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Nov. 4th, 2007 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tammaiyaOkay, so, I should be taking notes on infringement of trademarks, since I only have this book until 1pm tomorrow-- more on that below-- but I felt the overwhelming urge to bitch about this manwha I read the other day called Utopia of Homosexuality, because the subtle yet pervasive bigotry of it has been PREYING ON MY MIND.
Okay, so: perhaps surprisingly, I really don't think about my sexuality that much. Sometimes I suffer the requisite angst, blah blah, never going to lead a normal life, can't make myself like male friends who I care about THAT way, blah blah, except really, knowing me, I would never have done things the normal way anyway, and besides, there's only one person I've ever liked enough to do anything about it. That hasn't changed over the last 7 years, which means that by and large, the fact I'm gay is mostly irrelevant to me. I have issues to which my being a lesbian is only incidentally related, whatever.
However, when it DOES become relevant to me is when I get burningly angry-- or hey, maybe just irritated, maybe hurt, maybe frustrated-- by this society's attitude to homosexuality... or rather, this WORLD, because I'm bitching about a manwha here but usually I'm being frustrated by Western culture, so anyway.
And maybe that's not so much a me thing as just that I hate bigotry, since I get equally frustrated by race/ethnicity/culture insensitivity too.
Either way, though, the thing that frustrates me most is things like Utopia of Homosexuality, where the bigotry isn't as blatant, it's just underlying and pervasive, and that makes it so much harder to fight. Basically, it's three volumes about a lesbian and a gay guy in first year high school who are best friends. They met in a chat room called "Utopia of Homosexuality", and their friendship is so strong because of their ability to understand each other. I saw it on free manga tagged as shounen ai/shoujo ai, etc, and I thought, hey, that sounds cute, and there isn't enough shoujo ai out there, so I'll give it a try.
It was cute. But at the end of the final volume, the girl and the boy ended up dating, with an issue being made about Hyo Bin becoming manly enough for her.
Excuse me, WHAT? They're gay. I don't care if they're best friends; well, I mean, of course I do, but it doesn't WORK like that. It's not a matter of finding the right person, for god's sake. I could maybe buy it if one was straight and the other had a dude/chick exception-- MAYBE-- but both of them? Sorry, but NO. The point of their friendship was that they could be themselves with each other. It didn't matter that Hyo Bin was girly, that was just who he was. I resent the implication that, first of all, men and women can never be "just friends", and second of all, that they couldn't have a happy ending without turning heterosexual. Besides, putting all the other ridiculousness aside, why would Suk Ha WANT Hyo Bin to be more manly? She's a LESBIAN, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.
I could keep going on about this-- I really am terribly outraged, and what makes it worse is that the poster on free manga didn't see anything wrong as tagging it the way they did-- but I'm going to stop now because I've made my point. And also, I should go back to work. Urgh. Maybe it's dumb to get this pissed off at one comic, but it's just so... I get sick of heteronormativity, and there's nothing worse than when it masquerades as being gay-friendly. >(
In less ranty news, I went to the law library today and met up with Maxie to study IP together. I also ended up borrowing out a textbook on short-term overnight loan (as mentioned above), because our lectures were crap and our assigned textbook isn't much better. I now know a lot more about trademarks and confidential information than I did this morning, but since I knew virtually nothing about either of them this morning, that's not actually saying so much.
When I take breaks I've been dawdling my way through book 13 of Mirage of Blaze. Dawdling partially because I really SHOULD be studying, but mostly because it's the first book in a two book arc and I won't have book 14 until Monday at the earliest. It was kind of hilarious when Takaya was all but throwing himself at Kotarou-- who he has hypnotised himself into believing is Naoe, since he couldn't accept Naoe's death-- and being all anguished about the fact that "Naoe" apparently doesn't want to fuck him anymore while Kotarou is just totally confused about what Takaya/Kagetora/Saburou actually wants from him, because he is emotionally dense like a BRICK, but Kotarou and his ulterior motives continue to creep me the fuck out and real Naoe is like, the biggest dickhead ever. I know, I know, I shouldn't continue to be surprised by this, but he always finds NEW ways to be a dickhead. Seriously, he's been "dead" for two years, and he can't even be bothered to let Takaya know he's still alive? Not that Takaya remembers he's supposed to be dead, but I doubt Naoe knows that, and in any case, Takaya's basically broken his own sanity attaining that not-so-blissful ignorance. Even when Takaya and "Kaizaki"-- the body Naoe is currently possessing-- run into each other in person, Naoe doesn't say anything, just fucks with Takaya's head by saying and doing the same thing he did at the end of book 8 (giving him his coat and saying "the wind is cold, take care of yourself") and confusing Takaya by being more like Naoe than "Naoe" is.
SAITEI, NAOE.
Okay, so: perhaps surprisingly, I really don't think about my sexuality that much. Sometimes I suffer the requisite angst, blah blah, never going to lead a normal life, can't make myself like male friends who I care about THAT way, blah blah, except really, knowing me, I would never have done things the normal way anyway, and besides, there's only one person I've ever liked enough to do anything about it. That hasn't changed over the last 7 years, which means that by and large, the fact I'm gay is mostly irrelevant to me. I have issues to which my being a lesbian is only incidentally related, whatever.
However, when it DOES become relevant to me is when I get burningly angry-- or hey, maybe just irritated, maybe hurt, maybe frustrated-- by this society's attitude to homosexuality... or rather, this WORLD, because I'm bitching about a manwha here but usually I'm being frustrated by Western culture, so anyway.
And maybe that's not so much a me thing as just that I hate bigotry, since I get equally frustrated by race/ethnicity/culture insensitivity too.
Either way, though, the thing that frustrates me most is things like Utopia of Homosexuality, where the bigotry isn't as blatant, it's just underlying and pervasive, and that makes it so much harder to fight. Basically, it's three volumes about a lesbian and a gay guy in first year high school who are best friends. They met in a chat room called "Utopia of Homosexuality", and their friendship is so strong because of their ability to understand each other. I saw it on free manga tagged as shounen ai/shoujo ai, etc, and I thought, hey, that sounds cute, and there isn't enough shoujo ai out there, so I'll give it a try.
It was cute. But at the end of the final volume, the girl and the boy ended up dating, with an issue being made about Hyo Bin becoming manly enough for her.
Excuse me, WHAT? They're gay. I don't care if they're best friends; well, I mean, of course I do, but it doesn't WORK like that. It's not a matter of finding the right person, for god's sake. I could maybe buy it if one was straight and the other had a dude/chick exception-- MAYBE-- but both of them? Sorry, but NO. The point of their friendship was that they could be themselves with each other. It didn't matter that Hyo Bin was girly, that was just who he was. I resent the implication that, first of all, men and women can never be "just friends", and second of all, that they couldn't have a happy ending without turning heterosexual. Besides, putting all the other ridiculousness aside, why would Suk Ha WANT Hyo Bin to be more manly? She's a LESBIAN, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE.
I could keep going on about this-- I really am terribly outraged, and what makes it worse is that the poster on free manga didn't see anything wrong as tagging it the way they did-- but I'm going to stop now because I've made my point. And also, I should go back to work. Urgh. Maybe it's dumb to get this pissed off at one comic, but it's just so... I get sick of heteronormativity, and there's nothing worse than when it masquerades as being gay-friendly. >(
In less ranty news, I went to the law library today and met up with Maxie to study IP together. I also ended up borrowing out a textbook on short-term overnight loan (as mentioned above), because our lectures were crap and our assigned textbook isn't much better. I now know a lot more about trademarks and confidential information than I did this morning, but since I knew virtually nothing about either of them this morning, that's not actually saying so much.
When I take breaks I've been dawdling my way through book 13 of Mirage of Blaze. Dawdling partially because I really SHOULD be studying, but mostly because it's the first book in a two book arc and I won't have book 14 until Monday at the earliest. It was kind of hilarious when Takaya was all but throwing himself at Kotarou-- who he has hypnotised himself into believing is Naoe, since he couldn't accept Naoe's death-- and being all anguished about the fact that "Naoe" apparently doesn't want to fuck him anymore while Kotarou is just totally confused about what Takaya/Kagetora/Saburou actually wants from him, because he is emotionally dense like a BRICK, but Kotarou and his ulterior motives continue to creep me the fuck out and real Naoe is like, the biggest dickhead ever. I know, I know, I shouldn't continue to be surprised by this, but he always finds NEW ways to be a dickhead. Seriously, he's been "dead" for two years, and he can't even be bothered to let Takaya know he's still alive? Not that Takaya remembers he's supposed to be dead, but I doubt Naoe knows that, and in any case, Takaya's basically broken his own sanity attaining that not-so-blissful ignorance. Even when Takaya and "Kaizaki"-- the body Naoe is currently possessing-- run into each other in person, Naoe doesn't say anything, just fucks with Takaya's head by saying and doing the same thing he did at the end of book 8 (giving him his coat and saying "the wind is cold, take care of yourself") and confusing Takaya by being more like Naoe than "Naoe" is.
SAITEI, NAOE.
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