Forum - View topicSo many LBGT characters in manga because Mangakas are liberal?
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Samuknight
Posts: 35 |
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Japan has a reputation worldwide of being a dreamland for LBGT people thanks to the so many homosexual and bisexual characters are featured and I cannot tell you how many Western otakus or LBGT folks want to move to Japan because they think their homosexuality will be accepted.
Of course this isn't the case as in reality homosexual people struggle in Japan and while its slowly being accepted and NOWHERE as terrible as North America and Europe, LBGT folks do suffer mockery,ostracization, and discrimination to a degree (albeit nowhere as bad as say rural Canada and the Bible Belt). So many otakus who are aware of Japanese culture often speculate why anime/manga has so much LBGT themes in it. A common theory is that its because its the niche "otaku targeted" anime that tends to be imported by distributors in the West. However I have a simpler theory. I remember when I was reading Tokyo Babylon, Hokuto was discussing to a Chinese girl about how flawed Japanese society is with its xenophobia, sexism, and illegal (and abused) aliens. Anyone who follows the manga's author, Clamp, knows about how there are so many LBGT characters in their other mangas. In fact CLAMP so far has never settled down and married because they felt it would be too restrictive I remember in commentary after chapters in one of their mangas. So its obvious Clamp is liberal in their social views. In fact some members even admitted so that they were politically liberal in a magazine interview I read years ago and they tended to vote for liberal candidates, parties, and candidates in election. Another example is Riyoko Ikeda who features LBGT romances in several of her works. In fact her first work, Rose of Versailles, was even rather subtle in how a supporting member portrayed her crush on the heroine as though Ikeda was being carefult to avoid being blatantly obvious about LBGT themes. In fact Rose of Versailles was Ikeda's FIRST breakout hit and it literally REVOLUTIONIZED Japanese media and gender views as well as set up anime cliches about women being as strong as men. BECAUSE it featured a HEROINE who defied gender roles and was JUST as STRONG as MEN were (not just in skills, intelligence, and abilities, but she could overpower even men working in manual labor and violent occupation like police and farming) Along with the fact she overtook Marie Antoinette (who was supposed to be the initial protagonist) in popularity, the reason Ikeda decided to make Oscar (protagonist) the female lead was because she felt Japanese culture was so ingrained with gender roles and had such immense sexism that she wanted to comment on social norms. Through Oscar, she wanted to show women were just as capable as men (and she succeeded as the manga REVOLUTIONIZED Japanese media and even impacted social issues) In later manga Ikeda went more obvious, even featuring a female protagonist openly falling in love with other women. Naoko Takeuchi, author of Sailor Moon, also felt dissatisfaction with how women were viewed in Japanese society and this was a vocal point commented on in her manga. She featured perhaps the most famous LBG couple in anime/manga Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune (though like Ikeda she avoided open gestures like holding hands and kissing in the lips). So I can't help but wonder with several of the most successful and famous mangakas being so liberal in their personal views, if anime/manga had so much LBGT elements because the industry back in Japan tend to attract the liberal segments of Japanese society? Is there any truth to my observations and theories I developed out of it? |
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Tamaria
 Posts: 1512 Location: De Achterhoek |
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I think you have to separate 'fantasy gay' characters from actual gay characters, as there is a big difference to what is acceptable in fiction and what is accepted in real life.
For instance, most of the BL manga out there are pure fantasy. They're homoerotic stories written to please straight female (and some male) readers. They feature characters that say stuff like 'I don't like men, I like you' and if it's a large cast, don't be surprised if practically everyone is gay for eachother and the fictional world is totally okay with that. It's not about liberal ideas and ideals, it's about hot men doing hot things with eachother. And society doesn't mind, because it's fiction. Being gay or transgender is still frowned upon in most of Japanese society (though it's starting to be more acceptable), because it deviates from the norm. Parents expect their childeren to get married produce grandchildren, and they feel like gays can't have that future. Society expects it. As a result, the LGBT is much like a hidden subculture. I reread Not Love but Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy recently, and in that manga popular BL author Fumi Yoshinaga practically admits she knows very few gay men in reallife despite earning her money by drawing men having sex with eachother. She does terrible about it, though. I'm sure there are mangaka who do have progressive views towards LGBT issues, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of them are much more interested in fantasies than in reality. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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@Tamaria Pretty much how I feel. As a teenager coming into my own as both an anime fan and a gay person, I thought at first that anime just seemed like a real inviting outlet. But as I grew older I very quickly noticed something was really "off" about LBGT portrayals.
And now that I'm hitting 30 I just look at it all and it just makes me frustrated and kind of sad...and actually kind of weirded out. Yaoi/BL/whatever is 99% targeted towards straight women and I guess in a way...that's fine? Women deserve their own taboo crap to get their jollies to as much as anyone. But the fact that there's this whole...culture, a very rabid culture with whole doujin events and circles devoted to them. That kind of confuses me. There's this big THING about something that's a part of me, but it's not really FOR me. The portrayals seem almost alien to me at times. The uke/seme thing is the farthest thing from reality in contemporary gay culture (outside of porn, or course), and just seems like a way to enforce gender roles because they don't know what actual gay sex is like. I can also say a lot of stuff about subtext heavy shows, like every other sports show coming out now, but at this point in my life I'm like "why should I bother my time with subtext when my own life is really text?" Just self-identify as gay or make-out on camera, or just get out of my way! Probably doesn't help that I don't find animated characters sexually attractive at all. I'd just like a story I can kind of sort of identify with. I'm rambling, so I'll stop for now. This is stuff that's been sloshing around in my head for a LONG time. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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It's been a theory of mine that Japanese manga creators are perhaps a bit more liberal and progressive than people in the mainstream Japanese culture. Of course, that's probably not true of all of them but it seems that way. And yes, it's true the prevalence of BL/yaoi is not an indicator of acceptance.
As for the stories themselves, they are meant to be erotic fantasies, not a reflection of real life. However, I think nowadays there are some BL/yaoi that try to be a bit more realistic and in some cases, address real life issues. |
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