Responses
thank you so much for saying this, you’re absolutely gorgeous <3
Thank you for this comment. Some people really are weak to constructive criticism and take it as hating something just for the sake of it.
TLDR: Criticizing the choices that authors make is not "being mean." Authors publish stories because they want people to read them. Those readers having feelings and opinions about what happens is the entire point of putting work out into the world instead of keeping it on your hard drive forever.
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I'm not sure what those of you upset about people being upset think the point of publishing stories is. Authors put work out into the world for people to consume and interact with. No one publishes a book with the hope that readers will have no reaction to it. People are allowed to criticize authors, they are not somehow above reproach just because "it's their story." Once a work is made public, all readers experience the story differently and it's not a bad thing to discuss how it affects you or makes you feel. That's the whole point. If people are this upset about a plot development, it's because they care about the story and feel like the author's choice destroyed something important to them. No one is telling you that you can't enjoy that same thing just because they didn't.
I know I'm going to get "lol it's not that serious," and if it doesn't bother you then please enjoy. But the narratives and stereotypes that are put out in media are actually that serious, they have a significant influence on peoples' worldview and the public perception of what's "normal" and what's not. It doesn't matter if it's a book or a tv show or a gay comic on the internet. So in my opinion people SHOULD call authors out for inserting lazy, needless sexual violence into stories where it serves no plot purpose and makes no sense.
Manhwa, and yaoi in particular, is infested with sexual assault, the majority of which is romanticized, ignored, or included for shock value rather than being significant to the story somehow. Which is what happened here. This is not a toxic mafia story or an obsessive yandere situation, this is an absurd rom-com that's had 25 chapters of humor and ridiculous drama, and then the author CHOSE to hit readers out of nowhere with a violent rape, completely changing the tone of the story and the characterization of the ML as we've come to know him. It would be wild if people DIDN'T have a strong reaction.
Wanting to read yaoi does not mean having to shut your mouth and accept that SA is just part of the package. The fact that it's so pervasive is all the more reason to voice your feelings, actually, because if no one says anything then nothing will ever change. And as someone who intentionally doesn't read the kinds of stories that are prone to including SA, I genuinely appreciate people commenting when it happens in places you wouldn't expect so that I can try to avoid having this exact experience.