Conversation

this sorta thing is actually why I started to use the term "yurislop", because while I'm not against wlw media (quite the contrary) or like manga/anime with sapphic themes (doubly so since I'm also kind of a weeb), no one in the west at least ever seems to really understand the context/genealogy of the genre. Nobuko Yoshiya is considered to be the writer who originated yuri and Japanese lesbian fiction in general and a lot of her writing had to do with the experiences of adolescent girls because the experiences of women, much less girls, was not really valued in Japan when she wrote. it shows a lot in how yuri developed since then with how so much of it focuses on teenage girls going through adolescent lesbian crushes.

I can understand why a lot of transfems like yuri, because most of us never get to have a childhood or adolescence and then also go through a second puberty and all that. there's also not a western equivalent to my knowledge of yuri aside from like, YA novels I guess? and a lot of transfems today are weeb nerds because of the history of when Japanese media really started to become big in the west. so it's obvious why this is a genre that a lot of us feel a connection to and it's not like I wholly condemn yuri or anything by any means (like Madoka Magica is easily in my top three favorite anime series).

but a lot of yuri (that isn't seinen male gazey stuff) is intended for young girls and it shows in how so much of it is frankly very unchallenging. ordinarily I think "let people enjoy things" is literally Hitlerite logic but with yuri I let it slide because it's still a significant genre of lesbian media, but a lot of it to me is just like, it's cute and idealized but empty. most yuri I've encountered isn't going to change the way you view the world or lesbian relationships or whatever, it's just comfy and bland and I think that's fucking lame. I think it actively stunts transfems early into transition or continuing past early transition even from reflecting on lesbian relationships very deeply because it makes everything either uncomplicated and idealized or the other side of the coin of that which is "toxic yuri" -- equally uncomplicated and idealized but in a sort of masochistic way that still doesn't challenge the audience.

anyway this is related to the OP because I have noticed over and over again how transfems when they go through their first or really majorly devastating breakup in a t4t relationship end up flipping to the other side of the coin of these simplistic idealizations of lesbian romances. because once the ideal has been built up so much, the negation of it has to be an equally idealized. I think a lot of this has to do with the yurislop tendency to make lesbian romances kind of trivialized girlish emotions that have nowhere else to go (and certainly do not exist in any social context -- but that's a whole other issue).

idk I would like more yuri that is first of all for adults and about adult women and secondly is able to be complicated and dark and fucked up and weird. if I had any artistic skills at all I'd just try to do that myself but I have to stick to writing lesbian fiction (TBD got a few things I really wanna write). it's very tiresome how every aspect of transfem culture and life involves being forced into various ghettos of desire and politics.

Public

Notices

Feeds