if there's any army here, i just wanted to remind you of the holy vmin break up, this k(gay) drama directed by gay god himself, jimin, cured me (of course it's not about shipping just about the boys being aware enough to film a break up scene btw two guys without having one of them cross dress and act like a girl because they know that two guys can be a couple unlike average male idols who mostly end up mocking gays )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGvtcovvtH0
i don't get why non fujoshis/fudanshi are angry at us, like we're "oh these two are cute, they're such a lovey dovey couple or like " awww he finally confessedヾ(☆▽☆)" and then, yhe non yaoi lovers are like "StOp FetiShizInG ThEm", like we're not, it's just that shojos always haave the same plot and are boring as hell, we just wanna read smth different with different issues and different characters. As a lesbian, i know how it feels to be fetishized and i can tell u that most ppl are not yaoi for their fetish.
and when theree's a non canon ship, haters are like "TheY'rE NoT GaY, ThE AUthOr didN'T SaY THeY WeRE SO tHeY'rE nOT StOP FetiShIZinG TheM" like, first, a person/character shouldn't need to say if they're gay or straight to be liked, second, why should we think that all characters are straight? Like everyone needs representation, i'm happy to see a gay/bi character in anime and i don't like it when ppl say " if the author did not say that they were gay, so they're straight" so i'm sorry but if we ship bakugo with some characters it's because there's a chance that he is gay,that'ss all! we don't go and ship a 100% straight guy/girl with a same sex person, because we knoww that it's not coherent.
PS: i wasn't talking about all the non yaoi readers, just te ones that react that way when we talk about yaoi
As someone who has observed the "fujoshi" community for a long time, I can tell you 50-60% DO fetishize gay people. It's not even just that; it's the rape culture behind it, the whole concept behind "seme" and "uke" and the fact that yaoi is genre not aimed at gay people but straight women so that they can enjoy watching two guys engage in sexual activity, because of the fact it's "two men". I'm not saying that's what they all what, however if you slap the label yaoi on something, you can be sure there will be sex in it. Which isn't a bad thing at all, however when you have women going "Omg hot!", it's uncomfortable. That's the issue. We have people taking these aspects into real life and acting really gross about. I'm a lesbian myself and HATE the whole fetish behind yuri. It makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I also have gay friends who have expressed how disgusted they are with the whole concept of "fujoshi". If you listen to it coming from someone who is a boy who likes boys, then you should be able to somewhat have an understanding why it makes them upset.
You don't see a subculture of people who like reading shoujo in the anime community. No, it's just manga with "gay couples" that has its own genre aimed at women.
First, the term "seme" and "uke" is honestly an insult to the LGBTQI+ community in itself. What these authors usually like to do, is take what they believe to be dominant "male" characteristics, and label them "seme" as well as giving the "uke" what they believe to be submissive "female" characteristics. The terms were made for women, not men. People actually apply it to gay couples in movies, comics that aren't even from japan and especially in "real life". Shipping people in real life just for the simple fact they are "two guys" in fetishizing them no matter how you see it.
Rape culture - I actually have read almost over 100 yaois. I can tell you that 70% had sexual assault. Now shoujo does have sexual assault, but yaoi is notorious for it. They're some of the most unrealistic representations of same gender relationships! The fact that people try to romanticise them, is disgusting in itself. I had a friend who was a girl and she LIVED and BREATHED bl romance. She loved the sexual assault aspect, and refused to watch or read anything other than two guys engaging in sexual activity.
What I'm trying to say is honestly it's fine to like yaoi, but people shouldn't don't apply it to real life. It's degrading and makes gay people feel very uncomfortable. I can tell you're not one of those people for sure, but many people are. Honestly I had a lot more to say on this, but I had to cut it short, and be brief, otherwise it's be too long. As to address, non-canon couples. That is completely fine. I completely agree that if the author doesn't say whether their gay, straight or bi, then we should be able to canon them with what we want. The problem is with a lot of "fujoshi"'s just shipping two guys just because they are two guys. As well as applying it to real life. You should read some stories about how some gay people have been a but harassed by fujoshi's into performing 'flirtatious' reenactments with their friends, just for female eye candy :/
i didn't pay attention to the seme uke thing so i didn't know, but i think that even irl there's like this top-bottom stuff, as a lesbian i get asked that a lot even when flirting and all.
As for the rape in yaoi, i don't know if ppl know about it but it was a real social problem in japan, since, legaally, rape could only be a vaginal penetration, and this law was changed last year only. so, technically, in japan, until 2017, grown man as well as young boys, could not legally get raped, that's why it was extremly rare to see rape in shojo for example; it was a whole social disfunctionnement, and when i read te comments of a manga that includes a rape scene, most readers hate the rapist and feell disgusted by them.
and of course yaoi as any other fiction should not apply in real life that would be crazy weird ( ̄▽ ̄)
I actually didn't know about that. Thank you for telling me, that's absolutely horrific. Yeah... Japan definitely needs to catch up, but culture barriers really prohibit from doing so. I hope anyone in Japan who suffered through that, gets the justice they need and deserve.
I have read the comments sections as well, and have noticed more comments hating the rapist and it does give me a sigh of relief. However, I would say comments inducing sexual assault in yaoi are done more offline, on sites such as Tumblr (lol), Instagram and facebook especially.
Unfortunately, the most public sites are where many gay people get upset, because those types of "fujoshi" are highly noticeable in those places. I get kind of annoyed if my tags are "Sekaiichi Hatsukoi" or "Jazzfortwo" and my feed is just a bunch of "fujoshi" posting sexual images of a rape scene in yaoi. Seriously, my feed is flooded with it :/
I have to admit when I posted that, I thought I'd get a bunch of raging fujoshi's grounding me with their opinions and how "wrong" I am, but I'm glad people see my point (:
to be honest, i hate that kind of fujoshis too ^^ the ones who are like "even if it's rape it's still hot'' i, for my part started to read yaoi because i found shoujo boring and because yuri wasn't popular so there weren't that much authors and the stories were all very cliché! but in yaoi i found different plots, about how hard it is to come out and to be accepted, break ups, society's openion and how it can break off relationships (of course some are shitty as hell though) .
As an lgbt person, i'm happy whenever i see a little off representation, anywhere is fine, but it really upsets me sometimes to be told that i fetishize same sex relationships, i don't i'm just happy to see representation and that love is stronger than stereotypes, maybe some do fetishize
but i still think the majority do (at least i hope it doesn't) XD, that they are mostly ppl who want to read something differnt from the boring shojo but still has an intersting plot, i think that ppl who read (good) yaoi understand just a bit more the troubles of lgbt ppl, i advised once a guy classmate of mine who was really against it to read ''it smells like green spirits" and "shimanami tasogare" he read them and cried like a baby :D
that's what i think, i agree with you on a lot of points, and i'm happy to have talked with you ;)
i remember when this was posted it was my first yaoi lol