Is anyone else bothered by the large amount of gl novels containing het?

[AliceHiess]

So I've always been of the opinion that girls' love novels should never contain m/f content, especially among the main cast. I mean it's not really about girls' love if there are love interests that are male. It's extremely common on this website for a story to have the "bisexual protagonist" tag paired with the girls' love genre to the point where every time I see a novel tagged girls' love I check to see if it also has the bisexual protagonist tag. Don't even get my started on the "female hormones" bullshit that comes up in gender bender girls love novels so damn much. It goes against my policy to name names but according to the reviews, there's even a novel that hadn't even included it after over 200 chapters despite being tagged as such. So slight rant aside what's your take on this?

 

[Owl]

...In my eyes, the "GL/BL/BG" tag should be correct according to the main pairing (harem excluded for now.)
It doesn't matter to me if a love interest is of another gender. It's GL as long as the main couple is two girls, even if there were men who were potential love interests.
Rather, I like it when other couples are around. It makes it feel more natural. For example, I dislike that in many BL novels, women suddenly vanish of the face of earth (even though that's not the setting) and everyone is suddenly gay, without exceptions.

 

[Saileri]

I got used to the theme of genderbend being introduced as an easy way for some girl on girl action for many novels, so I personally avoid that tag. I like to read the pure character stories without switching, I even have some hardcase anthologies on my shelf. But it's not like I hate on the idea or authors, there may be some stories which don't use it as a shortcut. But mostly, I just dislike how the MC feels for the most of the time. And I've read plenty.

 

[Andwelor]

Im more bothered by the fact that theres so few gl novels that dont include genderbender. But yeah it is a bit annoying

 

[K5Rakitan]

Is there even a genre for stories about bisexual people? I'm looking over the genres, and I don't see an LGBTQ+ genre option. If the protagonists are bisexual, I see no problem with using girls' love or boys' love since there simply isn't one for bisexual people.

 

[AliceHiess]

Is there even a genre for stories about bisexual people? I'm looking over the genres, and I don't see an LGBTQ+ genre option. If the protagonists are bisexual, I see no problem with using girls' love or boys' love since there simply isn't one for bisexual people.

Actually, there is one on this site it's just under tags. But it's true most sites don't even have it as a tag. There's also a transgender tag. To my knowledge, there aren't any other tags for LGBTQ+.

Tag: Bisexual Protagonist | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

 

[K5Rakitan]

My protagonist is heteroflexible, so there is a scene with girl-on-girl kissing, but since it's only a side thing, I definitely don't consider it enough to justify as girls' love. This mirrors my own sexuality as well. I've kissed enough women to know that I'm not bisexual. I'll kiss other women if it's clear I'm just putting on a show to please others, but it's not intrinsically enjoyable to me. Threesomes are for special occasions.

 

[Moonpearl]

I do wish it was easier to distinguish stories that just happen to have bisexual protagonists from novels that aren't going to be purely GL. That way readers wouldn't be mislead so often.

As for people using the GL genre when there's no GL... That's a definite misuse of the genre tag. I can't remember if you can report stories for dishonest tagging, though?

Actually, there is one on this site it's just under tags. But it's true most sites don't even have it as a tag. There's also a transgender tag. To my knowledge, there aren't any other tags for LGBTQ+.

Tag: Bisexual Protagonist | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

There's Pansexual protagonist, Manly gay couple, Girl's Love subplot, and Boy's Love subplot as well.

Edit: Also Straight uke, Straight seme, and Seme protagonist. Not sure how genuinely LGBT+ those can be considered, though.

 

[LiuNora]

I ummm. I kind of am writing a story that does exactly this. I added the Girl's Love tag because it featured in the story, and will end up being 'endgame', but there are at least debatably romantic het interactions as well and for now the GL is quite far off.

I dunno, I guess to me it just seemed like it contains Girl's Love so I included the tag. I didn't really think an absence of het would be required for it. Then again, I am bi myself so that might be part of why it does not matter to me. I like both, my previous story was even just wholly het. Maybe the solution would be for there to also be a ''hetero romance'' tag. Then you could include that as well if a story includes both, and people who want exclusively GL could filter those stories out?

 

[Moonpearl]

I ummm. I kind of am writing a story that does exactly this. I added the Girl's Love tag because it featured in the story, and will end up being 'endgame', but there are at least debatably romantic het interactions as well and for now the GL is quite far off.

I dunno, I guess to me it just seemed like it contains Girl's Love so I included the tag. I didn't really think an absence of het would be required for it. Then again, I am bi myself so that might be part of why it does not matter to me. I like both, my previous story was even just wholly het. Maybe the solution would be for there to also be a ''hetero romance'' tag. Then you could include that as well if a story includes both, and people who want exclusively GL could filter those stories out?

I'm pansexual, but I personally read GL to read purely about love between women and escape all the hetero stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with stories that have multiple love interests of different genders, but it's rare that I want to read them.

A Boy-Girl Romance tag would be greatly appreciated at this point, though.

 

[JayDirex]

@AliceHiess No, Because there's not exactly a heterosexual tag so when I put GL I'm just mentioning that there's GL couple in the main cast but if my MC's are a party I will have male female couples as well. So what am I not going to put the GL tag because you feel hoodwinked? Nah, fam. I'll tag it as I see fit.

 

[Moonpearl]

@AliceHiess No, Because there's not exactly a heterosexual tag so when I put GL I'm just mentioning that there's GL couple in the main cast but if my MC's are a party I will have male female couples as well. So what am I not going to put the GL tag because you feel hoodwinked? Nah, fam. I'll tag it as I see fit.

The suitability of that depends on the context. If there's a GL pairing but they're not one of the protagonists, it gets tagged with "Girl's Love Subplot" rather than the GL genre.

 

[Queenfisher]

@AliceHiess No, Because there's not exactly a heterosexual tag so when I put GL I'm just mentioning that there's GL couple in the main cast but if my MC's are a party I will have male female couples as well. So what am I not going to put the GL tag because you feel hoodwinked? Nah, fam. I'll tag it as I see fit.

Why not GL subplot tag instead? GL as one of the main tags would probably mean the genre not the plot point. Genres have to abide much more with their tropes or it might count as clickbait (?).

I have the same issue with [BL] tag. Like, how much of the romantic genre elements does a story need to warrant the tag? A lot of people might feel hoodwinked at the beginning of my book because there, it's 95% mystery-solving, but by the middle, it does go into full BL. In the end, I feel like I am either clickbaiting people into reading BL if they came for mystery or too much mystery if they came for BL...

I really wish we had a LGBTQ+ genre tag sometimes... and something like in-between the outright BL and LGBTQ+ because they both seem somewhat rigid to me.

 

[JayDirex]

actually I did do GL subplot now that I look at my tags. @Queenfisher @Moonpearl @AliceHiess

 

[Moonpearl]

Why not GL subplot tag instead? GL as one of the main tags would probably mean the genre not the plot point. Genres have to abide much more with their tropes or it might count as clickbait (?).

I have the same issue with [BL] tag. Like, how much of the romantic genre elements does a story need to warrant the tag? A lot of people might feel hoodwinked at the beginning of my book because there, it's 95% mystery-solving, but by the middle, it does go into full BL. In the end, I feel like I am either clickbaiting people into reading BL if they came for mystery or too much mystery if they came for BL...

I really wish we had a LGBTQ+ genre tag sometimes... and something like in-between the outright BL and LGBTQ+ because they both seem somewhat rigid to me.

The Founder of Diabolism, a very popular BL, is mostly about mystery and problem-solving, with a relationship that only comes to fruition at the very end. There's nothing but ship teasing and slow-burn development beforehand. However, it's held up as one of the best BL around.

 

[Queenfisher]

The Founder of Diabolism, a very popular BL, is mostly about mystery and problem-solving, with a relationship that only comes to fruition at the very end. There's nothing but ship teasing and slow-burn development beforehand. However, it's held up as one of the best BL around.

I know ^^. But one of the more important tropes it uses, as I see it -- is having the TWO main couple people directly around each other for the majority of the book in the present, lol. (Even though in the flashbacks, her MC&ML are often apart). It allows for ship-teasing and cute interactions which is a great way to use BL tropes without it being overtly romance-driven.

Now, my book... khem-khem... Like I said somewhere else -- its plot and structure are all wrong for BL because at the beginning, it isn't. It's a whydunnit with the ML being the main antagonist for the majority of the book (wrongly perceived as such). If MC & ML hang out throughout the beginning, it's in the flashbacks which is the reverse of what Mo Dao Zu Shi did.

Her way of doing it is better-fit for the reader engagement, obviously.

But thank you for comparing my novel with hers! This made my day!

 

[OvidLemma]

I don't see a problem with it - I write many stories that prominently feature GL but also have some het content. I mostly do this when there's a bisexual or pansexual protagonist so, in my mind, the solution is pretty simple: if you search for GL and filter out bisexual or pansexual tags, 90% of what you end up with will be unadulterated GL and little else. There's room for all types in the universe of fiction - and if there isn't enough of what floats your boat out there, then write it!

 

[Moonpearl]

I don't see a problem with it - I write many stories that prominently feature GL but also have some het content. I mostly do this when there's a bisexual or pansexual protagonist so, in my mind, the solution is pretty simple: if you search for GL and filter out bisexual or pansexual tags, 90% of what you end up with will be unadulterated GL and little else. There's room for all types in the universe of fiction - and if there isn't enough of what floats your boat out there, then write it!

But that also filters out pure GL with bisexual protagonists.

 

[FallingLeaf]

I'm pansexual, but I personally read GL to read purely about love between women and escape all the hetero stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with stories that have multiple love interests of different genders, but it's rare that I want to read them.

A Boy-Girl Romance tag would be greatly appreciated at this point, though.

Could you explain the difference between pansexual and bisexual? I’ve always been confused at what was the difference between them. Not counting the occasional gags were someone is literal and the character is attracted to pans. I’ve also seen “name”-sexual for when someone is attracted only to a single person no matter what their form is, but I’m not really sure if that is relevant or not

 

[TRNRLogan]

Personally if i see the GL tag and there's nothing implying a het relationship with the MC i expect them to only get with girls.