#bl getttign meta

[absolutebl]

HELLO! I just penned a little missive on Cherry Magic, and I wanted to ask you the following question. Please forgive me if this has been asked before or if you've written on it!

I wrote in my Cherry Magic post the following: "There’s something I’m pondering about the BL trope of an individual having a queer revelation only after being approached with the opportunity. I want to pose this question to expert viewers of the genre, but what I’m wondering is whether or not the nations from which these shows hail, view this revelatory experience as one being on a/the sexuality spectrum, or if it’s expected to be a one-time episode of queerness that wouldn’t necessarily repeat itself in an individual’s life."

Do you have any thoughts on this? I really have no idea what, say, the general Japanese or Korean public think about spectrum expressions or identifications. I think I've read about this phenomenon in the past as being "queer only for you," but in the wider scope of BL and LGBT art, I do wonder if there's a beautiful conversation lurking out there about existing on the sexuality spectrum and whether or not there are shows out there that explore this. I guess KinnPorsche touched on it with Porsche as a bisexual lead?

(I also noted later in the Cherry Magic post that in the later volumes of the Old Fashion Cupcake manga, that Togawa "outs" Nozue as "not gay," which I think is a curious identification that relates to my question above.)

THANKS, if you have the time to offer your thoughts!

Collectivism & Identity Politics

I would posset that what your picking up on may be a fundamental difference between ask and guess cultures. Not to mention collectivism versus individualism. 

When you exist in a sphere where your identity is far more enmeshed with your social interactions, who you are as a person is, fundamentally, defined in part by who you are with and how you fit into the social fabric of your surroundings. Just think about how Thai pronouns change depending on who you are with, including the “I” pronoun. 

Think about the whole honorific system and how names (titles) change according to social status and power dynamics. I mean just think about that for a second, your OWN name, your very selfness, changes depending on who you are with. 

In Thailand it isn’t, “When a tree falls, does it make a sound?” it’s 

“What word for “I” do I use, when I am alone? 

Under those circumstances, would not attraction be more a factor of feedback and encounters rather than self reflection and epiphany?

It is not, in the end, a lack of self awareness, but the fact that the "self" is defined differently in different culture. Identity is defined differently. If the self is partly (or wholly) made up of social connections as well as the individual’s personal feelings, than all notions of self (including sexual identity) are informed by connections with others.

That got very cerebral but I hope it makes sense.

Why Linguistics is Important to Understanding BL

As to ownership of gayness, or queer spectrum identifiers/monikers, I talk about that (as an introduced concept) with regards to Thailand and the complexities around the word “gay” in this post. It applies somewhat to Japan as well, who also will use the English word. Korea uses the English word for a romantic “kiss.” Imagine what that says about the culture and its perception of kissing! 

A collectivist approach to identity by its nature may be both more fixed (if the group is focused on denial) or less so (if the group has the attitude of “who you’re with is who you are”) because the group is doing the primary defining of identity. 

So Togawa may identify as gay where Nozue does not (or considers himself bi/pan) or doesn't think ownership of an identity actually matters because ultimately the group will decide based on who he is partnered with. Because unlike in most Western parts of the world, the perception of others actually does genuinely inform your own identity.

Putting aside gay for you, a collectivist culture which is accepting of ranging sexualities is going to define you by who you are with and not really think or care about what label you wish to apply to yourself, because that is less relevant than your apparent network. (Although this happens to bi folks all the time, at least if asked or if given conversational leeway we can correct the assumption as required.) Until tha identity impacts the network at which point it may come to be perceived as a threat. (Which is often the case with families and homosexuality.) 

Much in the way in Thailand you can queer code verbally (particles), in the west we tend to queer code visually (how we dress, do our hair, etc...) in a collectivist culture queer coding is probably going to be through partnering, (but then lack of public intimacy will make that challenging). 

In these dramas until quite recently (and mostly Thailand) ownership of an identity like gay or bi or pan is extremely rare and when stated, did so using the English word. And because it's an English word it carries with it a ton of baggage, not the least of which is an individualistic aura.

(On a complete aside, conflicts over individualism v collectivism culture in Hong Kong and, probably eventually, Taiwan are the biggest barriers to reintegration/unity/occupation. But because mainland China is both collectivist and guess culture, they will never understand why violence, revolt, riots, protests, and identity defense is not just expected, but required of the younger generations at any attempted union/occupation.) 

Please don’t assume I have any personal skin in this game as to whether individualism or collectivism in better or worse. I don’t think it is wise to make a moral, ethical, or value judgement on culture. 

(source)