girls who like (fictional) boys who do boys

[ladysisyphus]

A while back, I got a great comment on my 'Bless Your Heart' author's notes that went like this:
I liked the story. The issue you raised of lesbian performance and the male gaze, got me wondering about this whole genre of BL with its principally female audience (understand that I quite enjoy said genre and am not trying to criticize it). I feel

Comments

[rubynye]

I surfed here and found this an interesting essay indeed.

*makes a note*

[a_dodecahedron]

"If you're reading a sex scene where no one matches your gender and/or genital configuration, you can bypass any issues that might arise from overidentifying with a situation."

I had an "aha" moment here. Thank you!

[ladysisyphus]

You're welcome!

Looking at the sentence again, I suppose it's not guaranteed that you could bypass any issues. But it definitely skirts a fair number of them!

[akatonbo]

In some ways, BL is even better if you are a lady and you like sex as a concept, but aren't too keen on the idea of participating in it yourself (either anytime soon or ever).There are a LOT of things in this post that made me go 'yes, THIS!' but that is the yes-this-est of them all. I've learned I'm happier not having sex than dealing with a partner who wants to have sex more often than me (and I'm now in a nine-year-long queer relationship that's been intentionally nonsexual from day one), but the IDEA of sex is still interesting (and sexy!), and I like reading about it, and I do think that the distance created by both parties involved being male contributes to it working for me

[sarasusa]

Found this extremely absorbing, actually! Had a sort of "Friend speaks my mind" (to use Quakerese) response to a lot of it.

One question: does the term "fridging" refer to this tendency?

[ladysisyphus]

Yeah, though I learned it with a strong connotation of creating a female character whose sole job in the plot is to be maimed/killed in such a way that it will give the boy hero a reason to act and forward the plot.

[sarasusa]

Ah, thanks! Yup, noticed that element myself in _No. 6_ and it aggravated me (though I like the story otherwise).

[velithya]

I don't have anything to add to the conversation, but I was here and read this and thought it was very interesting!