(CW: Mentions of (fictional) Rape, Incest, Pedophilia, Grooming in yaoi comics.)
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I'm aware that this is a very unusual post for me to make, but I needed to rant about it because it's been bugging me for years.
I dislike the reoccurring pattern of old protagonists in yaoi either having "getting raped" as their plot, or having a young man/teenager as their love interest instead of someone that's their age or close to it. Sometimes both of these tropes pop up in one comic and it's really aggravating. Obviously not all comics do this, but a lot of them are guilty of it.
Note that I am specifically talking about original (non-bara) yaoi comics, not the fandom ones or other gay media.
I know the phrase "don't like, don't read" exists-- but when the only options you're given is rape for dinner and incest for dessert, can you really blame the readers for getting mad about it?
Do you know how small the number of comics are with old yaoi protagonists who actually look and act their age?
Can you imagine how irritating it is to search for comic recommendations about old yaoi protagonists only to be met with a character who doesn't even look like he's above the age of 25? Or when they act so childish and immature, it takes you out of the story? How about times when you see a really handsome looking older man in a comic cover, only to witness him getting assaulted not even a few panels in to the 1st chapter with zero content warnings? How about times when you've anxiously wondered if the young man the old protagonist raised and treated like a son would turn out to be his love interest?
As someone who has experience digging through dirt and mud just to find older men in yaoi, it's already hard enough trying to find ones with my type of old men in it, but it's borderline impossible to find comics that don't feature these cursed tropes one way or another.
You might be asking, "Kat, why not just draw it?" Well here's the thing. I have been doing that for years already. And also, wanting to be an artist and wanting to be a consumer are two separate things.
Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to constantly have to draw for yourself just because you can't find a specific niche that you like? For years?
I'm not even asking for much. All I want is a middle-aged gay love story with no rape & both partners being age appropriate for each other & consenting without being forced to.
And it's outrageous that most of these comics can't even do that!
Please note that I know there's this whole other conversation in the community regarding dark-shipping and all that, but that's not my topic for today. I'm here to talk about how there's genuinely almost no comics about gay older men that's not about them getting assaulted or being (forced) into non-con/pedophilia/grooming/incest. THAT'S what I'm really upset about.
The number one big reason why I like being in fandoms so much is because these are the only spaces that exist who don't treat their gay older men like trash. And the canon media doesn't even have any confirmed gay characters most of the time! The fans just headcanon them as gay and ship them, and it works!
... Maybe I'm just looking for what I want in the wrong places… Maybe I'm the silly one for trying to look for something normal in the yaoi market considering (not all but) a lot of them are really into dark-shipping...
(Remember, these are my personal thoughts regarding this topic, and they should not be treated as objective fact.)
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