Fish Upon the Sky, sexism in BL
1 Jun 2024 01:09 pmRealised part of what annoys me about one of the main leads in Fish Upon the Sky....
Putting the character's romance arc into chronological order, rather than back story we find out late, it amounts to something like
you did something nice for me once so now I'm going to chase you until you love me back...
Which feels a hell of a lot like the way women are forced to manage some men's emotions and negotiate safe passage through the situations created by said men's inability to manage their own. Except it's Jittirain BL, so the happy ending is a male lead red-flagging in episode 11 and they get/stay together because that's what the genre demands.
I know it's a trope. When a healthy relationship grows out of it, it can make sense for why one character initially notices the other and then notices more things they like about them. Sometimes it's lazy characterisation. Sometimes it's lazy characterisation which combines with other lazy characterisations to create a very unhealthy situation.
Putting the character's romance arc into chronological order, rather than back story we find out late, it amounts to something like
you did something nice for me once so now I'm going to chase you until you love me back...
Which feels a hell of a lot like the way women are forced to manage some men's emotions and negotiate safe passage through the situations created by said men's inability to manage their own. Except it's Jittirain BL, so the happy ending is a male lead red-flagging in episode 11 and they get/stay together because that's what the genre demands.
I know it's a trope. When a healthy relationship grows out of it, it can make sense for why one character initially notices the other and then notices more things they like about them. Sometimes it's lazy characterisation. Sometimes it's lazy characterisation which combines with other lazy characterisations to create a very unhealthy situation.