You've heard of the "love trap", right? It's the (oh so technical) term for exactly this sort of thing in shoujo manga--namely, the idea that heterosexual relationships are inherently power unequal, and that a girl getting the guy ultimately necessitates her relinquishing her own agency. The argument is that this is why shoujo manga turned to homosexual relationships (creating the entire BL/yaoi genre) of both genders, because the invidious power dynamics aren't there in non-heterosexual relationships, and female readers can project themselves into a relationship where love isn't bought at the price of independence.
The irony here is that in BL, at least, the most invidious gender stereotypes and power inequalities are reproduced in the seme/uke relationship. So the squared circle just turns out to be a square? But I buy the theory as sound, anyway, though I think 98% of manga has a long way to go before it truly represents homosexuality as people in any country truly live it.
It's my own personal opinion that there are some similar things going on in slash, but I wouldn't say it's quite the same. YMMV.
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Date: 4 Dec 2009 01:24 am (UTC)The irony here is that in BL, at least, the most invidious gender stereotypes and power inequalities are reproduced in the seme/uke relationship. So the squared circle just turns out to be a square? But I buy the theory as sound, anyway, though I think 98% of manga has a long way to go before it truly represents homosexuality as people in any country truly live it.
It's my own personal opinion that there are some similar things going on in slash, but I wouldn't say it's quite the same. YMMV.