free philosophy – on yuri and man-hating
Posted on | April 17, 2009 | 5 Comments |
| This is the only way in which men are allowed into this relationship!
Yay, another midweek post! It’s time for some more free philosophy…
I had a revelation this week.
I’ve spent a lot of time commenting on the different facets of the yuri genre and why I think that it appeals to people – especially men and loser fanboys like myself. However, I’ve never really explored why I myself came to like yuri, since it was in no way a mere graduation from the watching of lesbian pornography and the typical flesbian trash that plagues a teenage boy’s existance.
This week, while reading some new manga (namely To aru kagaku no choudenjibou), I finally realised the reason why I prefer yuri relationships over their usual counterparts…
Yuri keeps girls pure.
Now please let me qualify this seemingly controversial statement. I can already hear people heckling in the wings “If you’re talking purity, you should meet some of the lesbians I know!” Get ready for the logic train…
1. The 2D phenomenon
Everyone knows that otaku are dysfunctional people. I mean, they lust after two-dimensional girls more than three-dimensional ones. Obviously you’re much more of a man fapping over some American trash like “Big Tits Grrls Fuck a Gazillion Black Dudes At The Same Time 14” than you are looking at characters that don’t even exist. I mean, there’s got to be an outside possibility that you, some 14 year old acne-ridden twerp from Grimsby may later go on to meet said Big Tits Grrls and proceed to have hot sexual intercourse with them whereas that otaku’s chances are zero.
But are they really that dysfunctional?
Well, probably. But my point is this – Fictional characters are desirable purely because of their very nature. By being fictional, they can be to all means and purposes – perfect. If you like slender yet aggressive bookish types who like to let their armpit hair grow long, I’m sure there’s a mangaka somewhere that would draw you one. In short, anime girls don’t generally suffer from those annoying things like realistic personalities. Well, not if you don’t want them to of course…
2. On hating men
So lets take a look at the typical male protagonist. It’s not hard, they don’t come in many shapes or colours. Most of them either target the audience (shy/useless/perverted guy enters some place and becomes awesome type) or are just out to be awesome (generally awesome and cool hero type).
I think everyone who reads this blog knows I have a huge thing about male protagonists, as I think they are by and large either lame or slimy. Therefore, I accordingly have a thing about these fictitious men having teh sexxors with the aforementioned idealised fictitious girls.
In many cases, I think it demeans their “perfect” status. Silly huh?
| Li Syaoran – the archetypal loser-put-there-to-fall-for-female-lead character
Crossing over to real life, how does this affect my attitudes to heterosexual and homosexual relationships? The answer – not very much.
I quite like to watch a good lesbian storyline as much as the next man, but I don’t shy away from a good heterosexual love story. And on occasion, I have been known to say that regular porn is fine in small doses.
So why the difference?
Here’s my hypotheses:
Rape: If you want to demean girls, there’s nothing better than a good old rape doujinshi. As I’ve explored before, the pre-ponderance to rape in Japanese pornography (both in 2D and Real Life, incidentally), is driven by the male-centricity of both the Japanese culture and also the Doujinshi industry.
If we look carefully at the material, we find common themes even in non-rape stories - mainly of girls losing themselves because the men are “too good” or girls “not being able to help” throwing themselves on their boyfriends in public places – so on and so forth.
In contrast, there is a much heavier woman-centricity in Western porn. Although it is still an industry run by men for men, there is a definite feeling that actually the actresses run the show. Not only do they get paid more, but they are in “control”, visibly “letting” men have their way with them.
Stereotype: Going back to male protagonists, I shall add another purpose to their being (apart from being the audience “avatar”), and that is to have the female lead fall for them. Note which way round I put that, since it is a lot rarer for the protagonist to fall for the girl rather than this way round.
I guess my main objection to this stock storyline that plagues around 80% of all productions is that there is a certain degree of force driving two characters together who should otherwise be wrong for each other. Even though effort is made to try and surround this with a storyline, it is obvious that the female lead is there purely to fall for the protagonist. Otherwise, you could have just put another guy in her place, couldn’t you…
And that very existence is demeaning in itself. Combine with this the probability of being cock-whipped by your prospective hubby when you finally get together and life’s not looking good for your typical fictional female.
And so…
So I guess that’s enough man hating for this week. It’s not that I hate men. Far from it, I think certain parts of them are great ^^;; (c.f. Yuribou-Scans). And I’m not suggesting that men are dysfunctional and incapable of having an appropriate relationship with a girl. I’m just saying 1) that protagonists are lame and 2) The only people who are worthy of having sex with idealised women are other idealised women.
For great justice.
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April 18th, 2009 @ 3:45 am
“The only people who are worthy of having sex with idealised women are other idealised women.”
Pure Win.
April 18th, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
“Rape: If you want to demean girls, there’s nothing better than a good old rape doujinshi”
Indeed, haha you are correct ^_^
April 20th, 2009 @ 11:27 pm
Oh yes. I agree. I want all the purity for myself, too.
April 21st, 2009 @ 6:34 am
A big reasons I prefer yuri material is also because of the lame male leads.
“Most of them either target the audience (shy/useless/perverted guy enters some place and becomes awesome type).” The exact reason why I hate many anime/harem and would much prefer yuri.
Agree completely with the post.
April 22nd, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
“the male-centricity of [...] the Doujinshi industry.”
wut?