I Can Make Anything A Subject Of Academic Analysis
@fujo-academia
27 I have read so much BL manga and have analyzed it far too much so now I’m going to be annoying about that analysis on this hellsite 18+ content and dark subject matter will be on here. Don’t like it? Don’t read it!
It’s really crazy how true the statement “Anything can be about your ship if you try hard enough” is
Anyway the song “Lonely No More” by Rob Thomas is the single most Bingqiu from Binghe’s perspective song I have ever heard
Like, putting aside the obvious abandonment issues and loneliness stuff, like. The singer explicitly asks the object of his affection to open up to him the same way they would with their friends, he talks about saying anything to get them back, the fact that the entire song is just the narrator begging his lover to not leave him, Hell, THIS ENTIRE BRIDGE ALONE
“What if I gave all my life to find some way to stand beside you?” LIKE. THAT’S LBH FROM THE ABYSS ONWARDS
The best part of Mr. A’s Farm is how the groundwork for the more horrifying aspects of the story are laid so early on but were overlooked by a decent majority of the audience in favour of the reasonably attractive beastmen cast, Little A’s puppy dog behaviour (which itself I would argue was merely a sign of what was to come), and the gratuitous sex with a healthy dose of some kinks that might be considered under-utilized in manhwa (lactation, oviposition, etc)
Like. It’s apparent that there’s something fucked up going on in this place when Little A practically fixes M’s milk production issue in under an hour! But it’s not just poor farm management! This shit gets weirder!
Not to mention the concept of a human livestock farm is inherently a little bit fucked up. Most people would find some moral objection to the concept in reality, even if the fantasy can be sexy (and it, indeed, can be sexy). Yet this place is being run, and has been for some time, even with long term problems that would affect profits, such as M having issues with milking or K refusing to lay again after his eggs were taken away prior. Thus, it can be inferred that the farm must have been breaking even through some other means, which begs the question: what the hell else are they doing?
The funniest part to me about running this blog and posting my plot bunnies here is that people do enjoy them! Which is great! But unfortunately, m/m pairings only ever seem to get plot bunnies from me, which don’t lend well to being posted on AO3 as there’s no real form. No dialogue, minimal plot structure, it’s barely past an idea, really. All of my fics of decent length and complexity are for f/f ships. And while I aim to be a Yuri scholar someday, just as I am now a Yaoi scholar, promoting my f/f fics on what is explicitly a blog about Yaoi and other m/m media is. A bit antithetical to the mission of this blog lmaooooo
I think the English dub is really giving me a new appreciation for the Isekai office worker anime. I love this story very much, but it’s pretty easy to see that the series did not get much funding for the animation itself. But, the a lot of the VAs for the English dub really put their all into their performances, especially Eduardo Vildasol as Seiichirou. The snide internal comments, the sarcastic remarks, the resignation when it comes to his work, the man really got Seiichirou’s character brilliantly!
… I hope that performance comes from being a good actor and not because he’s had to suffer working a corporate job
Kabru has a skill set historically beneficial to a queen consort (big picture thinking, long term strategic thinking, ability to subtly manipulate a situation, surface level charm, determination to make things happen even without physical strength or true Hard Power as opposed to soft power that he has in droves) and with Laios’s own natural leadership qualities, tactical mind, physical strength and combat skills that could lead to Hard Power, and honest charisma they COULD be a ruling power couple
I love how often it comes up in Moshang fics/posts how Binghe would absolutely realize that Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua are madly in love with each other, and are expressing it blatantly just in different ways (demon courting vs human courting)
… and then Binghe proceeds to do not a damn thing about the situation because that mess is not his problem, thank you very much. Man has his own husband to worry about and paperwork to do as quickly as possible so he can spend every other waking moment with his husband, those two can figure their own shit out
It’s even funnier when you realize he could technically solve the issue by figuring out where some object that would have been part of a wife plot in PIDW with some like. Truth serum/sex pollen combo thing that only a confession of true and undying love can resolve is, and then ordering them to go retrieve it for some reason. Doesn’t even need to explain to them that they’ve been hitting on each other for years at this point, just send them away and they’ll either come back engaged at long last or not at all, and either way it’s not Binghe’s problem anymore
A round table on virtuous gooning and erotic realism
Danny: I’m not sure why it’s important for a person’s sexual fantasies to always align with the real or even the possible. Part of the fun of having an imagination is using it, no? I agree that sort of justification often feels protective. Like it’s easier to say “I can only get off to stories of closeted men having intense sex and feelings for one another in order to escape sexism” than “I’m a pervert.” And depending on how a person feels about this phenomenon, that’s how they’ll categorize the kind of women who participate in it. If they want to be mad about it, it’s straight women (who are therefore committing objectification, fetishization, appropriation), and if they want to defend it, it’s queer women (and therefore responding to trauma, surviving a sexist world, subverting something). But I don’t really see how having this sort of sexual fantasy is suspect if you’re straight but virtuous if you’re gay or bisexual.
What feels strangest to me about this conversation about fujoshis and slash generally – separate from the Heated Rivalry franchise, a real book series and TV show that exist in public and make money – is that it does feel like an invitation for people to just weigh in on the sexual fantasies of otherwise mostly-anonymous strangers. And I suspect part of the reason people feel so comfortable doing so with gooners and fujoshis is because their own fantasies are safely private and likely to remain so. But whose sexual fantasies would stand up well to public evaluation? “That sounds really sensible and healthy, well done.”
I think some of the derision thrown these women’s way has to do with that Lauren Berlant line: “Everyone knows what the female complaint is: women live for love, and love is the gift that keeps on taking.” They’re erotically fixated on men who don’t really exist and aren’t interested in women. Which I think is obviously the point of the appeal, rather than a refutation of it.
But you’ll then see reactions to the article along the lines of, like, “Hah! These chumps don’t even realize this obsessive interest will never be reciprocated.” But I think that’s the whole point and the pleasure! I don’t think I’ll ever be interested in this specific hockey show, but creating a vessel that can endlessly absorb your erotic obsession, devotion and despair without ever loving you back? I can certainly understand the appeal!
Max: Well, the TV never loves you back. But it never asks anything of you either. Fantasy can be superior to “the real thing” in some contexts. I’m reminded of [a quote from] Justin Keenan (a writer for the game Disco Elysium). The interviewer, Eve Padilla, asks why the player can’t make the two male leads kiss. And Keenan says, “Because the thing about desire is that it’s stronger when it’s not totally satisfied.”
The gooners know that too, don’t they? Their fantasies don’t revolve around banging loads of women. Gooning and fujoing out are both about losing yourself in an obsession with something you can’t have. The porn stars, the beautiful gay guys. And it’s not a drawback to them that they can’t have it. It’s the point.
Eli: There’s an element to this I rarely see discussed — I feel like a lot of Heated Rivalry’s viewers are in love with the core relationship. They love dissecting the actors’ micro-expressions, their little touches and reactions…it is so eminently possible and reasonable, to me, to be in love with a fictional relationship, with the dynamic between two people, with a relation you are given so much insight into. People love human behaviour! They would indulge in behavioural psychology all day if you let them! I think certain conversations about fujoshi behaviour ignore that. Hell, work on porn ignores it too. People often assume that you have to figure out a way to interpolate yourself into the situation, but maybe it can be deliriously pleasurable to see other people doing the work of being in relation to each other.
