ynm

Regarding gender bender mangas...

Apr 22, 2009 17:27

...in which the characters seems permanently switched from one gender to the opposite gender, and they carry out relationships with a person from their original gender...does this make their readers yaoi/yuri fans? It's like, outside they might look like a girl/guy but on the inside they have the thinking of a guy/girl. And then they fall in love with a guy/girl, which is okay in their current gender but won't be socially acceptable in their former gender.

What exactly is the moral behind this? That homosexual relationships are ok as long as you change your gender? Because I seriously doubt if you've lived the past 16 years of your life as one gender and suddenly swap genders, you would suddenly fall for someone of your former gender if you weren't inclined to it before.

I've read Kakumei no Hi (by Zaou Taishi) and Boku to Kanojou no XXX (by Morinaga Ai) and as a yaoi fan, I'm having mixed feelings. Sure the fact that they were originally boys are good, but they're currently girls who like other boys as soon as they change their gender. Does this mean they were originally gay? And now that they're girls, its het so its fine? And what does this say about the shoujo readership? That they're secretly subconscious yaoi fans? Because most shoujo mangakas do shounen-ai subtext to cater to the yaoi crowd.

Plus, in Boku to Kanojou no XXX, the ex-guy's best friend is suddenly in love with him now that he's in a hot chick's body and acting more like a girl than its original owner. He found out about the body-swapping and is still intent on pursuing him/her. And he calls him/her by his original name when he's with him/her and for a short bit while he was sulking, he called him/her by the body's owner's name. This means that he likes his best friend for the personality? As he didn't like the body's original owner while she was all crass. But once his friend's in it, and acting all girly, he likes him/her/both. Of course, the body's original owner is now in a male's body and decided to start dating her best friend during her female days. Er, whut? So this means the entire main cast is actually homo and through a stroke of body-swapping invention luck they're all het?

And its somewhat sad that this is probably the only way I can stomach het now. If any girl protagonist acted the way the main chara does in Boku to Kanojou no XXX, I would have slapped her a long time ago. Well actually, he cries a lot. I think I would have slapped him anyways if he was a guy. Morinaga Ai, won't you change over to shounen-ai instead of borderline shoujo?

ramblings : slash fangirling

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