eastern cultures where sexually aggressive women are more than frowned upon, much the same is true of women. I think these cultural taboos leave great heaps of what people really are to stick out in lumps. In short, when you repress something, it doesn't go away. It comes back all crazy-like and f*cks some sh*t up.

For the most part I see BL as acting out female fantasies and desires with male characters. From this perspective, it makes sense that they're often homophobic, misogynistic, and often vehemently opposed to GL, because our culture is homophobic, misogynistic, and often vehemently opposed to GL. That, I think, both western and eastern cultures share. In fact, it's rare to find cultures that are not openly misogynistic, but that doesn't mean that humanity is naturally misogynistic. There are documented cultures, some west, some east that aren't, most notably in the pacific islands and southern China that have been studied by anthropologists. Some north american aboriginal cultures could lay claim to that title as well. Africa has been so wrought with war and colonization that it's hard to define culture outside of colonial influence. South america I simply haven't studied, but some of their myths and rituals are interesting and I might get around to it eventually.

In those cultures third genders are often normalized into the language and the concept of a polar sexuality doesn't exist. But, I digress, as I'm getting off topic.

It is not only very possible, but very likely that the target demographic is openly homophobic and misogynistic. Consider Phillis Schlafly in the US, or Marine Le Pen in France. Both women and both deeply misogynistic. There is a cultural revolution going on in the west, and I suspect, in the east. It's been going on for decades. It won't end any time soon. Because of that, I think BL is a safe outlet for desires that are deemed too risky to engage. In that way I think BL is valuable. It allows people to explore who they are without pregnancy, much like the pill did for generations prior. Only BL is safer. It's on a page. No one gets hurt. It may amplify some unhealthy choices, that's true, but I don't, and can't see it as in any way evil or deserving of contempt. There is some great art and really touching moments in BL, if one only dares look for them. And I mean art in the sense of an illustration that connects with the viewer and shares something uniquely human.

I like BL... and I think everything is good as long as people know that it is just a work a fiction, and that that's not how real life works.

I'm more salty about the BL creators that push out an update a day and are always in the popular section. 's like shit, when do you guys sleep? XD

It's just often I'll see the audience a BL title has and many of those readers only read BL series, like they might be subbed to a couple comedy gag-a-days, but they're only the really popular ones that are promoted and are always in the popular section when they update.
I think the concern here is, how to grab these readers' attention to diversify their taste and perhaps lead them to more lgbt+ series that portray same-sex relationships a little better.

Hahaha XD, they usually have a 30 plus buffer of pages, so they upload 1 a day. Yeah lotsa work they put in.

Source:

I "know" one em (those creators you're referring to) =]

<.< sleep? For what is this sleep you speak of?

Nah BL is kinda notorious for having a lot of poor comics. Much like romance genres, slice of life, gag a day, it's flooded with a lot of mediocre comics compared to other genres. I'm not being a dick, this is a legit problem I see comic artists discuss and the reason no one takes the genre seriously.

idk the people who hate yaoi also say it's gay representation?? Like will argue tooth and nail "it's just cis white females who hate gay men uwu" and then say "buuuut it also contains gay men and it's representation". I would be "generalizing" but this is every damn post on every comic site.