My issue or my opinion about BL and gender bender novel

[DragoNoid29HD]

Hey! First of all, I'm not against LGBT Community or anyone that could relate in this Discussion.

What I'm going to complain/discuss about are the popularity of the bl and genderbender genre in all novel sites. Are you guys in favor about this genres getting so popular that it's getting annoying? or is it just me? I don't really hate this genres but whenever I searched a novel with a tag of male protagonist, isekai, op mc and etc, this two genres are always the one that is popping up in search results. What do you think?

 

[Jamminrabbit]

I think you are setting filter parameters poorly. You can exclude tags.

Why would a particular genre getting popular bother you? Replace it with your favorite tag and try to logic that out.

 

[Queenfisher]

I think you are setting filter parameters poorly. You can exclude tags.

Why would a particular genre getting popular bother you? Replace it with your favorite tag and try to logic that out.

Though I think you're right and the OP needs to set their (his?) filters straight on all the sites if he doesn't want to see certain genres popping up, I believe he wants to discuss the overall trend of such novels being popular and the reasons for that. (I assume).

@the OP.

Not sure how I can help, sorry. I also want to complain about the directly opposite preferences to yours and the genres about the stuff I don't care about popping up everywhere and annoying me as well. But, really, the internet is like a supermarket of ideas. If you don't want to buy certain items in specific aisles just... don't buy them. Simple ^^.

Also, re: "is it just me?" -- no, never. Every question you are asking yourself, another person in the world has likely already asked at least once.

Spoiler: Personal reasoning and solution

But personally, if you are asking someone who writes almost exclusively in one of the genres you are annoyed by (me) -- I'd say I write them because I want new stuff and I want more interesting stuff (more challenging/more fulfilling/more diverse). And none of the literature in the world so far provides me with that. So I write my own.

Most writers have the same reasoning, --> thus, we, as online communities, end up with the excess of easily available ideas, --> each one of us is therefore bound to encounter a few of these ideas that we won't like.

The solution outside of manually filtering all the sites you frequent -- is to adapt to the new environment and its natural hazards. To develop a selective mental blindness toward stuff you dislike . Works like a charm for me ^^.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Hey, at least people tag it so you know what to avoid. Now if only they would do the same for monogamy.

 

[Milk.Milkan]

Let people like what they like. Tags/genres exist to be excluded.

 

[minacia]

It depends on what kind of reader base a site has.

A lot of authors from LGBT novel sites migrated to SH, and likewise brought their readership with them. Certain genres are popular because there are genuinely a lot of readers who want it. From the author's perspective, many of the novels on SH are derivatives of Asian light novels with a twist — and there's a strong fusion of subject matter rich in Western media (i.e. LGBT / superheroes / high fantasy) into an East Asian backbone (i.e. isekai, villainess novels).

Almost 5% of the US population self-identifies as LGBT in some fashion, and among younger folks who are overrepresented on the Internet, the rate spikes even higher to closer to 10%. In short, it's genuinely a lot more common than many people realize, and it's what people want... it wouldn't be popular if people didn't want it, in other words.

SH also has a lot of smut because it's not allowed on RR and other places.

There actually isn't that much BL on SH... at least compared to NU.

 

[Skadia]

I mean I'm super tired of isekais with generic male protagonists popping up everywhere but I just don't read them and that's it. Some of them are good, don't get me wrong, but a lot aren't and so you have to dig for them.

Similarly, some tags and stories just outright disgust me and you can't filter them out like you can for categories (looking at you, loli tag), so I just ignore them.

A filter for tags would be perfect, but people have been asking for it for a while now and it's still not there, so I'm assuming the admins aren't in favor of adding one.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Ah, let's just live and let live. People have different tastes, and I'm not a hypocrite to say that all genres are great to me.

However, nothing would be lost if we just stay quiet about our dislike for something as long as it doesn't hurt or kill us. I have friends who prefer BL and GL, while it's not my cup of tea. We get along just fine and even joke around together.

If a genre isn't to your taste, you could just use filters. If a story isn't to your liking, just put it down and move on.

Let's just get along.

 

[lnv]

Hey! First of all, I'm not against LGBT Community or anyone that could relate in this Discussion.

What I'm going to complain/discuss about are the popularity of the bl and genderbender genre in all novel sites. Are you guys in favor about this genres getting so popular that it's getting annoying? or is it just me? I don't really hate this genres but whenever I searched a novel with a tag of male protagonist, isekai, op mc and etc, this two genres are always the one that is popping up in search results. What do you think?

If you want some context, back in ancient times of NU, people used to 1 star BL novels and suppress them. Then BL god Tony decided such things will be no more, and down they came blasting away all those who dare 1 star BL novels simply cause they are BL.

Now no more suppressed, the BL simply came out of the closet and took over.

So to answer your question, the reason the BL stuff exploded so much is precisely because it was contained and now given their wings it spread. With time, that spread might slow down, but that is what you get for trying to shove things you don't like in the closet.

If it bothers you so much, then simply block the tags in your front page and search and magic, it will stop bugging you. (Though it might still haunt you in your dreams)

 

[iamaducklingwriter]

Hey! First of all, I'm not against LGBT Community or anyone that could relate in this Discussion.

What I'm going to complain/discuss about are the popularity of the bl and genderbender genre in all novel sites. Are you guys in favor about this genres getting so popular that it's getting annoying? or is it just me? I don't really hate this genres but whenever I searched a novel with a tag of male protagonist, isekai, op mc and etc, this two genres are always the one that is popping up in search results. What do you think?

I never thought that it would be a little bit annoying to others hahaha. I think its the matter of preferences. I personally love BL and I drown in them everyday. I don't know they boomed so much, I just know that I like them for the past years.

You can filter the tags though so it will be easier for you to browse your preferred genres.

 

[pyrak]

It bothered me for about two minutes... Namely because I found the filter real fast and filtered out that and anything else I would like to categorically ignore. Real problem is trying to find the good stuff in all of the rest when most of it goes unnoticed, and a large portion I do notice aren't things I want to read for more individual issues (most of which reveal themselves really early in isekai and or genderbender novels).

 

[yansusustories]

Hey, @Queenfisher, was that an intentional pun?

Though I think you're right and the OP needs to set their (his?) filters straight on all the sites if he doesn't want to see certain genres popping up, I believe he wants to discuss the overall trend of such novels being popular and the reasons for that. (I assume).

If so, thank you! This already made my day and I just got up

There actually isn't that much BL on SH... at least compared to NU.

Right, that was the first thing I wanted to say when I saw the OP. I checked this just yesterday for another thread and there are only 16 pages of BL novels on SH. On the other hand, we have 17 pages of Ecchi, 28 pages of Harem, 36 pages of LitRPG, and a whole ass 62 pages of Isekai (without any BL Isekai - I filtered that out). Gender Bender might be more of an 'issue' as it has 27 pages but that still isn't a lot compared to others. So, if anything, we should be complaining about Isekais here because those apparently got much more popular.

@DragoNoid29HD, I'm really not sure how the fuck you are searching but if you filter out BL and Gender Bender as a genre, there are still another 54 pages of Isekai stories. That is more than the number of stories in the BL and Gender Bender genres combined. How are you unable to find anything without those two genres? There's obviously plenty. I'm afraid you have a real bias here if you truly think BL is that popular on SH. It's not. Not by far. Gender Bender might be slightly more popular but it's at most in the middle range of what people like here.

Edit: Oh, right, I just remembered I was also supposed to answer the question so here we go: Even if it was true that BL and Gender Bender suddenly got so popular that they are noticeably appearing in search results, I wouldn't think it's a bad thing. On the contrary. Looking at mainstream media, 98% of the relationships shown are cishet. It's about darn time we at least get a niche online until the time I can actually walk into a bookstore and see a shelf for LGBT novels.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Edit: Oh, right, I just remembered I was also supposed to answer the question so here we go: Even if it was true that BL and Gender Bender suddenly got so popular that they are noticeably appearing in search results, I wouldn't think it's a bad thing. On the contrary. Looking at mainstream media, 98% of the relationships shown are cishet. It's about darn time we at least get a niche online until the time I can actually walk into a bookstore and see a shelf for LGBT novels.

Cishet? *googles term* So if I understand correctly, you are transhomo then? Or cishomo?

 

[Generic.Archdemon]

all novel sites

Well... perhaps you might find success by complaining about this at a site is actually happening.
Or perhaps you keep pressing "keep BL" rather than filtering it out, You might have to go level up your [Searching]

I'm really not sure how the fuck you are searching but if you filter out BL and Gender Bender as a genre, there are still another 54 pages of Isekai stories.

Yep, I have also been crunching stats.

Because On SH the weekly "popular' top 100 rankings there are only
2 BL novels
21 GL novels
24 Genderbend novels,

since some tags overlap, of the LGBT related novels that are part of the top 100 is only 31 out of 100, and that is 3 tags combined

Smut on the other hand holds 37 of the top 100. and harem 54!

Let's say I take popular top 100 of all time instead of weekly.
There are only 4 BL novels, 16 GL novels, again there are 24 Genderbend novels, By combining overlaps, they are still only 27 out of 100

Sooo... the tags that you @DragoNoid29HD hate is not really that popular here,

As a whole, the entirety of SH has around 5396 novels (more very week) and of that 1246 are LGBT (BL, GL or gender bender) related, That is 23.1% less than a quarter...

A quarter... I'd say LGBT stories are represented, not fringe, but not a majority... Personally, I don't know what percentage it should be, to be a healthy mix of different genres, but it fine isn't it?

I do think.... what exists... is a mirror of what we are as a community... it is not too much or too little,... it's just... IS...

One-quarter relates to LGBT, more than a third is into smut, And every second user you meet dabble ins some kind of harem in some way... that sorta thing.

What do you think?

So to answer... I don't find genre popularity annoying, whatever the genre is, I like to poke fun at the "popular" genres... but I don't mind its existence. The community creates its own "Popularity". It is "us" as a collective. We create it. Want more something else, write it.

As much as I hate to admit it, this community runs on harem isekai and smut. Lust, love and escapism.
*shudder*
But that's what it is.

 

[tigerine]

Cishet? *googles term* So if I understand correctly, you are transhomo then? Or cishomo?

cishet is a term for those who are cisgendered and heterosexual; people who are not LGBTQ

 

[yansusustories]

Cishet? *googles term* So if I understand correctly, you are transhomo then? Or cishomo?

What @tigerine said for the explanation. And personally, I'm cis and aro-ace.

Yep, I have also been crunching stats.

Because On SH the weekly "popular' top 100 rankings there are only
2 BL novels
21 GL novels
24 Genderbend novels,

since some tags overlap, of the LGBT related novels that are part of the top 100 is only 31 out of 100, and that is 3 tags combined

Smut on the other hand holds 37 of the top 100. and harem 54!

Let's say I take popular top 100 of all time instead of weekly.
There are only 4 BL novels, 16 GL novels, again there are 24 Genderbend novels, By combining overlaps, they are still only 27 out of 100

Sooo... the tags that you @DragoNoid29HD hate is not really that popular here,

As a whole, the entirety of SH has around 5396 novels (more very week) and of that 1246 are LGBT (BL, GL or gender bender) related, That is 23.1% less than a quarter...

Also, these are really interesting statistics. I'm actually kind surprised we have almost a quarter of LGBT+ related novels. But I guess with putting several genres together, that fits.

 

[TP0]

I use the following search filter:

Series Ranking | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

And everything is resolved, not least because we cannot do anything about the preference of others, each one reads what he wants.

 

[Allarielle]

I do sincerely wish that authors would tag 'Male Protagonist' more often. Some do, but of a lot of stories that have them don't bother, so if I filter it out, large portions of my results are still stories with male protagonists. That's annoying to me. Also while I understand the distinction between Gender Bender and Transgender is sometimes subtle, it's irritating to me when stories that clearly belong in one category get slotted into the other: a story about a cis-man becoming female vs a story about a trans-woman doing the same are entirely different things with utterly incompatible tones, but they'll often be tagged the same. Just my two gripes :)

 

[yansusustories]

I do sincerely wish that authors would tag 'Male Protagonist' more often. Some do, but of a lot of stories that have them don't bother, so if I filter it out, large portions of my results are still stories with male protagonists. That's annoying to me.

This post actually made me wonder about exactly this question. So far, I haven't tagged a single one of my stories with the 'male protagonist' tag because I thought it'd be obvious since it's all BL and I figured other tags might give more information. Would you say that every story should be tagged with the genre of the protagonist nonetheless? I actually never figured that people might filter for that but now, you have me wondering ...

 

[Queenfisher]

This post actually made me wonder about exactly this question. So far, I haven't tagged a single one of my stories with the 'male protagonist' tag because I thought it'd be obvious since it's all BL and I figured other tags might give more information. Would you say that every story should be tagged with the genre of the protagonist nonetheless? I actually never figured that people might filter for that but now, you have me wondering ...

...Not sure if I'd ever waste one of the 25 more relevant tags about the story on something so seemingly minuscule . For those who read, it's usually apparent who the MC is just by looking at the blurb.

But if we're filtering by tags, then yeah .

Still. I'd prefer a more story-relevant tag like "Calm Protag", "Ruthless Protag", "Cute Protag" than the gendered one. I'd only consider putting it in it if it's brought out of the 25-tag limit, really.