Then along came Puri-Puri Prisoner, the epitome of the gay-man-as-rapist trope. When it rose to popularity in the west, I checked the anime version and thoroughly enjoyed it…for five or so episodes. On the downside, there are plenty of non-yaoi manga that also have troublesome depictions of gay men.
Yaoi comics series#
6 by Atsuko Asano and Hinoki Kino is a stellar science-fiction series starring two men whose relationship is given the sort of respect that is often reserved for just heterosexual couples. There are also some manga with gay characters that fall under more traditional genres that aren’t defined by the characters’ sexual orientations. Bara, like yaoi, revolves around relationships between men, but its creators are queer men themselves. There are also good manga with gay characters that don’t fall into the yaoi genre. Yaoi manga like In the Walnut give me hope and remind me that the genre has potential to be a lot better than its worst examples. The manga’s back-up stories enter some uncomfortable territory, but they’re at least comparatively less troubling than the genre’s more well-known series. The series stars a couple whose adventures center around an art gallery, and their relationship is relatively healthy and wholesome throughout the majority of the volume. For example, I recently read the first volume of a series entitled In the Walnut by Toko Kawai.
I have read multiple yaoi series, by creators of various sexual orientations, that either didn’t suffer from the same terrible depictions of queer men, or that were at least more complicated. None of this is to say that all yaoi manga has these same problems. I still remember one occasion during high school where a straight acquaintance, who was an avid yaoi reader, was surprised to learn that real-life male-male relationships weren’t like the toxic, rape-filed pairings from the comics she read. After all, I personally have to deal with the consequences. One of the most common and dangerous negative stereotypes about gay men is that they are predatory to have a genre devoted to gay men reinforce those stereotypes has always rubbed me the wrong way. Aside from how inherently troubling it is for sexual assault to be portrayed as morally permissible, there’s an added layer of cultural weight to such depictions when the relationship in question is between men. Frequently, the stories end with both members of a relationship, the assaulter and the assaulted, happily together. It simply takes place without being treated as something wrong or unhealthy. What’s most troubling about all this is that the immorality of sexual assault is almost never actually addressed. These assaults tend to take place between men in romantic relationships, or who enter romantic relationships later on in their respective stories. It’s extremely common for yaoi stories, both popular and lesser-known, to feature characters who rape or otherwise commit sexual assault. Specifically, yaoi media tends to have major problems with consent. One of the most popular yaoi franchises, and one that is riddled with the genre’s most frequest faults. Unfortunately, the actual depictions of said men quickly soured me on the genre. Theoretically, the existence of an entire, relatively popular genre starring gay men should have been a great discovery for my younger self.
Sometimes those relationships are just romantic, but frequently they are sexual as well. Yaoi is a genre of manga and anime defined by its focus on male same-sex relationships. I was in late elementary or early middle school when I first discovered yaoi. Manga, though, was a different–albeit much more complicated–story. I read comic books from a young age, but in terms of other gay men, all the medium really offered me was Wiccan, Hulkling, and Northstar. To put it succinctly, I came out “pre-Glee” and almost a decade before Iceman. As few queer characters as there are today, there were even less back when I was growing up. When I’m surrounded by bigotry in society, it’s nice to see examples of people like me simply being allowed to exist. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve sought out media starring gay characters.
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