jpny01

TBH, it looks awful. I watched it when I woke up this morning and was afraid I'd fallen back into 2015. It's directed by the guy who did Love Sick 2, so no surprise, I guess.

I know, but now he's a grown man and his last memory of "her" is as a child. I wasn't totally serious, BTW, but the author didn't really think it through. Not to mention that little kids don't fall in love (at all) and keep feeling it for 10 years with no contact. I know it's supposed to be romantic, but it's too weird.

Wow, Mork is clueless - how awkward.

Some of it might be bad hair, like Tong with his mullet,

Those are very good.

Isn't Ryo a creepy pedophile if he's in love with someone he remembers as a small child? The premise of this is ridiculous. But at least there are no engineers!

I couldn't get it to work. Although I'm starting not to care.

I couldn't get it to work. Although I'm starting not to care.

Thank you - I got the characters mixed up. I agree - we'll have to wait and see!

True, but most women watching this aslo wouldn't be upset if they were gay, so why not do it that way? Are you really going to go with the "straight women own this genre" argument? Well, the workplace is designed by and for men, so why do women keep expecting equality? Is that argument any different?

Well, I'm glad something good could come out of this experience.

I hope so too. I suppose what we're getting is better than nothing - sort of a back-door (no pun intended) introduction of m/m relations in a conservative society - but still, I don't think anyone in the audience has a problem with gay representation, which makes me feel like the productions are trying to spare the sensibilities of straight men in management and the sponsors.

I wonder - did He's Coming to Me do poorly because it paired Singto with a new partner or did it have trouble because it had an overtly gay lead character? Who was [looks both ways to make sure nobody is listening] much the taller of the two and hence, by the immutable laws of BL, the top. Although it didn't really matter since once of them was non-corporeal and, incidentally, dead.

As I said several times, BL has plenty of Bi represention as 99.9% of the male characters are technically bi. What there is almost zero of is any gay representation, except for very negative.

Of course there are bisexual men in life - I said that almost all BL characters are technically bi - but they usually identify as straight or not at all ("I'm not gay, I only like______") What I'm saying is that there are almost no BL characters that identify as gay.

Got it - I was mixed up about who was who.

Oh - thanks! I forgot about that and mixed them up.

There are lots of things that come from the West, like all of our fashion, political systems, entertainment, technology, interior decor, etc. (although modern Western decor is profoundly Japanese), and including modern conceptions of sexuality. China used to not give a rat's ass about whether or not men were getting it on with each other - homophobia is a Western import, except we're abandoning it and Asia isn't (well, it is, but more slowly). But keep in mind also that companionate marriage is a completely new - and Western - idea. Love had nothing to do with marriage until the modern era.

While what you say about ancient practices and attitudes is true, that has very little to do with modern conceptions, for better or worse - and BL has to be seen in that context. It's like saying we can ignore sexism in modern media because it was totally different 1,000 years ago.

Most people are not bi-oriented (except in college). Almost all people are almost exclusively heterosexual. If everyone was bi-oriented I would have enjoyed high school a whole lot more. I can't think of any gay men that I know that are anything less than entirely gay, although most of us that are older have had girlfriends because it was more or less required. But what I experienced isn't important - nor are any other anecdotal sources. Research data continuously and reliably shows that about 90-95% of the population is heterosexual, and the rest bi, gay, trans, etc. Except strangely people from age 18-24 of which 39% claim to be LGBTQ+, which is ridiculous.

In studies in the USA, 2-3% of people report being gay or bi - but when the question is asked "what do you think the percentage is?" the average was 25% - which means people have a perception that there are way more gay people than there really are. It's probably more that 2-3%, but it's certainly not 25%.

So I don't think labels for sexuality are fast disappearing, I think it's an artifact of a generation at an age where they're discovering who they are and breaking down gender roles, which is a good thing, but not the same as breaking down sexuality. One is a social construct, the other is simply who you are.

A lot of media is dominated by straight men, and so there is the "(straight) male gaze", which is why there are tons and tons of lipstick lesbians in SciFi and no gay men. That's also the reason why the media portrays women as you mentioned - it's all male fantasy.

BL is the female equivalent of the straight male lesbian fantasy, but it's a lot less exploitative - and the homophobia in the genre is most likely mostly the result of straight male sensibilities since I doubt many women really care if the main characters are straight or gay so long as they get together.

I'm a little confused. If we're talking about Gram, when Namo was explaining to White what happened, they showed a scene where she was crying, Gram was comforting her, he kissed her, she didn't reciprocate, Gram apologized, and Namo said "Let's pretend it didn't happen." That doesn't mean Gram is straight, but it does seem to indicate he' not gay. Or at least very confused. :)

But usually people don't try to kiss their friends' girlfriends, so it's a little strange. Many of us thought Gram was in love with Black, but it appears he's in love with Namo. It might be a misdirect, but we'll see!

Oh you're right - I forgot about those. I never watched the second series, but I'll give it a shot.

I think the main character in Cupid Coach might have been overtly gay - I can't remember if he said it or not.

Hmm - I was pretty sure he said Pam was his ex, but I'll take your word for it.