@rinreadsmanga@silliergoober "[...] it’s very convenient for talking about art that is linked by characters that are muscle-y, huge, and hairy, [...] That’s a delineation that I can appreciate, I think now, the more I think about it– “bara” could potentially emancipate the content from its creators."
@rinreadsmanga@silliergoober Apart from the fact that it was clearly just a joke, half of this is just straight up wrong. Bara refers to male-male art of this specific body type and Gengoroh Tagame has since changed his opinion, exactly as it pertains to this usage.
consolidated market on a scale similar to the BL publishing industry and it's not like there's absolute consensus as to the preferred terminology within Japan either. Pearl clutching over different languages and cultures adopting different terminology is pointless. (5/5)
Regardless of the dumbass tweet that this is responding to, acting like the term bara is somehow wholly wrong and non-applicable seems incredibly reductive. The fact that it's an obsolete term within Japan has no bearing on the fact that it has reemerged in transnational (1/5)
in the 60's and 70's! Gay japanese authors and readers aren't a monolith and acting like they would or should all be offended by the international reappropriation of this term is misguided in itself. This particular type of gay erotica is not a uniform entity or a (4/5)