Just read through a bunch of comments below, and doing so helped me understand more fully why this show is a drag…
hi there! i understand where you’re coming from about the use of the word “comfortable” when describing this show. semantically, the word can have a similar connotation as “tolerable,” a word which, when used in relation to the gay community, has historically been less about respect and more to do with disregard, to put it mildly. society at large has expected the gay community to keep their sexuality secret (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, for example). i do respect your interpretation here that this show is trading an accurate representation of gayness for a palatable version of gay representation according to what The Straights find “comfortable” or “tolerable,” although i personally disagree with it. i don’t think this show is trying to portray “tolerable” gayness totally unrepresentative of real gay people’s experiences.
here’s where i’m having trouble understanding your rationale: when someone “misconstrues” your words from “teen girls who love to watch two boys pretend to be homo…” into ALL teen girls, you take issue with that. you later continue by making claims about “REAL high school boys” as though you’re the arbiter of ALL high school boys’ romantic and sexual desires. (i do see afterwards where you’ve narrowed your scope to “the vast majority.” however, i would like to point out that being part of a minority doesn’t make one’s personal experiences invalid or insignificant, and that that shouldn’t bar storytellers from exploring those types of experiences in shows like this. it then falls on the viewer to decide whether they’re interested in watching or not).
here’s one of your replies from this thread: “Are you suggesting your, or any other one person’s, experience constitutes the entirety of “reality” for gay people?”
i haven’t taken the time to read through every comment on this page, so i don’t know the extent of your feelings on the matter, but it seems like you understand not every gay person has the same experiences.
let’s do some introspection for a moment. you and i are two different people. we have what are probably very different life experiences, which depend on our age, gender, nationality, etc. To narrow that even further, our romantic and sexual experiences in our adolescence were probably quite different as well. now— we’re just two people. you and i each have our own unique feelings/experiences/etc. Well… so do the other 8 billion people on this earth. it’s not up to you or me or anyone else to say what someone is “supposed” to feel or how they’re “supposed” to act. 8 billion people are going to have individual feelings when put into the same scenario. this drama is exploring a minute fraction of a fraction out of 8 billion. it’s not possible for the characters’ feelings to perfectly map onto every living gay person. maybe you don’t see yourself or the majority of gay people in this show---that doesn’t negate the fact that some do.
i encourage you to not limit your perspective to your own personal echo chamber. as with anything we disagree/take issue with, it can be beneficial to delve deeper into the reasons /why/ people like/believe/say/feel/etc. what they do. try considering why this type of soft, fluffy show might appeal to someone. personally, i’m really enjoying it as a low-stakes study of learning how to love and be loved, both as a friend and a romantic interest in hioki’s case. i’m not saying you HAVE to like this show. my suggestion is simply to open your mind to why others do. for further self-consideration: why does this show and others like it bother you? is it the content, or the alleged “fetishistic” teen girls who consume it?
here’s where i’m having trouble understanding your rationale: when someone “misconstrues” your words from “teen girls who love to watch two boys pretend to be homo…” into ALL teen girls, you take issue with that. you later continue by making claims about “REAL high school boys” as though you’re the arbiter of ALL high school boys’ romantic and sexual desires. (i do see afterwards where you’ve narrowed your scope to “the vast majority.” however, i would like to point out that being part of a minority doesn’t make one’s personal experiences invalid or insignificant, and that that shouldn’t bar storytellers from exploring those types of experiences in shows like this. it then falls on the viewer to decide whether they’re interested in watching or not).
here’s one of your replies from this thread: “Are you suggesting your, or any other one person’s, experience constitutes the entirety of “reality” for gay people?”
i haven’t taken the time to read through every comment on this page, so i don’t know the extent of your feelings on the matter, but it seems like you understand not every gay person has the same experiences.
let’s do some introspection for a moment. you and i are two different people. we have what are probably very different life experiences, which depend on our age, gender, nationality, etc. To narrow that even further, our romantic and sexual experiences in our adolescence were probably quite different as well. now— we’re just two people. you and i each have our own unique feelings/experiences/etc. Well… so do the other 8 billion people on this earth. it’s not up to you or me or anyone else to say what someone is “supposed” to feel or how they’re “supposed” to act. 8 billion people are going to have individual feelings when put into the same scenario. this drama is exploring a minute fraction of a fraction out of 8 billion. it’s not possible for the characters’ feelings to perfectly map onto every living gay person. maybe you don’t see yourself or the majority of gay people in this show---that doesn’t negate the fact that some do.
i encourage you to not limit your perspective to your own personal echo chamber. as with anything we disagree/take issue with, it can be beneficial to delve deeper into the reasons /why/ people like/believe/say/feel/etc. what they do. try considering why this type of soft, fluffy show might appeal to someone. personally, i’m really enjoying it as a low-stakes study of learning how to love and be loved, both as a friend and a romantic interest in hioki’s case. i’m not saying you HAVE to like this show. my suggestion is simply to open your mind to why others do. for further self-consideration: why does this show and others like it bother you? is it the content, or the alleged “fetishistic” teen girls who consume it?