Yaoi Tropes: “A Gay Exclusive to You”
I want to talk a little about a common narrative trope in the yaoi genre, which I fondly refer to as “A Gay Exclusive to You.”
This line of thinking comes up extremely often in yaoi and BL, usually through the protagonist’s narration. I could find a thousand examples of this to share, but if you’ve read a lot of yaoi you’ve probably run into it before.
It usually looks like this: Main Character (MC) has been in love with Love Interest (LI) for as long as he can remember. This is his first love, a love he’s nurtured and cherished for years, sometimes even into adulthood. He has only ever loved LI, and he has no reason to believe he’ll ever love anyone else…but he’s definitely, totally straight.
The apparent ‘gayness’ that would be implied by his love for LI is an exception to the rule, something exclusive to LI. MC has never been attracted to any other men (nevermind how his lazer-focus on LI would get in the way of that), so that means he’s not gay. Sure, he’s never fallen in love with any of the girls he’s dated (if he’s dated any). Sure, he doesn’t envision him falling in love with a woman at any time. But even though he has no romantic or sexual history with women to cement his straight identity, if LI weren’t around MC would obviously be straight. After all, he’s normal.
In these narratives, being gay or straight no longer describes the pattern of attraction the individual has actually experienced. Instead, straight is shorthand for ‘normal’, and labelling the main character this way allows the author to quickly communicate to the audience that MC is relatable, just like anyone else. In doing this, the author abstracts the meaning of ‘gay’ until it is unrecognizable.
‘Straight’ becomes code for normality, which in turn reinforces gay as abnormality. When the mangaka establishes the mundanity of a character by making him claim he’s straight, they do so by erasing the meaning of the word ‘gay’ and relying on homophobia and ignorance to fill in the rest.
In these stories, the ‘otherness’ of gay men is often reinforced by the characters. The questioning MC will look up gay porn and be scandalized by what he sees, screaming over how it’s ‘too extreme’ for him to relate to. Or a character will find himself in Tokyo’s gay district Ni-chōme and be terrified or disgusted of the strange people there, alienated in a way that clearly shows he’s not like them.
When explicitly gay characters are depicted by these authors, it’s usually with an air of exoticism. Gay people are strange, mystifyingly flamboyant, and often predatory and frightening. But it’s just as likely for gay men to not appear at all, and the two characters live in their blissful bubble of ‘being two straight dudes who fuck, and have only ever loved each other, but aren’t like Those Gays.’
This often goes hand-in-hand with the ‘straight seme/uke’ trope, which is exactly what it says on the tin. This character has proven they like women, usually through copious sexual escapades, but ends up with a male lover anyway. (God forbid they say ‘bi or ‘pan’ though; even though he ended up with a dude, MC is still straight.)’
This is another way authors treat fans to the ‘Normal Guy falls for a man’ narrative, which is markedly more attractive to readers than stories about actual queer relationships. (When bisexuals are depicted, it’s often with the same amount of predatory-framing that gay men receive. Or more. Usually more.)
And even though I’ve outlined how these sort of tropes are homophobic, I honestly end up reading a lot of these stories since the characters are more likely to resemble ‘regular, everyday men.’ Rather than being poor imitations of what people assume gay men are like or ‘seme/uke’ caricatures, the characters seem far more human when the authors write them as straight… so other than the absurdity of the ‘I’m only gay for you’ lines, the writing in these stories is sometimes better than the BL norm.
But it feels shitty that some yaoi mangaka can only write gay romance well if they pretend the men are straight.
They want to write gay stories, but not gay people. That’s based in an inherent misunderstanding of what it’s like to be queer, and what our communities look like. Even while I read and enjoy these stories, I’m always aware that the author is rejecting me and my humanity whenever they write in this trope.
And that stings a bit. (But out of context, the panels are still pretty damn funny.)
Credits:
“Okujou no Bai-bai” -scanlated by Biblo Eros
Hideyoshico (?) - TBA
“Illumination” -scanlated by Storm in Heaven
“Ameagari…etc” -scanlated by Huffly Parfait Scans
