/report!: yaoi, yaoi everywhere

[rageprufrock]

Come one, come all (no, seriously), /reporters! After several geologic eras of my incubating whatever disease killed Gwyneth Paltrow in Contagion, we're finally back to Sunday evening posting! This week mklutz and I are joined by Lianne Sentar of Sleep Is For The Weak to talk about yaoi, boys love, some of its history, some of its many questionable and delightful facets, to give the curious or the nostalgic recommendations, and then we spend some time advocating mklutz's future career in audio porn.

(Fair warning to listeners, as a natural result of the subject matter, we talk quite a bit about dubious consent and nonconsensual sex.)

Right-click here to download or click here to stream online to listen. And, as always, you can subscribe to our RSS feed here.



• Read Bukiyou na Silent here. (NC-17)

• Read Haru wo Daite Ita online here or here. (Exuberantly NC-17; attempted non-con later in the series.)

• Buy Wild Rock here.

• To purchase FAKE, go here, to buy Eerie Queerie, click this, pick up Antique Bakery here.

• mklutz's manga-ka of choice is Naono Bohra.

• To check out manga-ka Toko Kawai, click here. Specific titles of Toko Kawai: Cut (dark but satisfying); Cafe Latte Rhapsody (super sweet); In the Walnut (amazingly classy)

• Check out Tyrant Falls in Love here and Little Butterfly (by same mangaka as Tyrant and Bukiyou na Silent, super sweet) here.

• Approach Maiden Rose with caution here.

• For those ready to try Japanese Drama CDs, here's the SUPER BEST OMG English-language sharing forum and community for BL drama CDs.

And! Last but definitely note least: to look into these Tokyo Demons shenanigans, click here.

Comments

Re: Maiden Rose

[rainwalk]

I'd have to agree that the mangaka overdid it in the first volume, and I think it is a subtlety that got lost on most of the fandom/readers. I mostly stuck with it after that because I love sociopolitical dramas (+1 for Youka Nitta's Secret Diplomacy!) and if there's anything I learned from BL, it's that you have to learn to forgive, and forgive a lot. It was more something I was willing to overlook about the series, which is why I was so pleasantly surprised when it changed into an honest discussion about rape. Maiden Rose is such a hard series to recommend because of the rape though, and especially after how fetishized it is in the first volume, it seems hard to explain to people how well it's handled later, so I just wanted to come and back you up.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree about Tyrant though. You're right that a lot people do brush it off, but I actually read 6 volumes of it before I gave up on it, so I think I gave it a fair chance. I'm glad to hear the mangaka addresses it more later, but I think what really makes me uncomfortable about the series is the top's attitude. Whenever the bottom does things sometimes like defend the top from his father or express worry or how he missed him, the top automatically turns it into a romantic assumption or accuses the bottom of leading him on. I mean, it's pretty clear the bottom does have feelings for him, but the general lack of respect the top shows for him in general (like: "I don't want to have sex in my bathroom because all of my family are sleeping outside" "Too bad, we're having sex anyway) is kind of what makes me squirm. But I probably don't have much room to talk because you're right, a lot of series do completely ignore rape/consent, and one of my favourite series is Viewfinder, which probably automatically nullifies any right I have to talk...

One thing I found interesting though: I remember a while back, a friend of mine found a blog that simultaneously lambasted Hot Gimmick (as it should be) and enthusiastically endorsed Tyrant, and people throwing a fit and accusing the blogger of hypocrisy. I thought that fit in really well with the commentary about how there's an element of removal from yaoi, and (I think) MK's commentary about how she probably would've continued to read HG if it were a BL series. This show was mainly about setting the groundwork for yaoi as a genre, but if you ever come back on the show, I'd love to hear a more in-depth discussion of why fandom is more willing to forgive yaoi for all its faults, especially the social ones.