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

[Moonpearl]

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

That's actually kind of a murky and controversial question. There's overlap, which should be fine, but it resulted in a lot of pointless rivalry and infighting, so...

Generally spreaking, bisexual is attraction to two or more genders, where one of them is your own.

Pansexual is attraction to all genders. Due to the fighting between the bisexual and pansexual communities, I think some people have tried to develop this into "and their attraction is not based on gender/doesn't differ based on it", but... The kids can fight me, bro.

In light of that, "omnisexual" is attraction to all genders where the gender makes a difference to how you're attracted to a person. I don't feel comfortable with this label, though, and won't be forced to use it.

As for "name"-sexual, that's just a joke. It implies that that person is just really, really attracted to the named person, to the point where they don't show any interest in anyone else.

 

[Angry_Clown]

two or more genders

 

[Sabruness]

As someone who likes and prefers to read GL content that is exclusively GL-only for the main cast (protag and love interests), "Bisexual Protag" tag is one of my greatest annoyances as it turns the GL tag into bait when paired with it. I read GL because it's girl + girl (and sometimes + extra girls) and that there's no guy in the mix. If i wanted het and lez mixed together, i'd read smutty het harems where the girls go bi with the protag and other harem members.
Honestly, in my view the BL and GL genre tags should only be used when a story is exclusively BL or GL with no het involvement in the main couple and/or harem. If it's not exclusively the subject, then the subplot tag should be used instead.

i have no problem with het side couples in GL though.

 

[Friend]

Ok so I'll jump into the fray and say ... no I'm not commenting on the topic but on the overall confusion, like @FallingLeaf mentioned. In my practical exploration of "sexuality" and what others consider of such when going beyond the traditional heterosexual norm I know, there's some ... "strange" thoughts.

So, it should be no surprise ... sex games have been around. One of them a little Adobe Flash webgame I came across called Corruption of Champions. And ... as Flash came to its demise, I found someone attempting a rewrite in Java of the same game principle, something called Corruption of Kindness. Hmm similar naming ideology or what?

And in one Java enumeration, I came across a listing of what are the perceived "sexuality" types. I will add this listing to the thread so maybe too someone in the know can tell me if these are real, or not. Some of them are just out there.

Heterosexual,
Heteroflexible,
Asexual,
Queer,
Androsexual,
Gynesexual,
Pansexual,
Bisexual,
Homosexual,
Homoflexible,
Skoliosexual,

DemiHeterosexual,
DemiHeteroflexible,
DemiAsexual,
DemiQueer,
DemiAndrosexual,
DemiGynesexual,
DemiPansexual,
DemiBisexual,
DemiHomosexual,
DemiHomoflexible,
DemiSkoliosexual

In the end, the first eleven are repeated with the prefix "Demi" in front ... meaning what? They are only partly what their origins are? I dun git it.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Unrelated to the discussion but bisexual people are fucking horny lmao

 

[Discount_Blade]

Unrelated to the discussion but bisexual people are fucking horny lmao

Believe me I agree, one of my old neighbors was this 22 year old bisexual who had a 19 yo girlfriend who stayed with him most weekends, they lived apart but shacked up together on weekends idk what the circumstances were. Anyway but the guy would openly flirt with me in front of her and invite me to damn near every party in the entire complex because he knew practically everyone nearby in some form or another. He even brought up threesomes in completely unrelated conversations numerous times in front of me. Always in front of her.

His girlfriend always had this shy smile when he did these things and I would look at her like...."is he for real?". "you okay with him doing this in front of you?"

Needless to say, she was okay with it, but I wasn't because I'm hetero...and I'm not someone who can share. If you're with me, you're with me. Not Jim or Jane or David or Leyla. It finally bubbled over when he grabbed my ass while I was drunk at a party I went to that someone else invited me too. Didn't even know he was there. Never saw his girlfriend. Dude grabbed my ass, and then tried to make me sit in his lap. I'm ashamed of it now because I pretty much killed the entire vibe of the party, but I smashed my glass on his head in a rage and left. Dunno if I hurt him badly or not. I might have flipped a table over as I passed because being drunk, I stumbled into it and was just plain angry at the world.

He had a beautiful girlfriend. I mean drop dead gorgeous (to me.) The fuck else did he want with me for XDDD???

 

[BenJepheneT]

Ok so I'll jump into the fray and say ... no I'm not commenting on the topic but on the overall confusion, like @FallingLeaf mentioned. In my practical exploration of "sexuality" and what others consider of such when going beyond the traditional heterosexual norm I know, there's some ... "strange" thoughts.

So, it should be no surprise ... sex games have been around. One of them a little Adobe Flash webgame I came across called Corruption of Champions. And ... as Flash came to its demise, I found someone attempting a rewrite in Java of the same game principle, something called Corruption of Kindness. Hmm similar naming ideology or what?

And in one Java enumeration, I came across a listing of what are the perceived "sexuality" types. I will add this listing to the thread so maybe too someone in the know can tell me if these are real, or not. Some of them are just out there.

Heterosexual,
Heteroflexible,
Asexual,
Queer,
Androsexual,
Gynesexual,
Pansexual,
Bisexual,
Homosexual,
Homoflexible,
Skoliosexual,

DemiHeterosexual,
DemiHeteroflexible,
DemiAsexual,
DemiQueer,
DemiAndrosexual,
DemiGynesexual,
DemiPansexual,
DemiBisexual,
DemiHomosexual,
DemiHomoflexible,
DemiSkoliosexual

In the end, the first eleven are repeated with the prefix "Demi" in front ... meaning what? They are only partly what their origins are? I dun git it.

At this point, I've simply discarded sexuality as a whole. Or rather, the classification of it. To hell with these scientific ass terms. Just tell me what flavour of crotch you like and we good. Dick, pussy, dick with no balls, smoother than a barbie doll... whatever.

Yep I'm with you there. More than two genders???? *sigh* The fuck is wrong with people nowadays....

bruhhhh

some people aren't gonna like this

I'm not giving my opinion but people are gonna give their piece of mind on this. just prepare yourself bro.

Believe me I agree, one of my old neighbors was this 22 year old bisexual who had a 19 yo girlfriend who stayed with him most weekends, they lived apart but shacked up together on weekends idk what the circumstances were. Anyway but the guy would openly flirt with me in front of her and invite me to damn near every party in the entire complex because he knew practically everyone nearby in some form or another. He even brought up threesomes in completely unrelated conversations numerous times in front of me.

His girlfriend always had this shy smile when he did these things and I would look at her like...."is he for real?".

Needless to say, she was okay with it, but I wasn't because I'm hetero...and I'm not someone who can share. If you're with me, you're with me. Not Jim or Jane or David or Leyla. It finally bubbled over when he grabbed my ass while I was drunk at a party I went to that someone else invited me too. Didn't even know he was there. Never saw his girlfriend. Dude grabbed my ass, and then tried to make me sit in his lap. I'm ashamed of it now because I pretty much killed the entire vibe of the party, but I smashed my glass on his head in a rage and left.

He had a beautiful girlfriend. I mean drop dead gorgeous (to me.) The fuck else did he want XDDD???

nigga went Solid Snake on you, metaphorically and literally

 

[OvidLemma]

But that also filters out pure GL with bisexual protagonists.

This is technically true, but the vast majority of GL with bisexual protagonists involve some degree of het sex, too. I'm offering a practical solution, not a perfect one. A perfect one would be a non-het tag of some sort.

 

[BenJepheneT]

This is technically true, but the vast majority of GL with bisexual protagonists involve some degree of het sex, too. I'm offering a practical solution, not a perfect one. A perfect one would be a non-het tag of some sort.

i'm actually confused. i don't write GL/BL but when I do I'll try to steer clear away from any straight romance, or at least give it a passing mention.

why is this even a thing? it's like serving coffee in a milkshake store. i mean, if you make good coffee people would come back but that's not what they're there for in the first place.

 

[OvidLemma]

i'm actually confused. i don't write GL/BL but when I do I'll try to steer clear away from any straight romance, or at least give it a passing mention.

why is this even a thing? it's like serving coffee in a milkshake store. i mean, if you make good coffee people would come back but that's not what they're there for in the first place.

I'm not sure where the confusion is here. People write stories about different things. In GL stories with lesbian characters, you're unlikely to come across het romance. In GL stories with bisexual characters, you're a lot more likely to, because that's what the author wrote into the character and into the story. I dunno... maybe I'm weird, but when I read a story, I personally like a little variety. I might not be in the mood for coffee, but maybe I want a coffee milkshake, you know? Or maybe I want coffee after my milkshake. Or I just want to see what the author will do with the menu available. I guess what I'm trying to say is that both authors and readers have different tastes and make different authorial decisions for different reasons. For my money, while I'm reading GL, I don't care at all whether or not there's a het romance element to it or not. I'm more worried about the story being well-written with well-realized characters.

 

[Moonpearl]

Ok so I'll jump into the fray and say ... no I'm not commenting on the topic but on the overall confusion, like @FallingLeaf mentioned. In my practical exploration of "sexuality" and what others consider of such when going beyond the traditional heterosexual norm I know, there's some ... "strange" thoughts.

So, it should be no surprise ... sex games have been around. One of them a little Adobe Flash webgame I came across called Corruption of Champions. And ... as Flash came to its demise, I found someone attempting a rewrite in Java of the same game principle, something called Corruption of Kindness. Hmm similar naming ideology or what?

And in one Java enumeration, I came across a listing of what are the perceived "sexuality" types. I will add this listing to the thread so maybe too someone in the know can tell me if these are real, or not. Some of them are just out there.

Heterosexual,
Heteroflexible,
Asexual,
Queer,
Androsexual,
Gynesexual,
Pansexual,
Bisexual,
Homosexual,
Homoflexible,
Skoliosexual,

DemiHeterosexual,
DemiHeteroflexible,
DemiAsexual,
DemiQueer,
DemiAndrosexual,
DemiGynesexual,
DemiPansexual,
DemiBisexual,
DemiHomosexual,
DemiHomoflexible,
DemiSkoliosexual

In the end, the first eleven are repeated with the prefix "Demi" in front ... meaning what? They are only partly what their origins are? I dun git it.

You could just Google them, you know... You have all the world's knowledge at your fingertips.

Anyway, "Demi" here is probably referring to demisexual. "Demi-asexual" is redundant - Demisexual is part of the asexual spectrum.

Demisexuality means that a person feels no sexual attraction (is asexual) until they have a certain bond with someone - then they might feel it, if they can be attracted to someone. That bond might be trust. Might also be that they have to hate your guts, if they're unlucky. I think that's rarer, though.

Adding "Demi" to a sexuality would indicate what sort of people you can be attracted to.

But that list is too long for me to sit and explain here, so Google is really your friend. In fact, here is a dictionary to help: https://rainbowpedia.wikia.org/wiki/Home

 

[BenJepheneT]

Demisexuality means that a person feels no sexual attraction (is asexual) until they have a certain bond with someone - then they might feel it, if they can be attracted to someone. That bond might be trust. Might also be that they have to hate your guts, if they're unlucky. I think that's rarer, though.

Might also be that they have to hate your guts, if they're unlucky.

hate your guts

is this some reverse Stockholm Syndrome fetish I've never heard about

 

[BenJepheneT]

I'm not sure where the confusion is here. People write stories about different things. In GL stories with lesbian characters, you're unlikely to come across het romance. In GL stories with bisexual characters, you're a lot more likely to, because that's what the author wrote into the character and into the story. I dunno... maybe I'm weird, but when I read a story, I personally like a little variety. I might not be in the mood for coffee, but maybe I want a coffee milkshake, you know? Or maybe I want coffee after my milkshake. Or I just want to see what the author will do with the menu available. I guess what I'm trying to say is that both authors and readers have different tastes and make different authorial decisions for different reasons. For my money, while I'm reading GL, I don't care at all whether or not there's a het romance element to it or not. I'm more worried about the story being well-written with well-realized characters.

of course having the story well written with intricate character is a must. that's the general criteria of being a good book. and I didn't say I'm completely purging hetero people from my hypothetical GL/BL either; as I've stated, nothing more than a passing mention or, at best, a cameo. it's just that there must be a huge influx of hetero relationships taking stage in these GL/BL stories to even have this discussion sparked in the first place.
that was my confusion in the first place, and it ties back to my coffee/milkshake comparison. you opened the milkshake store to serve to a general audience, so why would you let coffee have such a commanding presence in your menu to the point where people would start pointing it out? granted, if they didn't like it, they would leave, but in this case, there's a shit ton of milkshake stores serving a ridiculous coffee-to-milkshake ratio to the point where this question would even exist.

i apologize for the autistic comparison I just can't think of a better way to get my point across

 

[Sabruness]

i think the coffee and milkshake metaphor might not be the best one. lets see if i can put it in a better way....

how would you feel if you went to an italian restaurant expecting italian food only to be find out when you get there that it's actually serving mostly chinese food despite being marketed as an italian restaurant. If you wanted chinese food, you'd go to a chinese restaurant.

it's similar with GL/BL with "bisexual protag". You come for the marketed BL or GL itself so throwing het in makes the advertising seem like bait.

 

[BenJepheneT]

it's similar with GL/BL with "bisexual protag". You come with the marketed BL or GL itself so throwing het in makes the advertising seem like bait.

why didn't i simply think of writing this, fuck

 

[OvidLemma]

i think the coffee and milkshake metaphor might not be the best one. lets see if i can put it in a better way....

how would you feel if you went to an italian restaurant expecting italian food only to be find out when you get there that it's actually serving mostly chinese food despite being marketed as an italian restaurant. If you wanted chinese food, you'd go to a chinese restaurant.

it's similar with GL/BL with "bisexual protag". You come for the marketed BL or GL itself so throwing het in makes the advertising seem like bait.

The metaphor still doesn't work. It's only bait if it's mostly Chinese food on the menu. If there are two or three niche fusion dishes, then it doesn't ruin the restaurant's billing. Now, if you're saying there are GL stories where the romance and sex is primarily het, then I agree with you completely - that's a misuse of tag. But take my recent story, Visions of Dark & Light - I've given the story a GL tag because one of the two POV protagonists is a lesbian and her budding relationship and the events that proceed from it are major components of the story. And Anise and Franyi are super cute together. However, the other POV protagonist is a straight man and his relationship is also featured. I find it somewhat ridiculous to think that the GL tag has been somewhat corrupted by this story element just because people looking for GL stories expect some idiosyncrasy of GL being the *only* relationships/romance featured in a story. To me, that would be like going to an Italian restaurant and finding that the only thing they serve is spaghetti and meatballs. Yes, it's Italian food, but it's an oddly specific idiosyncrasy that doesn't follow from the labeling of the restaurant.

 

[Discount_Blade]

Peop

At this point, I've simply discarded sexuality as a whole. Or rather, the classification of it. To hell with these scientific ass terms. Just tell me what flavour of crotch you like and we good. Dick, pussy, dick with no balls, smoother than a barbie doll... whatever.


bruhhhh

some people aren't gonna like this

I'm not giving my opinion but people are gonna give their piece of mind on this. just prepare yourself bro.


nigga went Solid Snake on you, metaphorically and literally

they have the right to "give" me their opinions and I have the right to continue to believe they are sheer lunatics living in a delusional reality that exists only in their heads and I'm not going to humor them in it because I don't have to.

They have the right to think as they do, and I have the right to consider them delusional. Lovely human rights and whatnot.

Besides, I think most of the people I've clashed with on this here already have me blocked/ignored.




And as for a response to the original post, I don't see the problem with having hetero couples in the midst of a GL story. Believe it or not, gay of ANY kind is still a minority. The majority of people are still heterosexual so having a novel where everyone is mostly gay of ANY kind isn't realistic. In a fantasy story, do as you like, but if you're trying to be even slightly realistic, everybody mostly going after the same gender isn't possible/realistic/probable.

 

[gaylolis]

i end up skipping and dropping everything with bisexual protagonist tag, no exceptions.

 

[tigerine]

Believe it or not, gay of ANY kind is still a minority. The majority of people are still heterosexual so having a novel where everyone is mostly gay of ANY kind isn't realistic. In a fantasy story, do as you like, but if you're trying to be even slightly realistic, everybody mostly going after the same gender isn't possible/realistic/probable.

 

[Moonpearl]

The metaphor still doesn't work. It's only bait if it's mostly Chinese food on the menu. If there are two or three niche fusion dishes, then it doesn't ruin the restaurant's billing. Now, if you're saying there are GL stories where the romance and sex is primarily het, then I agree with you completely - that's a misuse of tag. But take my recent story, Visions of Dark & Light - I've given the story a GL tag because one of the two POV protagonists is a lesbian and her budding relationship and the events that proceed from it are major components of the story. And Anise and Franyi are super cute together. However, the other POV protagonist is a straight man and his relationship is also featured. I find it somewhat ridiculous to think that the GL tag has been somewhat corrupted by this story element just because people looking for GL stories expect some idiosyncrasy of GL being the *only* relationships/romance featured in a story. To me, that would be like going to an Italian restaurant and finding that the only thing they serve is spaghetti and meatballs. Yes, it's Italian food, but it's an oddly specific idiosyncrasy that doesn't follow from the labeling of the restaurant.

That's not what's happening with these stories, though. This is about a large number of novels where there's only one MC and they have multiple relationships or encounters across the novel - some of those being with women, but many or most being with men.

However, it's actually the norm for the GL genre to only focus on relationships between women, so it's natural that your readers would expect that unless you tell them otherwise in the blurb.
Other couples are typically only side dishes.

GL is a genre with it's own norms and expectations, so including a lot of focus on het relationships is more like going to an Italian restaurant and finding out that they're serving mandatory haggis with every order.
Some people might be interested but, unless you hung a sign on the door telling people that ahead of time, most people who just came for the Italian food will want to push your haggis away.