The denial of yaoi fetishes
Also this follow up to a previous post about a shrinr is great:
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Lmao so story time:
I have a massive Banana Fish shrine on my manga shelf, and I collect other yaoi or BL volumes, too. My friend came over and saw my extensive, 500+ book collection. Saw the Banana Fish collection. He said, “I think you like homosexuals.”
To which I said, “Nope. I *am* a homosexual and enjoy representation, but Banana Fish is just good.”
“You fetishize homosexuals a lot?” he kept up.
And I looked him dead in the face, sort of laughed at him, and said, “What *are* you on, my guy?”
He tried to push it again but every time he mentioned it, I just chuckled and said “nope” like I was responding to the dumbest man alive. Which, to me, yeah, I was responding to the dumbest *argument* from a man I’d had to deal with that week.
Shut him up real fast. He used to always prod me for liking BL and I’d always combat him, as his main attack was me fetishizing yaoi or gay men. And only after I got to know him did I realize he was not only jealous of my liberation to freely and guiltlessly enjoy BL, but he, as a bisexual black man, felt inferior whenever he was with men. Thought it was weakness or somehow bad. Where he grew up, it absolutely *is* seen that way by many / in the culture.
So, he was just projecting. Many are.
Either projecting, or trying to use it as a “gotcha!” so that we’re not “really trans”.
Like no, you bumpot, the fact I enjoy and relate to yaoi and BL stories is *proof* that I’m a transmasculine person projecting into gay men in media."