Not that anyone cares, but ...

[quietprofanity]

On reflection, I really fucking hate Y!Gallery. I know this may make me sound like a homophobe, but that site really blows. To me, the site proves that slash/yaoi isn't inherently feminist. I've always believed it CAN be, but it seems a disturbing amount of artists there co-opt the worst traits of mainstream porn, like the soul-crushing de-humanization, rigid and heteronormative gender roles (even if they're cross-dressing, it's usually MONDO-MUSCULAR BUTCHES or weepy ukes) and racism/fatphobia.

I mean, sheesh. I'm cool with erotic pictures of large guys, but calling it "Fatty McButterpants"? (And I don't care if it's a King of Queens joke, it's still icky and insulting, especially when paired with a group for oogling large guys.) Or a community that advertises itself as Lots of Black Men Cumming on a White Guy? Oh, and the shouta. Yes, that's ... that's great. Yeah. Ugh. The misogyny in a lot of written stuff was bad enough, but Y!Gallery seems to wear its lack of political awareness like a badge of pride.

I know people have their kinks, but I think a lot of the shit there is gross and not funny. Also, it's not edgy or groundbreaking. It's just pathetic and backwards.

Plus, the search engine sucks butt, 9 out of 10 people don't know basic anatomy and the "you can choose what type of criticism you want" option is stupid.

Fuck Y!Gallery. I hate its face and I don't care if you think I'm a humorless feminist for saying so.

Comments

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

I made the mistake of looking at a group for a fairly old fandom and the owner right-out admitted to having "a severe allergy to" the female lead. D:

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

I get not liking a character. (God knows I hate Tenchi and want Ryoko and Ayeka to be together because of that.) But sometimes I feel like a lot of those pea-brains can't like something unless they insist everyone like it too. "I like chocolate, SO I HATE VANILLA AND EVERYONE WHO HATES VANILLA IS A CHOCOLATE-HATER, FUCK YOU!"

Or they're just misogynists. That happens, too.

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally get that. *nods*

Don't forget the third option, where they feel they have to hate on something to justify their love of something else.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. :)

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

What pisses me off is that somehow a requirement for being a yaoi fan means hating girls. I remember going into a yaoi chat on IRC years ago and people were all shock and awe when I admitted to liking Miaka and Relena.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. I'd like to think SOME of that is better now, but I'm not really down in the trenches anymore.

Y!Gallery just adds more to the misogyny already there and hurts my soul to look at. :(

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

Aaand I somehow forgot I made an account there ages ago to feed the trainwreck syndrome check for FE pr0n. I wish I hadn't remembered. D:

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

I still have mine. I don't think I'll delete it. I got some favorites and I want to keep my fics available somewhere, but I just wanted to get my hate for the site on.

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

(Please pardon my jumping in...)

I honestly believe that is a maturity issue. Most of the mature fans I've encountered may dislike a particular female character, but they don't discount all female characters as yaoi-blockers or hate them as a whole.

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

This is true. *nods* You mostly hear of this re: teen yaoi fangirls.

And then, you get the 40something men who write schmoopy yaoi fic with liberal amounts of chick-bashing.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

The whole "can't like something unless they insist everyone like it too" people are nerds who can't accept that other people aren't as regimented as they are.

Nerds are very very "Left Brain". Geeks much less so.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh! You putting it that way reminds me of another thing I hate about that site: the bishounen vs. muscle-man wars.

Fuck nerds and hail the geek gospel. Huzzah!

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

As soon as you have "sects" "WARRING" (either figuritively or virtually) you're entering into the nerd equivalent of a public school recess period slap fight.

Nerd Nerd Nerd Nerd NERD.

And yes, the geeks are much more live-and-let-live.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, I have my preferences (like subtitled anime) but at a certain point you've got to grow up a bit.

[papajoemambo.livejournal.com]

Was it you who originally showed me the Geek Hierarchy from BRUNCHING SHUTTLECOCKS?

This is the second time it's come up in conversation today

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Hee. Yep, that was me. :)

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

the bishounen vs. muscle-man wars.

MAKE IT DIE PLZ

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

For serious. I don't know what group I hate more in that sorry war, sometimes. The bishounen-lovers with their, "men are better if they look like flat-chested girls with no cocks are awesome, because women don't like cocks and real men are crap at everything also women deserve contempt" or the bara-lovers with their "WE LOVE REAL MEN! Bara is about REAL MEN and if you don't like bara you're a HOMOPHOBE" and acting as if every feminine gay guy in the world was bred by the media to personally insult them.

And yeah, that's a generalized statement that doesn't apply to everyone in either category, but those are my general, hurl-tastic impressions.

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

I don't really have much opinion about Y!Gallery (other than finding their wanky tendancies amusing) because I don't generally go there. However, I agree with your rant because it isn't truly limited to that site. I see similar stuff on yaoi_daily comments, too.

There's almost a sense of... since the fans are already dealing in a fringe interest, they have license to ignore political correctness that doesn't offend their own delicate sensibilities. Heaven forbid anybody bring up opinions of yaoi, but everything else is fair game?

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

since the fans are already dealing in a fringe interest, they have license to ignore political correctness that doesn't offend their own delicate sensibilities.

I think that's part of the mentality. Or they may be thinking, "I write slash/yaoi, so I'm NOT homophobic, and thus a good person who can't have any other prejudices whatsoever." There's also the subset of people who keep yaoi so much in the "fiction/fantasy" box that they willfully ignore the bigger issues, like the folks who hate actual gay people but read yaoi/slash.

[imayb1.livejournal.com]

Good point! I may be a fan of fantasy, but the line between fiction and reality never completely vanishes for me, just as the correlation between fiction and reality remains visible. (Animal Farm, anyone?) I think you're right, though, that some people can read slash (for example) and still vote for crap like "defense of marriage" laws. Assholes. Hell, look at all the supposedly "morally upright" right-wing politicians who get caught having gay sex! Hypocrites! Arrrgh!

[47nite.livejournal.com]

The rampage of supposedly idealized men still doesn't bother me as much as how EVERY cartoon/comic strip/video game character EVER created eventually gets "bishounenified" and proceeds to go through the motions much to the squealing delight of these kids who think they're celebrating diversity ...by turning everything into a near perfect replica of Loveless (or the like) .___.

[quietprofanity.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee. Yeah, that's annoying. Although I would say they're a near-perfect replica of Level-C. As much as I dislike Loveless, it does play with the formula a bit.

[47nite.livejournal.com]

I was going to invoke Level-C, but I didn't want to rile you up TOO much... XD;