Masculine Good, Feminine Bad: Gender Nonconformity in BL Series

The genre of BL is a success in normalizing gay romance in popular culture, there's little doubt about that. That however doesn't make it free from harmful biases. Parts of it may even reinforce heteronormative stigmas that one would expect to overcome in the genre. In this post I explore this matter by taking a look at the way stereotypically masculine and feminine traits are depicted in BL.

I will be using words like feminine, effeminate, masculine and others in a loose manner. Please apply caution to not mix up the instances were they refer to gender identity with instances where they refer to societal gender roles. The correct reading should be evident from context.

Examples

To get a better understanding of how the depiction of effeminate characters is emblematic of a wider bias in the media, I will give a few examples.

Love By Chance

The character Money is the only prominent feminine, gay man in the series. He is also depicted as predatory. During an interaction with the character Tin (who acts like a big douche for the most part), he "threatens" him with sex. It may just have been a joke and there is no direct indication that sex would be non-consensual. Yet the context clearly frames is as a warning—as something that Tin would regret.

Having the only feminine man in the show be the one to make such a statement—even as a joke—does not paint the show in the best light.

My Engineer

During the trip at the end of the first season, the camp where the group is staying is managed by an effeminate and presumably gay man. A running "joke" throughout these episodes is that one of the characters can't find anybody to share a tent with and so has to reluctantly sleep with the camp manager in one tent. The manager is delighted at the prospect and there is a strong implication that something is happening in the tent. Is it unsolicited advances? Is it even sex? Or is the manger just snoring excessively? There is no clear answer given. What we do know, is that the unfortunate soul is even more desperate to find another tentmate the second night—again without success and again to the manager's delight.

Again, the events that take place in their tent are less important than the framing of the situation. The effeminate man is depicted as undesirable company and whether or not he is predatory is left to the viewer's imagination.

Fish Upon The Sky

One of the shippers in the series is an effeminate man. His sexuality is left unmentioned, but his look and demeanor is reminiscent of many other instances of camp gay man and he engages in the "girly" habit of shipping a handsome guy at his school. He is not a sexual predator, but he still violates people's rights in other ways. In particular, he engages in acts of harassment and stalking that go far beyond mere disrespect. It is outright criminal.

The argument can be made that the shipping is not supposed to be such an awful act within the canon of the series. However even then he is depicted in a negative light. Of particular note is that when asked to stop the shipping because it's an invasion of privacy, he refuses whereas his female friend agrees. He is depicted as more vicious than his peers even within the context of the series.

2gether

The character Green is less overtly feminine than the ones mentioned above, but still significantly more effeminate than the rest of the main cast. In the beginning he pursues Tine without taking a no for an answer. Throughout multiple episodes he is a constant source of annoyance.

Unlike the other characters mentioned above, Green is redeemed halfway through the series and turns into a secondary protagonist without losing the feminine traits. That is a commendable achievement that sets Green apart from a lot of the mainstream.

Feminine Men Are BAD

Regarding the presentation of effeminate men, certain general trends become quite obvious.

• They are depicted as annoying and unpleasant.
• Their behavior is predatory and disrespectful of boundaries.
• Sex or a relationship with them is seen as a punishment, as something that has to be avoided at all costs and as something that can be weaponized.

These negative traits strongly correlate with some more vaguely related stereotypes.

• Makeup is plentiful and colorful and may not be very well applied.
• They are far more likely to be overweight, opposed to the main characters who are pretty much universally slim and fit.
• Even apart from their makeup and body weight they don't fit the beauty standards society imposes upon young men.
• Everything about them is exaggerated: movement, speech patterns, makeup and appearance, personality. They are like parodies of themselves.

To a certain extent some stereotypes (the last point in particular) are just the way effeminate "camp gay" men express themselves. Their exaggeration makes sense in the context of entertainment. So I don't want to take too much issue with them on their own. It's their correlation with the toxic behaviors mentioned above that I take issue with.

One issue is intersectionality. You are likely to see a character who exhibits many of these stereotypes at once or a character who mostly avoids them. A colorful mix of them that would make for a memorable, original character is rarely seen. "Good traits" and "bad traits" tend to cluster together in "good characters" and "bad characters" respectively. This is very problematic as it encourages a binary thinking where effeminate traits are correlated with toxic behaviors and low popularity. Femininity should not be seen as good or bad. It is just a way of expression.

While this post concerns itself mostly with the characters who are prominent enough to be recognizable and memorable, there are far more characters exhibiting these traits in BL series. A lot of them are one-off characters who are just there for a scene never to be seen again. Yet even in those characters—who could be easily portrayed by pretty much anyone in a variety of ways—certain stereotypes remain evident.

Effeminate Men Aren't Really There

Suppose all those toxic behaviors weren't present in the feminine characters we talked about. Suppose their stereotypical features were of no concern. Even then there is one significant issue with their representation in BL series that cannot be overlooked: Effeminate men are side characters.

The main focus of any BL series lies on its main couple(s). That main couple is almost exclusively two slim, handsome, young men who fit into the mold that society has carved out for them. Sure, there may be many ways in which they are not stereotypically "manly". They still can be shy, reluctant, naive, not into sports, anxious, innocent etc. And obviously they are intimate with men which is the defining feature of the genre. But none of these traits are directly called feminine either. They are definitely not feminine in the same way that heavy makeup and the stereotypical speech and movement are. In particular they are internal traits that don't clash with the character's appearance as a handsome, young, manly man. The main characters are straight-passing.

This juxtaposition of straight-passing, masculine men as main characters and effeminate men as side characters has a very problematic implication. It tells the audience that only masculine guys matter. Only they deserve our full attention and emotional investment. Only stories involving them are marketable. Effeminate characters are almost exclusively used as set-dressing, as a comic relief, as an exchangeable element of the story. If they receive any development at all, it already lifts them above the average.

Among the characters mentioned above, the one who receives the most character development and who is overall portrayed in the most positive light is Green in 2gether. He also happens to fulfill the least number of stereotypes among the lot. Even in characters that can be seen as a positive example, the bias somehow stays intact.

The overall impression is that of a half-hearted attempt at being inclusive of more than just one queer identity, but in the end it heavily favors one (that of the straight-passing, gay man) over every other. Just because the genre is called "Boys' Love", that does not justify this dismissive attitude to everything outside that very narrow spectrum. Effeminate men in particular are also "boys" whose love could be put into focus, but they experience a second-class treatment by writers and producers.

The Difference Between Queer Characters And Queer Representation

Something that sticks out to me when seeing those effeminate men on screen is that they don't appear natural. By that I mean that it doesn't look like the creators of the show have a particularly good idea what goes on inside the head of someone whose expression does not fit the cultural norms. Which is weird because their heads aren't much different from anybody else's. They are still people first and foremost. But that's the issue. Those characters are not people first and foremost. They are a bunch of stereotypes with perhaps a few quirks tacked on. They are extras in other people's stories. In short: They are a heteronormative society's idea of an effeminate man. 

There is a bigger argument to be made about the topic of queer writers. One that focuses on the fact that BL is a genre mostly written by straight women for straight women. I initially intended to include that topic here, but decided to address it on its own in a later post instead.

The takeaway here is that the genre of BL—despite being defined by gay romance as its main focus—is still heavily impacted by heteronormative bias. The main characters divert as little from society's expectations as possible. They are gay, but they are not that kind of gay. The side characters who dare to fall outside that normative frame are insignificant in comparison and ridden with stereotypes. This one-sided view on queer identities is what I am ultimately criticizing. That's why I like to say that gay and effeminate men are depicted in BL series, but they are not represented.

I don't intend to judge the creators for it. In fact I want to believe that this is happening with good intentions. Seeing effeminate men in media at all is still preferable to their total erasure from the audience's perception. The fact that the presence of these characters is generally not questioned or judged within the series is also sending the right message that they are just people who should be allowed to be themselves.

All I am asking from the industry, from the writers, directors and producers, from the people who dictate the creative direction, is to take the next step. Make effeminate characters more than just cardboard cutouts. Make them more than just comic relief characters. Make them more than just an interchangeable part of someone else's story. And of course, avoid reinforcing the same old harmful stereotypes. The last thing I'd want to happen to the genre of BL is for it to fade with no positive cultural impact left behind. We can do better!