Silly anon how can silver be homophobic if he likes men? /j

sillier anon hes straight have t u heard! /JJJJ

a world where being gay is the norm and straight is a minority

Clings ngl you literally were a transhet icon in my head, i was like haha what a cool guy I'm always glad when transmen are so proud and open about their heterosexuality. You're cis. This is devastating to me clings

You're like that one dude in the video of a world where being gay is the norm and straight a minority wth

Okay I don't care about the netflix please tell me about the importance of all-girls schools in Yuri it sounds fascinating

ok so first of all i recommend reading the wikipedia page for yuri because it really is fascinating and talks abt stuff i won't, cause then this would get Too long

but let's start this saying that in its origins, yuri wasn't necessarily a Romance genre as we know them, nor were the girls in it necessarily lesbians. it follows a literature genre called Class S (from around 1900-1930 i believe) which depicts intense relationships between girls that sort of blur platonic and romantic lines. in fact, i'd say a lot of yuri manga are a rather good example of queerplatonic relationships

the appeal is that, despite homosexual relationships being very much forbidden then, in an all-girls school setting, it Is seen as normal to be in a relationship with a girl. schools are written as if they're havens, separated from the outside world, and where usual society rules don't apply. like some world where gay is the norm and straight is a minority

but because these rules are school-only, same-sex relationships were also seen as a (at times childish) phase that one grows out of, and once they graduate they're expected to go and find a husband anyways. which is often a source of conflict in more modern yuri manga, finding a way to maintain that school-only relationship in the outside world, or find if it's something that can survive post-graduation. because while not all characters are lesbians, some of them are indeed "that kind of girl"

There is something that feels inexplicably... straight... in a way that’s uncomfortable, stiff and also just unenjoyable for me, personally, about the narrative of “bravery and inspiration” when it comes to coming outs.

We all - who we have been there and come out - do know that there is an angle of feeling inspired. Sure. Of course. Knowing there’s others like us out there gives us strength. That can come from a place of fiction, when you see yourself represented in media for the very first time. That can come from a place of connection, when you get to interact with another queer person for the first time.

The arc of having The Gay One Of The Main Characters have their coming out and then, down the road, have other, minor characters come out too, and have them express that they felt inspired by the bravery of the Gay Main. I hate that. I hate that so much. Urgh, that just tastes icky to me.

It tastes straight to me. Because straight people love to imagine us as brave, because they often struggle to imagine us as just existing. Our existence must be brave. Our existence must be hardships. And they are, obviously do we face those things. But this framework feels so reductive.

It reduces the coming out to bravery, when a coming out story can be about so much more. Should be about so much more. We deserve to have stories told about so much more than just our hardships and struggles, we deserve to be more than just brave.

Why do the minor queer characters need to be inspired to come out? Why do they need to be so desperately closeted, so incredibly afraid to be themselves that it takes this act of bravery? Why did the author feel the need to create a fictional world that is so oppressive, so harmful and constrictive? That’s a deliberate choice that’s being made.

And sometimes, it’s a choice that makes me feel tired, to be honest. I mean, we can accept werewolves and witches being real and all of that, and bend reality, but let’s not get too unreal, we should definitely keep the homophobia.

Even in a world where we do keep the homophobia, the act of bravery of one singular queer character... ain’t gonna actually change that. Honestly, your choice here is worse than if you just... decided to write about a world where there isn’t any homophobia?

Genuinely. I’d much rather read about a world where we say acceptance is the norm from the get-go, rather than “and all the queers lived in fear, until The Chosen Queer One finally found the bravery to come out of the closet, and every other queer character followed them out of the closet, inspired by their bravery, and... everything was just dandy, actually”.

Because - because - there isn’t any homophobia here, in the end. Everything was just fine, in the end. Nobody faced any homophobia. You just needed the queers to be afraid until the Queer Main was “brave”, so they could all come out and realize that all the straights are actually really nice.

And that’s what makes it taste real straight.

Because the straights aren’t a threat. The straights are actually real nice! There is nothing bad happening here. The queers are being oh-so brave, but they have nothing to fear from us, we’re the good straights. We wouldn’t want to write about uncomfy things like actually bad straight people and actual homophobia. No, that’s going too far, we wouldn’t want to do that.

And I’m just kind of... tired, that just existing is enough to be seen as brave, and that the straight authors still need to feel comfy enough in their little worlds to not go too far, and that we do ridiculous shit like pretending nobody was ever out before the Queer Main. I’m just tired.

"A world where being gay is the norm and straight is the minority" has done a lot for the gay community but not how they think it has

what if you lived in a world where being gay was the norm and straight a minority....

Why are the red people winning?

Australia has gone fully labor party (conservative) and now anyone you talk to from Australia is anti LGBTQIA+

The east Is against LGBTQIA+

America is being converted rapidly to anti LGBTQIA+

Online if your struggling with gender or masculinity or non binary or any of those things your more likely to have someone tell you to "suck it up" or "do some pushups get a 6 pack" then actually tell you about new stuff

Femboys are now seen as evil for some reason

When ever I do anything remotely against the masculine code of conduct I get people calling me slurs and telling me to kill myself or yelling haram at me

Even long time people who were supportive now have converted

And I see no future for people like myself in a world like this

I know our generate will likely see the end of the world but THIS? Why does everyone hate progress all of a sudden?

Last month there was an incident in our school where a group of boys attacked a group of gay kids and the teachers took the side of "they shouldn't flaunt their sexuality" but they weren't flaunting anything

You know about politics mako pls explain?

pessimism is a cuck's mindset. what are you, a bottom? you're just gonna sit there and SUBMIT to your perception of the tides of history? the world is probably not going to end in our lifetime, and even if it does, humanity will probably find a way to keep going through the ashes.

i don't think you truly grasp just how fucking AWFUL things used to be for people like us. you think it's bad now because conservatives are rallying super hard all of a sudden, but imagine being gay or trans back when openly admitting to either of those things could get you straight-up arrested. and those people existed just as much back then; they just had to suck it up because they were cursed to be born in a time in which open hostility to them was such a norm that they couldn't even THINK of living as their true selves. trans people throughout all of human history have had to endure incurable body dysphoria because the medicine wasn't there to help them. things are SO much better now. (and for the record, everyone back then thought the world was gonna end too; ask any old-enough american what living in the cold war was like.)

that is not to say things aren't looking scary right now. conservatives had a wake-up call and realized they're losing harder than they've ever lost before, so they're lashing out and trying to do everything they can to push us back into the dark ages. it is important to be vigilant, to vote them out, to do what you can to make sure their mind virus infects as few people as possible. but their ideology is entirely based around losing. they're literally openly and proudly anti-progress, which is self-evidently fucking stupid, and the conservative party has spent its entire existence taking L after L after L as we gain more civil rights.

they're doing some serious damage right now, a lot of peoples' lives are going to be worse for a while. but it's a downward spike in an overall upward trend. do you really think they're gonna win this time after they lost the previous 99 times? even the nazis ended up ultimately losing after they "won".

this is all from an american perspective, of course; a lot of other countries still have a long way to go. 99% of human history has been spent with minority groups not having basic human rights, and america has only just recently begun clawing its way out of that tribalism and into something actually civilized. i think countries like china and russia are gonna remain fucked for quite some time, unfortunately. but they'll probably get there too, one day. once the progress has been made, all you can do to go backwards is flail like an infant and complain about the woke mob being too compassionate towards their fellow man. not super effective at causing lasting damage.

oh also you need to either develop some keen debate skills to convert your friends or find better ones because that shit cannot be good for you

it’s kind of funny but mostly just sad that so many straight people live in this little self-made bubble where they think that gay people and trans people and just any queer people, people that aren’t like them, don’t exist in the world around them, think that the queer community is such a small minority of people that any kind of representation in media outside of the comedic relief side character that ends up dying anyway is unrealistic, is over the top, is pushing some agenda, trying to convert people into “one of us”, poisoning their children, etc. while they fail to see us as actual human beings, people who live vastly different lives from them, and we deserve to be represented in media, we deserve to have our lives seen too, because they would never say there’s too much straight representation despite 98% of all romantic plots centering around a man and a woman, they would never call it an agenda or propaganda or whatever other brainwashed label they come up with, because they see us as some kind of mentally diseased individuals that need to be fixed, that could influence their children to be like us, because having a child that turns out gay or trans is the worst possible reality for them, not sickness or death or trauma or any other number of horrible things, but finding out your child loves someone outside their norm, or identifies as someone they weren’t raised as, THAT is their nightmare scenario, WE are the monster under their beds, they fear us and so they do everything they can to act like our existence is so minuscule because that’s what they want it to be, they do not want us to exist, let me repeat that. they do not want us to exist. because it threatens to pop their safety bubble of ignorance they’ve built up around themselves, and having to to accept the reality that we are not the minority they think we are, having to come to terms with the fact that we are here and we will always be here and we will not stop fighting for our lives to be portrayed with normalcy, it scares them. and when people are scared, they do things irrationally, and don’t realize until it’s too late how many people they’ve actually harmed.

the bottom line here, is that

bashing and complaining about queer rep in media is homophobic and extremely harmful to queer people, once you look at it deeper than just the surface level. you cannot deny our lives and existence forever, and to act like having queer characters and queer plots and queer romance takes away from a story because everything isn’t about you anymore, only shows how self-centered you are that you think everything you consume has to be about you.

it is not a sin to look at us. we exist and we will always exist. look at us, don’t turn your head away, don’t close your eyes, i can feel your disgust from across the room and i don’t care, unlearn your discomfort around queer people because we are no more sinners than you, and we are not going anywhere. we have to share this earth so get used to us taking up space.

So this doesn’t have to be a feature of all danmei and bl (and in some cases it’s refreshing or adding something to the story to purposefully Not include it which i can appreciate for that), but i personally tend to appreciate when danmei does treat sexuality as somewhat significant. In the sense that like, a straight person is going to view the world a bit differently than a queer person. In terms of what is safe to share and with who, in terms of what norms in society they never questioned versus realize they don’t fit and perhaps its worth considering if some of those molds aren’t things they need to fit (or conversely things they’d like to make compatible to their life), in a lot of ways one’s sexuality somewhat affects how we navigate life.

Not Me the Series, the thai drama, I think is written from a viewpoint of these characters know they’re queer, and that means yeah they sign petitions for queer rights and marriage - and are aware life isn’t already Ideal for them and trans friends, and that intersects in other ways with how they view the law and activism and disability and other minority rights (they all have their own different viewpoints, but it does effect their lived experience and ways of relating and connecting to the wider world). Or pretty much any of my favorite bls honestly - 3 Will Be Free, a lead being bi, a lead being gay, and all 3 leads being polyamorous affect how the world they’re in views them. New show Never Let Me Go used Ben to highlight how just being out or not out effects one’s life and friendships, The Eclipse had the femme queer kids be the protestors for freedom of expression, Ayan’s character being brave about investigating is at least somewhat shaped by being out already and having already Had to be brave and love himself and believe in himself and his friends, in having role models that were queer like him he looked up to and became brave with the help of. To me, I appreciate when this kind of stuff is an influence on how the characters act because like. Me being demisexual sure doesn’t affect me much you’d think, but it effects how I understand or don’t conversations with others, media, how I view important relationships with friends in society and the lack of legal ways to help each other compared to spouses, etc. Even if in theory it should only come up when i’m dating, in reality it still shapes how i’m living in the world. so i like it being at least present in the background of characterizations. (Like? Even if they live in a perfect idealized world where there’s no homophobia, no lack of rights, like some bl, surely being different from the majority sexuality still effects them idk maybe wanting to be More Overt about their attraction so people get they’re being flirty? Something. Bad Buddy isn’t a perfect example, but it’s a servicable one I’d say, of a story that minimizes the real world effects of one’s sexuality’s in experiencing life but still shows some ways it changes how people relate to the world. Pran is secretive, not super open to admiting he’s dating someone, liking men is fine but societially its still more Daunting to admit - especially Pat given the specific ‘enemy families’ thing. Pat’s little sister Pah likes Ink but doesn’t even realize liking girls is an option until someone says it - which is true to life, plenty of people don’t realize they might be queer until they learn its even a Possible Thing. Pat has his past with Pran click into place when HE realizes he could like a guy, and probably no doubt a lot about being bi clicks into place when he realizes in retrospect. For me this is a nice middle ground when you want to play with “more idealized world” than say Moonlight Chicken’s reality, but you don’t want to make it so fantasy that it’s like the Sims games and sexuality has zero bearing on their interactions with the world. Like... not for everyone but for some people, finding out you’re gay might affect your politics and if you consider worrying about minority rights. It might affect how you consider discussing/admitting things to a doctor or boss, if you’re as open about your dating life to colleagues as they are. Sure people might have supportive circles and no issues, but somewhere down the line in the real world they might worry ‘if i cross into x place am i even safe to be me’. When the story gets SO fantastically ‘ideal’ that part of our real experience is gone. Which again - in some stories thats the point, its interesting to explore a world unlike ours. But for me its not my favorite story to sink into usually. 

(Also now that I’m thinking of it, Kabe Koji was one jdrama bl that was ‘realistic’ in a way I really liked. It handled jpop in a critical way, but gently. Mangaka industry in a critical way, but gently emotionally. The difference between out and proud mangaka and more reserved private ones like the lead, and the lead’s friend being both a bit critically overt depiction of a fujioshi but also with her heart in the right place. Akin to the kind of girl you maybe met in your teen years, or really might still meet at a yaoi doujin convention. The stalker paparazzi guy following the jpop guy, an acknowledgement that outing someone as gay can be cruel and horrifically just ‘part of the job’, again handling the issue critically but gently on one’s heart. Ending optimistically, reminding one that even in our real world with all these problems - where even the gay mangaka making yaoi for a living is dealing with them just as real for him, we can make our way and be happy and have a good life with friends, family, and loved ones.)

Priest is one of my favorite danmei writers for including that character’s sexualities do have life-wide effects in how they interact with the world (that I’ve read so far because surely there are A LOT of great writers who include this sort of thing as they’re most of the authors i’ve read so far, so there must be more). We’ve got Zhao Yunlan who’s got perfectly tolerant/accepting coworkers, is certainly confidently out when it comes to hitting on crushes or discussing his relationship life with friends (<3 same Zhao Yunlan same), but a dad who’d be disappointed in and hate him even if he Were straight, a mom who probably wanted grandkids and is realistically not perfectly-happy she might not get any but she loves her son and it doesn’t really matter. Silent Reading where... fuck every single main character’s sexuality REALLY shapes their life interactions. Tao Ran being straight is critical - so much literally just would NOT go the same if he were bi. Luo Wenzhou being gay in the police, his higher ups having ‘bad rumors’ about it as if it’s not a good thing, but his close higher ups also admiring his good work and talent and realizing they’re too fond of him to really care if he’s gay, how that does in fact affect his work life and how Good must he have been these years for potentially biased/homophobic fellow police to still promote him. Being the kind of man who even can have a best friend - and a best friend who’s very open to all of who he is without secrets. Him being less warm to women than say Zhao Yunlan, another ‘talented police chief’ who’s much more suave/smooth with all parties. Him viewing his singleness in a less guilty way then say someone who’s parents expect marriage and a family (like Tao Ran’s family does), and that affecting how he views him and Tao Ran’s similarities and thinking TR could’ve kept on like Captain Luo - but also realizing acceptingly when TR cant - he’s got a different life path and different concessions/choices he’s got to make. And Fei Du like? How he related to and understands both Tao Ran and Luo Wenzhou’s pov is affected by being bi and getting both of their povs a bit, he surrounds himself presumably by bi friends (Like Zhang Donglan) so he can be himself, he mainly flirts with women when he’s alone possibly because it’s more socially easy to do without anyone being surprised, he’s probably aware in some way he has yet another aspect of himself that’s not mainstream society and does that influence him feeling like an outsider (or that’s perhaps not what his dad envisioned of the perfect successor). It’s a trait he can relate to Luo Wenzhou over, and one of the Easiest traits he finds to relate over as he grows up (their rival crush on Tao Ran being the first easiest point they can see “eye to eye” on). In Tian Ya Ke, Wen Kexing being into men affects his personality, how Zhou Zishu is immediately sure and weary he’s being hit on, the way Wen Kexing is very overtly flirty and flamboyant and himself implies he doesn’t care or fear standing out or being unacceptable to someone in society, helps show his confidence, his propensity to enjoy things, if he wasn’t gay how different might his character be. He wouldn’t be the same. I haven’t read much of Can Ci Pin, but set in the future I can imagine sexuality (like say in Bad Buddy) has very little world-life restrictions. I have read enough to know one of the leads is bi and that’s stated at some point early, which to me implies it will still show in how it effects his interaction with the world. (Also just... as a bi person... I very much appreciate the plethora of bisexual lead characters in priest novels who are out about it. It makes me feel seen, and real, and when I was growing up biphobia was intense and everyone insisted bi people weren’t real, that I needed to ‘pick’ and I had nothing to really look to and go but i am real i’m like X. It wasn’t until i was older and found the queer community online I felt like i belonged and was seen. And it wasn’t until maybe the last 10 years I saw a lot more explicitly bisexual characters in media. So maybe someday someone grows up, like me, but never feels they don’t belong and aren’t supposed to exist. Maybe they always know bi and pan and queer people are around, just like them, and so it’s not so isolating when they figure out about themselves.)

Since I'm already thinking about James Somerton, I might add this to my musings on his videos and the take aways from his errors, lies, omissions, and plagiarism.

He's a great example of the problems that arise when you decide to categorize a minority group into good and bad members of the group instead of focusing on individual bad behaviors and just that--individual. He's also a great example of the same type of behavior the 9-1-1 stans I was talking about earlier love to revel in.

He's white, a cis dude, and gay. He acts like he's uplifting minority voices and speaking for more marginalized groups when in reality he was spreading a lot of hate and using voices of those more marginalized than himself to boost his fame and fortune. There's a lot of misogynist language in his videos. There's also a whole lot of "good gays" talk. While he doesn't go the puritanical route for describing good gays (meaning a gay person who fits into heterosexual norms and thus is less likely to upset the far right), he does still paint a picture of there only being one right way to be queer while deriding those who do fit into heterosexual norms.

Claiming the opposing stance (we're good because we're freaks and they're bad because they pass) is just another tactic that divides the community and causes strife and in-fighting which weakens the whole community and makes it easier for outside forces to oppress and harm the community.

Of all the videos that pissed me off, the one where he claims that all the good gays died in the AIDS crisis was probably the one that made me most feral with anger. I was too young to be active in the queer community during the Act Up years. I was only able to become more active in the community when I got to college in the late 90s. But I watched the news and read and tried to come to terms with being queer while living in the rural deep south (and let me tell you, finding supportive info was hell before the internet). I saw the work people were doing to fight for housing, for employment rights, for fair treatment in all walks of life. It was never just about marriage and joining the military. Honestly 20 year old me didn't think we'd ever see gay marriage legalized in all 50 states. So hearing that blatant lie was infuriating. It was a sign that not only did he not do his research, he deliberately created misinformation to try to radicalize members of the community and get them to hate other members of the community.

The other problem with his stance about the only good gays being the visibly wild and weird ones is that it ignores the realities that a lot of LGBTQUIA+ folks face. I tried hard to pass, and failed spectacularly especially in middle school where I was severely bullied for looking like a boy and being to masculine and possibly being gay. I did eventually get better at passing as a protective measure.

When I officially came out in college, my cousin thought I was brave as hell, but kind of insane. Not because it was wrong, but because it literally put my life in danger. My college was a small private liberal arts college but was still located in a very red, very conservative state and city. I ended up helping start the college's first gay-straight alliance group (and as far as I know it's still an active group on campus). People were afraid to come because they didn't want to become targets. We had our flyers torn down and some of us had our cars keyed. Thankfully I don't recall us having any violence to people just a whole lot of microaggressions on campus.

A few years after college, I joined the Peace Corps and was told point blank that the country I would be serving in was very homophobic and it would be best if I stayed closeted while there for my own safety. There are lots of people in many US states who still face the choice of being closeted or being victims of violence and for those who simply cannot pass it is a terrifying world to live in. Instead of dividing it into good and bad camps of who can pass and who cannot, it's a lot more effective if both groups stand together and work for change. We are so much stronger when we join forces and stand in solidarity. Calling out those who are afraid to come out, or who feel like they only way to live safely is to pass, isn't an effective way to create change. Just like alienating those who cannot pass or choose not to is not an effective way to create change.

Neither extreme take is fair to the other group. And these sorts of takes tend to result in a sort of "I got mine, and you can go die" mentality. We shouldn't be leaving any member to the hatred and abuse of oppressors. And for those who join our oppressors in hopes of sparing themselves...well, we should pity them because in the end they will find that once the other scapegoats have been slaughtered they will be the ones on the chopping block.

TLDR; Misinformation and framing things in a way to fracture oppressed minority groups even farther is one of the things we all need to be wary of when we're taking information in. Because in the end it only ends up hurting the entire group.

Do you know how being homosexual is considered "a lifestyle"? I am so tired of being stuffed into a box for happening to be romantically and sexually attracted to women. It feels like I and others are being Othered intentionally, even if we did nothing wrong. The only thing I do is watch EmiSue clips, read F/F fanfiction, and basically crave for anything women related because I am tired of men taking everything all the time. I am not even dating anyone, yet I am still pointed at solely for my attractions, like I am gross for not liking men.

I understand your frustration. It really shoudn't be considered a lifestyle. I think it has all to do with gender (as a heteronormative construct that is used as a tool by patriarchy to oppress women).

Gender as I see it is constructed to put women in a subordinate role and men in a dominant role. They are enforced in all aspects of society, also in straight relationships (which lead to reproduction and the enforced dominant role of the father/husband). Gender roles are "naturalized" (read: enforced/uphold) in straight relationships.

By being gay/lesbian and not participating in these straight relationships, you are viewed as a "threat" to these gendered structures.

I believe this is why lesbians and gay men are so othered and prosecuted throughout history/the world. You are seen as a gender traitor. At my high school, you would be bullied and accused as a lesbian if you performed femininity incorrectly (and if you were a feminine boy you would be called homophobic slurs). In the first half of the 20th century European sexologists considered homosexuals as sexual inverts and sometimes even as the third sex. In cultures that have "third gender roles" you see most often very feminine gay men being pushed in the third gender, so they are literal outcasts of patriarchy.

Luckily, in an increasing number of countries we have fought successfully for equal laws for LGB people (I don't know where you live of course), but societal sctructures/beliefs are hard to break down. Conservatives sometimes still see same-sex attraction as a threat to "family values" and therefore a "dangerous lifestyle".

So being gay/lesbian is associated with otherness/gender traitors. And because we are put in this specific space of otherness and try to build community together and advocate for our rights, we also get subcultures among LGB people themselves. It becomes more than just a sexual orientation.

While of course, being gay/lesbian is just being exclusively attracted to the same sex. It is a neutral scientific category. I believe if we wouldn't live in patriarchy, we wouldn't have homophobia or at least not in the same way... It would still be a minority sexual orientation, so some people might have prejudice or make jokes about it, but it wouldn't be institutionally discriminated against.

This is why I think it is important for our gay activism to state that being gay/lesbian/bisexual is just a sexual orientation, a scientific category, which is a minority but normal and healthy. It shouldn't mean anything more. And this is also why I'm opposed to queer theory, which is all about breaking norms and being proud that you are "weird/other" (which enforces the idea that being gay is weird...). Or breaking down categories and saying homosexuality/biological sex doesn't exist (which is obviously harmful for lesbians/gay men).

I may have asked this before but we're seeing more of a blurring between BL and queer genres. Do you think we'll eventually reach a point where BL just becomes queer?

My dearest you opened up a can of... worms. Erm, can of pink milk? Eh, anyway. I got ranty and sentimental. 

Will BL Get More Honestly Queer?

You mean will BL be made by queers for queers with a queer lens? Maybe one or two (stuff out of Taiwan most likely, maybe Thailand) but those will be the exceptions not the norm.

But in general, no.

That's not its market. It's still a product that has to be profitable, which means it needs a broad market share.

Now while I personally think the world is not only queerer than we expect but queerer than we CAN expect; the world, and its business practices, doesn't act that way.

I'm not sure this is entirely a bad thing though, and Imma try to explain. 

I want global normalization more than anything.

Quickly Some Background Info  

1. Statistically speaking, numbers of people who identify as queer is rising (especially in countries that have legalized gay marriage). This is not because there are more queers, this is because there is a general shift in acceptance and because it is now safer to be out in these places. But there still just aren’t that many of us. 

Part of that has to do with pop culture. But most of it it safety. 

2. We queers will still always be drastically in the minority (especially if queers continue to bifurcate, dive into tribalism, otherize, and ostracize - i.e. the gays vs the lesbians vs the bisexuals vs ace vs trans. Or force outings and self-identifications in order to participate in the culture, shit like that.) If we aren’t a cohesive group there are even fewer of us. 

3. Because we are a minority, purely queer serving recognition by the entertainment industry will always be niche (small indie and specifically queer brands). Our spending capital is too small (and too varied in taste) for most major brands and production houses. A thriving entertainment industry is a capitalistic endeavor that requires large target demographics.

Normalization

Here's the pitch. I genuinely believe that Will & Grace did more to normalize gay acceptance in the US than most other shows before or since. It came at the right time, packaged sanitize gay (and gay stereotypes) in a prime time slot to a massive family market. (I may or may not have written about this academically a time or two.) It's not a good show, it's not at all queer friendly, but it was effective. It made gay okay. 

The path to cultural acceptance is insidious. It's through misrepresentation and tokenism. It starts with kill the gays (at least the straights are crying for our suffering) and punish the queers and moves into punching down humor and romcom snarky besties. Eventually, it becomes representation. This takes years, decades. I’m not defending it. It just is. 

Yaoi and then BL is an entirely unique form of this. It has so many issues precisely because it comes without a queer lens, but slowly and surely it's being called out on this by queer folk and internally starting to check itself.

Slowly but surely it's gonna get better and better about it, while still serving its largely non-queer consumer base (see Not Me and Bad Buddy). It will never become fully queer because the watchers want the sanitized (or eroticized or fetishized) version of gay.

And I'm okay with that and here's why... 

There are only 30 countries where same-sex marriage is legal and still 69 countries that have laws that criminalize homosexuality. 

This Bit Might Make You Cry 

Because of BL, just maybe, that housewife in Texas smiles when the gay boys in front of her hold hands, instead of finding it disgusting and spitting on the street. Because she secretly watches BL when her husband is asleep.

Because places where being gay was once literally, actually, cultural taboo are become (just) homophobic and that's gonna be a fight, but at least that's fightable, where taboo is not. 

Because people pin images and make gifs of gay boys kissing in BL, and those tiny insidious things transcend firewalls. And maybe the first few times when she sees it, she winces, but maybe the sixth time she pins in to her secret board and thinks, “hey that’s actually kinda sweet.” 

Because of BL, when her kid comes out to her, maybe she remembers those horrible parents in that one BL series and how badly they handled it, and how much it hurt the child. So maybe she’s a little less harsh about how his coming out effects her status and identity. 

Because in places where BL watchers vote, and they're mostly women so they don't vote everywhere, when marriage equality comes up and no one is looking over her shoulder, she might vote yes. Because she watched fucking TharnType get married and she thought it was cute.

And that's fine.

Because we REALLY need her. Them. All of them.  

Yes, we personally, as queers, need these narratives, badly. We need the happiness that they show us. 

But we really really need the normalization they provide to non-queers.

Supporting articles of interest: 

The Development and Influence of Parasocial Relationships With Television Characters: A Longitudinal Experimental Test of Prejudice Reduction Through Parasocial Contact by Bradley J. Bond (University of San Diego, CA, USA) January 30, 2020) 

Streaming Content Influences Koreans’ Perception of Sexual Minorities by Lee Si-jin for Asian News Network, July 12, 2022. 

In Conclusion

Don’t be a shit to straights who like BL. Think of it as an opportunity to be kind and to educate. BL can open their eyes and we can turn wonder into allies. And some of you might be far too young, or feel far too safe now to remember, but holly shit do we need all the allies we can get. Especially on a global scale. 

And guess what we get to do in response to all this? 

We get to give back love.

That's a privilege.

Because they are gonna make it a hell of a lot easer for us to exist and to love with dignity.

That's our right. But it's not one most of us actually have.

BL is genuinely fighting for us. And maybe it’s warped and crippled and not truthfully queer or exactly what we want. And it probably never will get there. 

BUT IT IS FIGHTING FOR US. 

One of the guest talents in Until We Meet Again. 

(source)

do you know Chinese symbolism for homosexuality?

tw homophobia, pedophilia

Hi again, for gay men there are a couple really well known ones but I’m not sure if they were real or fabricated, because all the articles describing them always cite the same couple sources from Antiquity... I tried to verify them but the only articles that didn’t copy and paste from the same source came across as extremely homophobic, so I decided to give up. The most common and reliable one is probably 断袖 or “cut sleeve”, which I mentioned in a previous ask. I would like to use this opportunity to talk about some tangential but more important topics regarding homosexuality in China though.

As a followup to my previous ask where I said I'd look through some Ming and Qing novels to see how homosexuality was perceived at the time, the conclusion I (unfortunately) came to was that homophobia was very much alive and well in Chinese literature and society. A lot of people like to argue that gay people fared pretty well in China historically by either pointing to emperors who were or were rumored to be gay or time periods where gay sex was prevalent as a form of consumption. This is extremely shallow and also kind of Orientalist in my opinion, these arguments always go for the emperors and do not take nuance into consideration or dive into wider societal discourses on homosexuality in imperial China. If you research homosexuality in Europe by only looking at royalty, you’ll find plenty of homosexual behavior too, does that mean gay people had it very easy in Europe historically?? Not to mention that they usually don’t differentiate between dynasties, let alone centuries or decades, even though public opinion on homosexuality in China (or anywhere in the world tbh) could change very quickly. This is also sort of Orientalist, assuming “imperial China” to be a never changing entity with a never changing stance on homosexuality. Since I know nothing prior to the Ming Dynasty I’ll share some of my random findings on homosexuality and homophobia in the Ming, Qing and 20th century.

Gayness as disease

Nowadays the symbol of the cut sleeve is just a benign historical allusion but historically it seems that it was used in a negative and condemning sense, implying that people thought of homosexuality as a disease or deviation from the norm. The common phrase used for the cut sleeve is "断袖之癖", usually translated as "the passion of the cut sleeve" nowadays, but the meaning of the word 癖 here leans more toward "fetish", "obsession" or "hobby" with pathological connotations. I thought maybe this word had a different, nuanced meaning historically but it seems that it was used to describe what it means :(( The only silver lining is probably that with the progression of language it isn’t offensive anymore.

In a lot of popular novels from the Ming and Qing, homosexuality was depicted as a "perversion" and a decadent lifestyle that plagues morality, and gay characters were often either killed or straightened out by the end of the story. An example of this is the story 黄九郎 Huang Jiulang from the series 聊斋志异 Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by 蒲松龄 Pu Songling written in the 17th century. In this story, one of the protagonists was gay; he died after confessing his love to the other guy in a very fast paced bury your gays arc which somehow reminded me of the Supernatural finale, and reincarnated as a straight man because of his piety. Thanks I hate it. Pu uses the symbol of the cut sleeve to refer to the protagonist, presumably in a negative manner.

Gayness as power/status symbol

Another thing was that historically in China a lot of people confused homosexuality with pedophilia. This is a global thing, but its presence in China is often overlooked. This could be seen in the popularity of another term for homosexuality, "娈童", meaning something similar to "pederasty". I read somewhere that since the late Ming, pederasty was considered a type of tasteful consumption for high society, along with things like fashion, food, music and art. This was not equivalent to the "cut sleeve" or homosexuality as we know it nowadays, which refers to a personal sexual orientation, pederasty historically often refers to an imbalanced power dynamic where a wealthy, privileged man takes advantage of a young boy as a leisurely activity. It’s more to show off that someone in a position of privilege and wealth has the power to procure sexual objects, gender and age don’t matter much in this regard. I cannot help but cringe violently whenever someone brings up pederasty as proof of China’s historical “openness” toward gay people. Talk to me again when in this time and place you could marry someone of your sex (not a minor) and be considered a respectable couple instead of two jerks with a degenerate fetish (not saying that gay people have to marry, it’s just that the ability to do so is an important indicator of equality imo). Pedophilia and homosexuality are not one and the same good heavens.

I hypothesize that the reason why Chinese society was historically homophobic despite having no religious condemnation of homosexual individuals was the idea that having many concubines and male children was a status symbol for men. Women of marriageable age were seen more or less as commodities and male children could supposedly "continue the bloodline" 传香火 and were vessels for passing down prestige, so having them were of utmost importance to a privileged man. Being just gay or lesbian, however, meant that you didn't perform the "man strong working woman weak making babies" heteronormative family prototype, and was thus prone to criticism. When gay men didn’t have children they “couldn’t continue their bloodline” and were emasculated, when gay women didn’t have children they failed to “fulfill their duties as a woman” and were shamed.

It kind of makes sense considering how being bisexual was never a problem in comparison, especially for men. If you were a rich guy who had both male and female partners, you would still have children and concubines both male and female so nobody gives a shit. Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (reign 1505-21) was presumably bisexual and had both male and female lovers, nobody had a bone to pick with that; he famously liked to fuck around but those who criticized him did so for his debauchery instead of focusing on the gender of his partners.  This is different to homophobia in Europe where same sex attraction was considered evil and immoral in and of itself because of religious reasons, in China it was rather the other practical implications of homosexuality (not having children or a family) that attracted hate.

By the way can we just take a moment to talk about bi erasure in Chinese history. From all accounts of Emperor Zhengde I’ve read he comes across as extremely bisexual, but a lot of people try to make him a gay icon? I mean, he liked women too.

One interesting homophobic angle in ye olde China which I find kind of funny was straight women who wanted to climb the social ladder by marrying rich men talking shit about them after figuring out they were gay lmao. Historically, there were not so many work opportunities for women, so the easiest way to improve social standing was to marry a rich and powerful guy. Not saying that women didn't work, they did but their upward social mobility was restricted because they couldn't enter the imperial examination system which was how men became rich and powerful. This angle is relatively benign and kind of helps illustrate that historical Chinese homophobia was indeed fueled by classism and patriarchy.

Gayness as crime

I used to think that there were no anti-sodomy statutes in China (laws prohibiting sex between gay men), but it turns out that there was one decree in the Jiajing era (1521-67) and one in 1740, and private gay sex was not actually decriminalized until 1957. Same sex marriage is still not legal in China at time of writing. I couldn’t find detailed information on what these laws entailed or how they were enforced, but they’re enough to prove that homosexuality in China was legally punishable from the 16th century onward. On top of that, even when there was no law prohibiting private sex acts between people of the same sex, displays of gay affection such as kissing or holding hands could still be legally punished under “public indecency” or “hooliganism”, which was frequently what happened in the 20th century. 

Sometimes I try to imagine what a world would look like where being gay is the norm and straight is the minority, and it's really hard to do so because of the scorpions stinging me. Luckily several short youtube films exist on the subject and they're all soooo bad

Did Urbance Fail to Deliver on its promises?

What is one to do in a world where sex is outlawed and the genders are separated from each other? That is the driving question of Urbance, a Kickstarter animated pilot that unfortunately never took off.

There's a fatal STD called E1 that originally only transferred through hetero sex before it mutated to also affect homo sex. Don't look at me sideways if that description sounds a little silly. That's literally how the narration puts it.

A premise like this leads to tons of questions. Does E1 only activate when ejaculation happens or is it the act of sex itself? What's stopping the characters from wearing condoms? Its also not explained why the division between sexes still exists when E1 takes effect in both hetero and homo sex.

The characters rebel against this ban by going to secret nightclubs where their state-mandated trackers are disabled and take a drug known as Ndorphin which can artificially simulate sex. Some people still hunger for real sex even at the cost of their lives. It doesn't take long for the Mediators to crackdown on the party and then all hell breaks loose.

Urbance's greatest feature is its visuals. The scenery is absolutely stunning with its vivid neon details and graffiti aesthetics that harken back to Jet Set Radio and Motorcity. In fact, Hideki Naganuma is a fan of the Urbance Facebook page. The pilot also does a good job of making its hip-hop influences readily known. Steambot, the animation producer of Urbance, even got anime studio Yapiko to help its production. The cast is dominated by black people; most of whom are wearing hip-hop-styled clothing. It's an interesting example of black people being center stage in scifi animation when they hardly get represented in that genre at all. The only downside is that all of the voice actors were white even though casting POC actors should be the absolute bare minimum for diverse media.

With a successful Kickstarter and a highly acclaimed pilot, Urbance seemed destined for greatness. So what happened? Nothing. That's what happened. The creators let this IP remain dormant despite the promise of not only a full episode but also a complete series to go along with it. The only official products to be produced were an artbook that went out of print years ago and a mediocre card game on steam that plays like an old Newgrounds web browser. Who even asked for a card game? The gameplay seen in the official footage was uninspired and doesn't seem to continue the conflict in the pilot.

This problem is unfortunately common with Kickstarter campaigns. Kickstarter doesn't enforce its content creators to make good on their promises so nothing is stopping these people from running off with donations. It is honestly scrummy that creators would just build up people's hype for Urbance and refuse to deliver on it. Not helping matters is how the official steambot and urbance website got shut down with no explanation. This kind of behavior is so unprofessional and should not be tolerated.

Before we end off, let's address the criticism this show, I mean, pilot faced and the current status of Urbance. A small but vocal minority of people have alleged that Urbance is racist and LGBT phobic with very little evidence to back up their claims. I see no way how on earth this show could be perceived as racist unless you think urban street life is "problematic", which in itself is a racist mentality to have. The LGBT phobic claim arose from how the premise completely ignores how gay individuals and nonbinary people are affected by the gender divide. While it is true that this is a narrative that SHOULD discuss how LGBT members are harmed by the sex ban, it's kinda hard to address those themes with a seven-minute pilot. People acted as if it was a finished product.

Another misconception is that Urbance is an example of a persecution flip where straight people are the oppressed ones and homosexuality is the norm. Some have also called the story an allegory to the HIV/aids panic which spread mass fear concerning gay people. I think people are looking at things the wrong way and trying to make it seem like straight people are co-opting the struggles LGBT members face and making it about them. Heterosexuality isn't taboo in urbance nor do straight people face any discrimination. Sex itself is what's banned and this ban also applies to gay people. I also don't know where this being gay is the norm claim came from because separating the sexes wouldn't just magically turn people gay. Did people even watch the first minute of the pilot?

With all that said, Urbance is a story that would benefit greatly from exploring LGBT themes. What was the attitude concerning gay people before/directly after E1 mutated and how do people who don't fall into the gender binary cope with the ban? I'm especially interested in how intersex people are treated in the Urbance world. It's interesting to note that Kenz refers to himself as an ace, a slang term for asexuals. I'm not sure if the producers were aware of this because Kenz quickly shows attraction to a girl in the club.

As of January 2022, Urbance shows all signs of being a canceled project. The years of radio silence are a grim reminder of the fate of far too many crowdfunded projects. Whatever sliver of hope Urbance has comes from one of its creators, Joel Dos Reis Viegas. His most recent Instagram posts depict comic-style images of urbance. When asked by a fan about the status of the show, he replied that there were legal issues and a comic will be made to start things fresh.

Two takeaways from this: The producers should've discussed the legal issues YEARS ago instead of giving fans false hope. We have to deal with radio silence for years on end but apparently, the legal issues didn't stop them from making a thrashy card game. Second of all, I can't stay hopeful that Urbance can revive as a comic at this point. It's clear that the production team isn't good at commitment and following through with promises. The comic is still clearly in the planning stages, making the future of Urbance as for away as it ever was.