Ah, Yaoi, How You Always Disappoint Me

Critic April 10, 2016 1:43 am

Yet another yaoi in which rape = love. For once I'd love to see ANY character treat rape with the gravitas it requires.

Or, even better, just not bother with the overwhelmingly large rape trope (it's actually so much of a thing it's a trope. That's scary.) in yaoi and go straight to consensual sex.

Seriously, do authors think it's impossible for to men to fall in love if one of them hasn't spent time raping, humiliating, and abusing the other character while playing it off as love?

Responses
    Anonymous May 11, 2016 6:11 pm

    what are u talking about if u look closley at the past u can see the ule already loved the seme , and he didnt RLY resist.

    Critic May 11, 2016 10:53 pm
    what are u talking about if u look closley at the past u can see the ule already loved the seme , and he didnt RLY resist. @Anonymous

    See, that, "They didn't REALLY not want it," mentality is what I'm tallking about in the first place. Unless there's a pre-agreed safe word in place that's been discussed; no means no.

    Nicholas Hale May 16, 2016 3:44 pm
    See, that, "They didn't REALLY not want it," mentality is what I'm tallking about in the first place. Unless there's a pre-agreed safe word in place that's been discussed; no means no. Critic

    I agree with you here but I haven't really read any yaoi's that contain safe words. So it's hard to say with yaoi. And there are some yaoi's where the uke says no yet it gets ignored versus other yaoi (Idk why) like Junjou romantica and Sekaiichi Hatuskoi, I could name so many other 9.0+ rated yaoi manga. And then theres obvious bdsm like Ten Count. The uke kind of has to say no (if you read the story you should understand.) I agree with you on this particular example but for yaoi (and because yaoi ignores safe words), no doesn't 100% mean no.

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    Nicholas Hale May 16, 2016 3:52 pm

    This isn't related to what I said earlier but unfortunately it's really not just a yaoi thing. At least from what I've watched, (in mostly straight hentai) 50% or more contain rape. If you ask me, I don't care because I can perfectly distinguish fiction created for fantasies apart from reality and proper morales, but it just gets boring.
    My Japanese male friend said that rape fantasies in Japan are a big thing. But that was only one friend of mine so I still want to be careful not to make any assumptions that Japan has a larger rape kink than other cultures.

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    Critic May 17, 2016 12:53 am
    This isn't related to what I said earlier but unfortunately it's really not just a yaoi thing. At least from what I've watched, (in mostly straight hentai) 50% or more contain rape. If you ask me, I don't care ... Nicholas Hale

    I'm aware it's pretty wide spread around more adult manga. I also understand that it's completely fictional and while I can (and sometimes do, otherwise, what would I read) separate my underlying indignation from my raging fangirl, it still manages to disgust me that so many stories based on rape are marketed as love.

    All that said, I don't expect much from calling it out aside from getting interesting perspectives like yours. I'd say I both do and don't care about the overwhelming amount of rape in the manga I read. It's a happy balance between morality and apathy, sometimes I go with one side, sometimes the other.

    (Though, as a side note, from the perspective of a reader and writer, it is infuriating that no one ever seems to report to authorities. It'd make a good, realistic, slice-of-life read.)

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