shaolina replied to your post: My Gripe with Yaoi
See, my first problem with yaoi is that, in my experience, it has a lot of sexual violence. Every random yaoi I’ve read has had the “Rape is love” trope and made ok because of it. The sheer amount of it, and what that says about it, irks me.
This is something that I think permeates a lot of Japanese manga/anime/etc. tho - though it is highly prevalent in yaoi. The trope turns rape into a sexual fantasy and I have seen a LOT of people misguided about rape as a whole because of this. They don’t understand how rape is bad, and actually can effect and hurt people irl because the majourity of their exposure to it - in yaoi/hentai/etc. - is very fantasized.
pretty-grimm-ones-too replied to your post: My Gripe with Yaoi
from what a friend has told me, it’s actually a reflection of relationships in japan
I wouldn’t say this is a reflection of actual relationships in Japan but more what the culture sees as sexual and attractive. Ultimately there is a very strong focus on the feminine - you see many mangas with a female character dressed as male which are usually romance. You also see male characters frequently crossdressing as females as well as Visual Kei and JRock bands which include a large amount of crossdressing.
It is very culturally based, I would agree. The problem is it’s still hugely harmful to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole and the idea of “uke and seme” permeates into western fandom as well.
