oh boi. we all know that alex is a pure asshole but i don't think what he did was as bad as domestic violence. you know shit happens and this story is still not over. there's always room for change and redemption. but ofc just cause i said it doesn't mean it's gonna happen so that's why we'll see what happens. then you can say "do better" when this story's finally over and it didn't satisfy you. cause as of now everybody's like judging a toddler for being immature.
but that's the problem he's still an adult man regardless of his fictionalization. The author has purposely constructed a character that resorts to violence to combat his apparent heartache rather rationalize his own shortcomings and project his insecurities by lashing out verbally and physically onto others. Do not forget that Jiwon and DG's very first encounter had Jiwon strangle DG after uncovering his DJ Alex identity. Excusing this behavior as anything but domestic violence is an apologist answer. I shouldn't have to finish the manga to know and be able to fully comprehend an author who is making light of domestic violence for the sake of plot. His redemption period of groveling to DG is unnecessary because Jiwon's actions towards DG were entirely unnecessary to begin with. Even for the sake of plot having your heart broken does not equate to forcing yourself onto someone while they physically cry in pain and scramble to escape. Even the notion of justifying that is disgusting. But that's exactly what Mingwa has done and so do many other authors when they resort to sexual violence as either comedic relief or medium for romantic interest. We already have the very real scenario of young boys being taught at a young age that it's fine to "bully" the girl that you like. Pulling her hair, taunting her, pushing her, etc. it's all to gain her attention and show he "likes you" this toxic masculinity is taught at a young age and breeds the toxic masculinity that is domestic violence of adult male on female violence. Boys are taught and encouraged to do so with phrases like "man up" "she likes a bad boy" "good guys finish last". It's these systemic bits of degradation that boys will try desperately to combat by enforcing archetypes of idolized men. Men such as, their fathers, brothers, teachers, friends, media sourced all contribute to the education of young boys. To have a genre that is focused entirely on masculinity but throw female viewership you'd think at some point their would be a shift in women no longer wanting to see their real life subjugation of a male dominated world be reflected in the same or even heightened casual indifference that unfortunately they face as the plight of being the fairer sex. Yet the removal of women from the equation has allowed for this toxic masculinity to be encouraged and fawned upon simply because it can be appreciated in the same way it does not have real consequences on real bodied endangerment. But let us not forget that sexual violence is not only enforced on female bodies, but any bodied person. Everything I've described above does not change because Jiwon is some heartbroken hot guy and DG is a cute relationship naive man, they still embody a toxic masculinity that has became internalized in the yaoi genre, that despite its fictional world it simply bleeds as an extension into our real world's own ignored issues and disservice to sexual violence victims and survivors. It's not the question of using sexual violence or violence in a plot, but rather the horrendous way it never given proper handling or the magnitude it deserves in using such an explosively heavy subject matter. Which is to say it's entirely fine to read rape for example, but rape isn't funny and shouldn't be made into a punch line where not everyone gets the last laugh.
Its......
Fiction
you know what fuck it I'm clearly fucking wasting my time. George Orwell's 1984 was fiction, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind was fiction and look how they've fucking changed our society today, fuck this bullshit excuse of it's fiction. If we want to even go the manga fiction route Ghost the Machine was based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and see how many real life computer ai's have a byproduct of this. Even Akira has affected pop culture to this day. If you want to go on and plug your ears be my guest.
But violence has been apart of humanity since before humans could read and write. You think a few rape scenes is going to suddenly make it all worse? People decide to do bad things on their own. We all know right from wrong and I think it's belittling to believe that people who aren't bothered by a fictional rape scene wouldn't be bothered by one in real life. That's absurd. Go sit down and calm your shit.
A fight is a mutual situation where people hit or shout to each other face mutually. However, in chapter 40 and in many of others before that, Alex was the only one using violence on DG
I think it's not entirely true that everyone would be able to tell what's rape and what's not in real life. In fact most people can't and that's why we have so much controversy over me too and rape culture. Stories like this do help normalize dipshit behavior because 12 year olds read them and easily influenced 20 somethings read them. We see it all the time in the comments that infatuated people easily overlook the author's intent and defend their favs. Some people even share stories of their real lives when they've acted like alex and use that as justification for Alex's behavior instead of seeing a problem in their own behavior. That is the problem with calling it just fiction. Art follows life and then at some point life momics art. Anyway, not trying to fight, just adding $.02
I too believe that some readers here are too young to read yaoi. I also believe you can state that you like a violent fictional character simply because it's fictional. There are plenty of teen dramas on PG 13 tv, movies, music, videogames.. What are you gonna do? Boycott everything? I started reading violent comics and watching violent movies at a very young age. Still remember watching old violent westerns and Quentin Tarantino movies with my dad. I was not easily influenced. Inspired maybe. I'm not a murderer or rapist. Surprising, right? It's not entertainment you should be targeting. It's our society. Art influences life and vice versa but any sane person would know how to draw the line and know right from wrong. Unless you expect social media and entertainment to tell you how to think and feel and raise the next generation.
I totally agree with you but i totally think a bunch of that last sentence is happening.... and i don't think op meant it like that either. I think she just wants some mature and respectful content to be a foil to all this rapey content. It's not one at the expense of the other, just that there's not enough thoughtful, mature, and like relateable in a good way content? But yeah i feel ya both
what's soo sad about this story is that while i'm invested in this. It just makes me feel so uncomfortable that we know that DG and Jiwon will end up together despite EVERYTHING Jiwon has done to DG. I could care less about the parameters of their fwb relationship at this point, Jiwon has emotionally and physical abused (raped count it multiple times) DG and every time DG keeps coming back. A broken heart will never excuse how Jiwon has treated DG as less than human and deserving of any kind of respect. It's heartbreaking to bear witness to domestic violence and know that at the very end of the day DG will go back to his abuser in the name of love. I want yaoi to do better, I really want to be able to continue to read and support wonderful artists like Mingwa but when will it stop trivializing violent scenarios that occur to thousands of people every single day. Yet, how can I feel great about a genre that repeatedly lets me down in providing stories that devalue and disregard the experiences of the very human archetypes these stories center on. To those that say fiction has no impact in how we formulate views and ideas, you clearly weren't thought every well in your literature and history classes.