Well said Mameiha ! These days, the kiddies can't see the forest for the trees ...
And your rants are so clarifying, love them when I run across them !
LOL I try not to rant too often in comments - I do that on my home page to get it out of my system - because I know I sound like some old grandma bitching and moaning about "kids these days". BUT, and it is a bigger but than the huge one I sit on (lol), there are just times when an incredible story is lost in the immature thoughts and musings of readers in the comment section. I found this story fascinating and well told. Perhaps it is because I have seen so many friends conceal their sexuality in exactly this same way, I saw through the uke's "rape" ruse right away. What shocks me is that so many readers of this genre understand so little about what it is like for homosexuals even though most hail from some extremely liberal and accepting countries. I would expect that those readers would have, at least, one gay friend if not more. It makes me wonder if young yaoi readers hold the real life counterparts to their fictional favorites up on some kind of pedestal and are afraid to approach them. Or, worse, they only see gay men as worthy of fetishizing and unworthy of actual friendship. I pray it is simply the former.
I think that a lot of these "yung'uns" don't have contact with or know anyone who is actually homosexual. Therefore, they are fantasizing about what gay men & women are truly like, or the struggle they go through, thereby believing what they read in manga or watch on TV is the reality. Which is soooo far from the truth it may as well come from Mars.
Where I live, homosexuality is still highly thought of as deviant behavior. So many still hide their preference so as not to be shunned. But, things are getting better ... and some of the best people I know and love are gay ! Better, in fact, than some hetero folks I know !
Well said
Okay now things are a bot clear
I'm old, but I dont understand the part about the scar. Can you pls. Help me..
I guess no one can read beyond what is written on the page! Actually, in this case, the information is clearly spelled out on the page and yet a large number are blinded by the mere mention of the word "rape". Don't you guys get it?! The uke isn't actually being raped at all. He enjoys his sex with the seme, but is desperately trying to run from the fact that he enjoys homosexual sex! He only calls it rape to appease his fear and justify running away. Did you not notice the look on his face when the seme said he loved him? It was like he had been waiting forever for those words. He even apologizes to the girl in his mind for being too consumed by his enjoyment of sex with the seme. The uke is gay and he doesn't want to admit it. Is it right or fair for the seme to out him by force? No, but is it any more right or fair for a gay man to marry a woman when he has to think of a man to get aroused to have sex with her? Or marry a woman only to troll gay bars for one night stands and cheat on her left, right and center? Cripes! It is like listening to toddlers discuss quantum physics! The whole story is about a closeted gay man desperately clinging to the idea that he is not gay, all while he has hot, passionate sex with another man. If this theme had been a snake it would have bitten every commentator that blasted this story for rape because you all stepped all over it with stiletto heels!
This is why yaoi is restricted to those over 18. It isn't about showing the sex scenes as much as it is about themes that won't be understood by someone who can't even read and comprehend the story fully. So why set the age limit at 18? Because you can't graduate high school or get into college if you can't read and comprehend the content of whatever you are asked to read. Whether that is a fiction novel, a Shakespearean play, an autobiography or a manga. If you can't comprehend what is, basically, handed to you on a silver platter, how in the hell are you going to read a textbook that offers many opinions and theories on a given subject and come to your own conclusion? It is painfully obvious that many readers and commentators here are too young to even have the necessary reading skills to understand the content of this story, let alone, the life experiences needed to grasp why these characters are acting the way they are acting.
Yaoi is a genre that has stories that range from simple "boy meets boy" themes to basic smut to very deep, emotion driven themes that are expressing the lack of acceptance of homosexuality in a conservative culture or the dark emotions that love and obsession can cause to surface. Add to that, the fact that yaoi is, at its core, erotic fiction and you have a reading situation where more than a basic understanding of language is necessary to fully appreciate what the writer is trying to convey. A reader must understand that love comes in many forms and it is not limited to the sparkly, fairy tale variety. Since yaoi is also a portrayal of homosexual love, it is also important for a reader to understand that the dynamics of a relationship between two men is not always the same as those in a relationship between a man and a woman. In many yaoi, the idea of fearing your sexuality and/or closeting behaviour are core to the theme. Promiscuity is also often portrayed because, sadly, in conservative cultures like Japan, a long-term, monogamous relationship would threaten the livelihood and safety of a gay man. A reader really has to understand so much more than words on a page to truly understand and enjoy this genre.