I'm one of those fans who interprets Yumichika as being openly gay. It isn't his narcissism that makes him gay. It is the mannerisms, albeit stereotypical, that he displays. When he comes back from beating Hisagi, he's swishing so uncontrollably that Zaraki tells him to quit it because its disgusting. I'm pretty sure that Yumichika ignores the order. The boy is out and proud and even his insanely powerful captain just has to deal with it and I love Yumichika all the more for it.
However, he is intriguingly portrayed in this story and of course, with Isane, woefully underrepresented Isane, as the object of his observant affections is a huge bonus.
I've known more gay and bisexual people who break, rather than follow, stereotypes, and am aware of the pain that can cause them, so I've decided that judging people based on whether they swish or not (or lumber, in the case of lesbians) is not the way I want to be treating others.
Also, one of my best friends in college was the swishiest straight guy ever, and people judged him by it all the time. I actually wrote a fictionalized version of one of his worst experiences a few months ago in Figured You Out (a Bleach fic). Poor guy. My story has a happy ending, but his didn't :(
It is safe to say that we've known a number of people who are gay. And I agree that there are those who act normal because they are normal (whatever normal means) and they just happen to be gay rather than straight, and there are gay men who embrace the flamboyant (and yes, stereotypical) behavior of being gay and they make no apologies for it.
Yumichika strikes me as the type of guy who has made enough compromises that hiding his sexuality isn't going to be one of them.
Your story is fine in the way it interprets Yumichika and I like the story. But since your intro brought up the subject, I just wanted to admit that I also don't see a problem with interpreting Yumichika as being gay because I don't see being gay or being thought of as gay (mistakenly or not) as something that should be presumed as an automatic negative. Being thought of as shallow is a negative. Being thought of as possibly gay is not.
I think you're misunderstanding me-- I don't have a problem with Yumichika being gay, and I don't consider being straight a characteristic of normalcy (whatever that is, as you said). I personally consider him, as has been said, beautisexual: if it's beautiful, he wants it. Gender is irrelevant.
I was speaking more about how, in canon, besides some arguably swishy movements or gestures on Yumi's part, there is no evidence that he's gay, bi, or straight. He's never said anything that was a clear-cut indicator of any leanings, and one has to squint pretty hard to read any sub-text into whatever he's said to other characters so far.
Thus, my curiosity about why everyone's getting a "gay" vibe off him. Since he has yet to say anything about who he's attracted to, it's all just conjecture and guesswork, and it's interesting to me that people are quick to apply a label to him based on stereotypes that they consider particularly "gay".
I apologize if I misunderstood. It is simply that there was the question ("What's up with that?") in the Note and I came clean and gave an answer on why I thought the way I did. Based on my real life experiences, Yumichika gives off a gay vibe to me.
Guesswork and conjecture holds for most of the characters. Some things will be bluntly stated. The rest is interpreted.
However, he is intriguingly portrayed in this story and of course, with Isane, woefully underrepresented Isane, as the object of his observant affections is a huge bonus.
Good job.
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Also, one of my best friends in college was the swishiest straight guy ever, and people judged him by it all the time. I actually wrote a fictionalized version of one of his worst experiences a few months ago in Figured You Out (a Bleach fic). Poor guy. My story has a happy ending, but his didn't :(
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Yumichika strikes me as the type of guy who has made enough compromises that hiding his sexuality isn't going to be one of them.
Your story is fine in the way it interprets Yumichika and I like the story. But since your intro brought up the subject, I just wanted to admit that I also don't see a problem with interpreting Yumichika as being gay because I don't see being gay or being thought of as gay (mistakenly or not) as something that should be presumed as an automatic negative. Being thought of as shallow is a negative. Being thought of as possibly gay is not.
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I was speaking more about how, in canon, besides some arguably swishy movements or gestures on Yumi's part, there is no evidence that he's gay, bi, or straight. He's never said anything that was a clear-cut indicator of any leanings, and one has to squint pretty hard to read any sub-text into whatever he's said to other characters so far.
Thus, my curiosity about why everyone's getting a "gay" vibe off him. Since he has yet to say anything about who he's attracted to, it's all just conjecture and guesswork, and it's interesting to me that people are quick to apply a label to him based on stereotypes that they consider particularly "gay".
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Guesswork and conjecture holds for most of the characters. Some things will be bluntly stated. The rest is interpreted.
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