Why do you like BL?

[SailusGebel]

Obviously, this question is directed to BL lovers as I want to understand a few things. A short notice, I dislike BL. It's not to the point of hating it, but there are a few reasons which I won't disclose that make me dislike the genre. As for my experience with BL, I browsed through a few mangas, and that's it.

Now to the question itself and what I want to discuss. What is different about BL and hetero novels\manga? What does BL give you, which hetero can't, and why did you choose BL? Yeah, there is an obvious difference which I understand. But I'm talking about something else. The genre name contains the word love, and love means that such novels\manga and so on are romance-heavy. I know that this isn't necessarily true, but firstly, let's talk about what's so different between a hetero romance and BL romance. As I understand this, the only real difference is the fact that society frowns, or whatever other word you want to use, on BL relationships which adds more drama. My problem with this comes from the fact that it soon becomes boring to read about the same thing over and over again. Btw, I'm not saying that reading countless hetero harem stories that are all the same yet from different authors is better. And if you take out that drama, there is another question. Why did you choose BL romance instead of hetero romance? In my understanding, they become the same without that drama. Maybe it's couple dynamics? But are there no similar couple dynamics in hetero novels\manga?

About novels\manga that aren't romance-heavy, the same question applies. Why did you pick it over hetero? Because if you exclude the possibility of additional drama I mentioned above, literally nothing makes BL distinct from my understanding. The only difference being instead of a girl-boy, we have boy-boy couples. Which once again makes me ask a question, what is so attractive about BL, and why didn't you become a fan of GL?

Please feel free to correct me. As I mentioned above, I don't have a lot of experience with BL. Heck, perhaps all of this is my misconception, and you are still reading hetero with BL being an expansion?

 

[Squirrel]

I have read both hetero and bl novels and manhwas,mangas and etc. Actually I came to understand that for me only, I like the thing- power couple. Most of the heteros have weak and Moe females,what they often do is healing and loving. There are also some BLs like that. So I try to skip them. Actually it's like a personal preference. But for me this power couple thing that both the MC and ML have the equality is almost a must. And as I said before this equality is more showed in BLs than heteros. So I prefer them over heteros.
That's all my opinion.

 

[BlackKnightX]

I’m not a BL lover, but I do know the reason why some people like it.

It’s the same reason why some people love GL and gender-bender. It’s self-insert wish fulfillment. Liking the opposite gender while in that gender’s body gives you a weird intimacy.

I‘d asked a lot of girls who like shipping guys together and like reading BL. They all said the same thing—it’s so that they can insert themself into one of the characters and experience this strange intimacy.

Self-inserting is a real and solid thing. I don’t know if it happens to everyone or not, but I’m pretty sure it happens to a lot of people—that’s why wish-fulfillment stuffs are so popular.

I think maybe you don’t like BL because you just don’t feel it. Maybe when you read it you’re just a mere spectator observing the story from the distance, so when something that’s unfair, doesn’t make sense, or boring an repetitive happens, you don’t really ‘feel’ it and thus—don’t like it.

That’s why there’s the so-called demographic and target audience. That’s why the protagonist in each genre is in the same age range as the target audience. It’s so that they can relate to or be able to insert themself into the character and immerse in the story.

 

[Killokii]

What mainly attracted me was the different couple dynamics that tended to be displayed in bl and the more frequent equal power balances in relationships. Not to mention, at least at the time I got into bl, it had a forbidden and more underground allure that fascinated the me who wasn’t exposed to any queer media before. At the time I also didn’t like trad rom but bl had mostly fixed the stuff that bothered me so I got naturally into it.

I also like hot men so more of em don’t hurt.

 

[Katsuya]

Hmm~ I wonder~ I mean, it's like asking 'why do you like yuri' Ig. Can't really say why I like BL. Not sure. I like traps so that's one reason. For sure.

Also.... ig the uniqueness??? The aura around it?

I mean, with yuri/gl, they kinda have to be somewhat unique, but some really really suck. That's where the aura comes in. I like yuri, but some are just sighh.

 

[SakeVision]

I prefer yuri and yaoi to hetero. The reason for that is that I'm naturally disgusted by gender and biological sex-driven power dynamics between men and women, which are all too apparent in sex and romance.

I am not opposed to power dynamics in themselves. For example, in yaoi there is usually a dominant seme and submissive uke. But these roles should grow out of a character's personality, and not their biological predispositions.

For example, when you see a hetshit couple, a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, you don't question who is a top and who is a bottom, right? Cause it's obvious that the woman is 99% on the receiving end, just because she's a female, and like most females in the society, she gleefully accepts such role.

And I think it's disgusting.

 

[tiaf]

I‘d asked a lot of girls who like shipping guys together and like reading BL. They all said the same thing—it’s so that they can insert themself into one of the characters and experience this strange intimacy.

Definitely not me.

Edit: That was not a sarcastic remark. It's creepy as hell to self-insert into a smut novel as an asexual fish.

Reason I prefer BL over hetero romance is because I dislike FLs in most BG stories. I like a good portion of comedy and derpy characters which male characters can more easily present. FLs are either depicted as overworldly perfect or they are the absolute opposite and fall too easily into the pathetic-I-only-live-for-love category. Have you ever seen a FL that behaves like Kagura from Gintama? Not very often in BG, but BL is full of interesting characters that are memeable.

Also, I can’t stand it when seemingly career women start to fall from grace as soon as they fall in love. It’s like they changed their whole persona, which is strange to me. The Leads in BL don’t go OOC as often.

Next is the art. BL has art styles that are more appealing to me. I mean, did you see some ML in BG stories? They looks so… uh, shoujo. Same reason I reject GL. A lot are too centered on moe or the classic anime style I prefer to see for adventure stories.

Also last point is the pacing. Not gonna read all those slow burn BG that are older than me and only got an accidental kiss as fanservice. I’m beyond that torture.

 

[SakeVision]

Also last point is the pacing. Not gonna read all those slow burn BG that are older than me and only got an accidental kiss as fanservice. I’m beyond that torture.

but did you like mo dao zushi

 

[tiaf]

but did you like mo dao zushi

Used to like, but the political and heavy undertone as well as the high-level of concentration needed to read it made me drop it. What I'm referring to with no developement despite being tagged romance is Skip Beat.

 

[CL]

I prefer yuri and yaoi to hetero. The reason for that is that I'm naturally disgusted by gender and biological sex-driven power dynamics between men and women, which are all too apparent in sex and romance.

I am not opposed to power dynamics in themselves. For example, in yaoi there is usually a dominant seme and submissive uke. But these roles should grow out of a character's personality, and not their biological predispositions.

For example, when you see a hetshit couple, a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, you don't question who is a top and who is a bottom, right? Cause it's obvious that the woman is 99% on the receiving end, just because she's a female, and like most females in the society, she gleefully accepts such role.

And I think it's disgusting.

I support this opinion. The reason why is because of what SV pointed out: this outdated theme that's established our sex defines our role as if it were natural. It's not even presented as a natural choice, just as a "fact". I don't like reading from that perspective. It's borderline D/s, which I'm okay with as a choice, but not in a portrayal of the absolute being determined by biology.

 

[Ruyi]

I like it for the plots. I read novel after novel of BG (boy x girl) romances/transmigration/revenge/time travel etc. and they got formulaic, stale, and same. Not to say there aren't good BG novels—plenty of them exist and I still love those—but the ones in my usual round of webnovel reads were getting boring. Enter BL. It's the same setup, genre, themes, but played with a twist or differently. The fact that both protagonists are guys means we can skip the usual restrictions they place on girl roles in certain settings (historical I'm looking at you) where she's got to juggle rewriting the past with societal expectations of marriage, propriety, or whatever thing they've got going on at the time.

With two dudes they can both be generals, or emperor and strategist, or whatever. There's less rearranging the world to make a girl fit those unexpected roles/be center stage because guys do those roles already so we can move on with the story instead. No one bats an eye, they hang out like dudebros, and if that relationship deepens to something more intimate it typically does so with less melodrama and tropes I see in BG romances all the time. The BL protags typically start out on equal footing (unless the script calls for something else ofc) and it's nice to see the Strong vs. Strong dynamic instead of Brave Guy Saves Weak Damsel once again. (Or the annoying ones where the girl starts out strong but still needs her royal prince/duke/whatever ML to drag her out of the worst mess.)

I guess at heart I like shounen series a lot but hated fanservice, and it seems whenever I read about a girl in a webnovel these days they have to fanservice something about her. It's either she's supremely sexy or she's tough but has a soft moe side for her crush or she's some frail fragile flower blahblahblah. I don't mind it but some books get so bent on emphasizing the Attractive Commodities of the female and her suitors while I'm here like "just give me more of the story please!"

Of course BLs are guilty of this as well, but generally speaking I find it easier to find just stories that focus on plot and put the relationship on a back burner. It's not all LoveLoveLove or SmutSmutSmut or "we just inserted this female character but made him a dude with a dude's name" which I can appreciate. And well, my girlish heart is like "you can get two pretty dudes as the main characters? sign me up!" Maybe it's because I'm a girl myself but female leads in so many stories annoy me more often. I think to myself "yeah no way a girl would do that," or "that's just unreasonable decision making." I have less tolerance for their mistakes, whereas dudes who make the same ones are fine? Maybe I have higher standards for sensible female characters being female myself? Maybe it's easier to forgive dudes who make the same mistakes (but not too much) because I'm not a dude and therefore give them more leeway?

Maybe more authors are content following the same tropey BG formula because it sells (and still does, especially with younger readerbases just getting into webnovels and eating them up) while BL needs something extra to make it stand out since it's...kinda niche-y in the end? All these are possibilities, though limited to my own realm of experience.

I do know that while I can predict what will happen in a BG novel 9/10, BL novels constantly surprise me with their plot twists. As long as they do, I'll keep reading—because at the end of the day I just want a good story.

EDT: I forgot to answer the yuri question. I don't hate yuri but I'm not interested in it at all. Remember when I mentioned that female leads annoy me with their behaviors because I have certain standards/expectations for them? Yeah, a yuri couple is like doubling the target size of all my sore points. The art is cute and the girls are pretty; I've also tried to read a few mangas/novels myself, but couldn't get into it. So yeah, that's that.

Maybe being a girl has made me cynical of girls in fiction? Lolol.

 

[ElliePorter]

We love two dudes doing things. Like this blonde dude held this brunette dude on the wall and restricted his movement. So they began kissing and the brunette is like

"Omg, bro you're so aggressive. Isn't this gay?"

"Nah, bro. Its not wrong to kiss your homie. Are you saying that you're not man enough to kiss me? Damn, that's so gay. I'll kiss you again and you better kiss me back to prove that you're a man."

"Ayo, bet."

 

[TheComedicOne]

Yaoi litterally makes me want to kill the one who made that genre, But Yuri are the truest form of love, But Yaoi hell nah its disgusting.

 

[TheDylanDrakes]

I'm gay? That helps, I guess?

 

[MoonlitSonata]

Elegy of Life&Death / The Warlord is in obsession with me .I 'm still writing it and don't know what supposed to be in plot as bl. But I wanted a younger adopted protagonist,cross-dress,Royal ,Isekai, fantasy with brother complex. I hope it goes well. Cause I like reading & writing to. Bl & Gl are not like usual romances. I don't like usual one, these plot's are always the same, but in bl & gl genre , there are some differences.

 

[OfficialGENESIS]

As someone who reads BL and writes BL, I do not have any reason why I like BL, neither am I looking for a reason to. It just is. It's not about self- insert or power dynamics or whatever. I love BL. Period.
Sometimes there is no reason or explanation as to why you like something or not. You just naturally gravitate to it.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

I don't

 

[Yi_San]

In a story, when a guy and girl has a crush, puppy love or mature love whatever, hot sparks fly when twos' eyes meet.

The girl thinks the boy is handsome and hot. Eww I want to kiss him and love him.
Me: please no. Let me get out.

His six packs, sweaty basketball game, brave and smart, big background, saving beauty. Etc...
Me: where is the story?

Meanwhile the guy thinks the girl is sexy and charming. Want to love her, hold her, kiss her, and do her.
Me: screw it. What's wrong with the whole world?
The story is mostly the same with this same stuff called romance and sex. I hate it.
In BL, although most of it is also like BG, with romance and sex, some CEO's cold circuit wired by some little soft kitten guy, yandere, clingy, ass stabbing the whole lifetime to the point of insane sex life record, atleast I can find something meaningful. Some stories have some of these things and I chose to ignore it to some extent because of the good story. So I am fond of it. But I absolutely hate those guys taking their lovers akin to a woman or a cute let animal, totally submissive and worse than BG relationships. More of it because I support and love real gay couples.
I too tried to write a romantic BL but I screwed it up. So I decided to dump it for a while and come back to change it to my ability. Romance is a hot potato in hand. I can't hold it.
In case of GL, too much cliché stories. My brain cells die from too much amount of dumb, bubble fragile, cute, white, sexy, charming, yandere, soft etc... Protagonists. They don't feel like human. They are like colourful, pretty dolls.

I love stories with good plot like quick transmigration:cannon fodder's record of counterattack. I see the protagonist Ning Shu as my sister. But I am anxious since there are discussions about romance there. Anyway I think it's my problem there. As I am an aromantic asexual.

 

[minacia]

Sometimes I get really tired of female characters. In some BG novels, the male love interests are kind of dull. In most forms of media (artwork included), IMO the most appealing male characters that I’ve found are in BL, so it’s the most reliable place to go if I’m looking for that.

 

[MoonlitSonata]

I don't

so, you have different choices i suppose.