Forum - View topicINTEREST: The Yuri Show Must Go On: Yuri Fair 2018 Makes Do Despite Initial Setbacks
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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I know that the majority of the current yuri fanbase got into this stuff long after the demographics for yuri shifted away from their shoujo roots, but I've never been comfortable with the "photos of faceless girls' bare thighs" part of modern yuri fandom. I don't like to use the word "dehumanizing", because normally this imagery is just confined to drawings, but when presented in the form of photography it becomes impossible to ignore the feeling that nothing about the way most yuri is marketed these days seems even remotely intended for anyone other than straight men.
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3453 Location: Finland |
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Not really surprising but rather expected. Just think of how Bara is scarce while Yaoi is a lot more widespread... |
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Wtv
Posts: 157 |
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Those kinds of photos aren't even standard in yuri, though. Those are taken by a photograph that's specialized in that, and he's actually the reason the event was cancelled at first, to begin with. He's called Yuria and his focus isn't even yuri, but, huh, tights. He just happens to take his photos with yuri themes sometimes, but not always. https://twitter.com/yuria The photograph actually focusing on yuri photos is this one: https://twitter.com/tkhsmnr108 And I don't think it makes sense to say yuri is only marketed to straight men when most authors are still female making some really shoujo-ish kind of story. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4576 |
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They, uh, weren't kidding about the thigh photos, were they?
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capt_bunny
 Posts: 364 |
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At some time ago, it kinda was. Most of it was your typical high school yuri animes. But lately, it hasn't been. I thought it was mostly for any type of reader. Though, there is one beautiful, absolutely beautiful, GL series that I didn't think was just aimed for 'straight men' was Aoi Hana. Yeah, it took place in high school but it's well done. Shame no one ever talks about that one. Plus, I think the GL franchise has been seeing a lot more changes into your typical yuri anime/manga. They are adding in more plots, changing how the genre is usually with, and characters too. Happy Sugar Life is another GL series that has an anime coming out in the summer. I really like that one. I know it gets a LOT of backlash for the ages but it's wonderful to think just how far one is going just for that little girl. Not to mention, so what if it is just aimed at straight men? Many females have BL, teenage boys have shounen, etc, etc. Just because something is aimed at a target audience doesn't mean you can't join in because you're aren't allowed to like it. I always thought anyone could join in any series despite the target audience. Like I should be liking reverse harems due to being a biological female but I prefer more harems due to many reasons. It's not hurting anyone that men do like GL or women that like BL. Yes, it's rare i.e. a gay man making a BL. But! If you have to do your best to support them and show that anyone can make a wonderful manga/anime. Like I said, if it's not hurting anyone then it's okay. |
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I'm curious... who's the artist represented in the photo below Hachi Ito's illustrations and above Sunao Minakata's (second photo after the link to the site)?
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HannoX
Posts: 194 |
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The Aoi Hana anime is being re-released on Blu-ray July 3rd under its English title Sweet Blue Flowers. I agree that it is excellent. I have the DVD, but will upgrade to the BD. Got to support the yuri, especially when it's so good. |
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Wtv
Posts: 157 |
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You mean Kishi Torajirou? Otome no Teikoku's author. |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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I agree 100%. Looking at target audiences only reduce the real value of the work. What is the problem if Yuri are nowadays aimed for straight men audience and Yaoi is aimed for straight women audience. Audiences different form the target audience can still enjoy the anime/manga as long as the story is good. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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(I'm writing this post as a break from revising my dissertation, so please excuse me if I don't end up articulating all of this very well.) I think the problem is best summed up with an example that arose over the past few years related to the US drama series How to Get Away With Murder, a show generally marketed towards women that features a larger-than-usual number of LGBT characters in its main cast. A lot of these characters were objectively awful people, and when the show began airing, there were a fair number of critics who were concerned that gay and lesbian audiences would react negatively to "negative" depictions of homosexual characters. As it turned out, LGBT audiences loved that the characters weren't being depicted in a positive light, because they were bored of years and years of squeaky-clean gay and lesbian characters on mainstream network TV. Fans wanted to see gay and lesbian characters who were liars, cheats, and scoundrels (as long as the reasons why these characters were liars, cheats, and scoundrels wasn't tied to the characters' sexual identities). The show even went on to win a GLAAD award for Outstanding Drama Series. The lesson from all this seemed to be that people get bored when characters that they identify with are repeatedly presented in the same ways throughout a particular type of media. Unfortunately, in yuri aimed at men, lesbians end up being presented either as "pure" and "innocent", or as "predatory lesbians", because those tend to be the archetypes that men react to the most positively. It's not necessarily bad when shows do this, but even if it doesn't hurt anyone, it's frustrating how much this all obviously is designed to appeal to what straight men want to see in depictions of queer women. |
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Blanchimont
Posts: 3453 Location: Finland |
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As I and Johnny Mendes above have pointed out, that very same argument can be applied to Yaoi, which is obviously designed to appeal primarily to women. |
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Wtv
Posts: 157 |
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Also doesn't make a lot of sense when things like Citrus are aimed at women and the bigger readership for it in Japan are women (not sure about west, but west means nothing for their target audience). Yuru Yuri is aimed at men, and the "pure" thing applies to some works, but still... If you can read japanese, you'll find interviews where the Yuri Hime editor talks about how their target audience isn't any gender. Their buyers are slip almost in half with male/female ratio (it was much more female before Yuru Yuri success), but they said they didn't lose female reader, but got a lot of male ones. Nowadays they have a lot of different series that appeal to a lot of different publics. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1320 |
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Gotta go with you and Johnny on this one. Women love their yaoi. How many Yaoi are there aimed at straight men? Zero, nada, zilch. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Hmm, I think I'm going to have to walk back my negative response quite a bit, as the Okazu blog's coverage of the Fair has really highlighted how much the organizers strove to appeal to all kinds of yuri fans.
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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Yeah, thanks for pointing it out. |
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