sarhattiwatti
Finland
They're not even trying to respect the lgbtq+ community...
I'm dropping this right after the second episode (3+4/20). I have no reason to continue watching this. It feels like I'm reading a bad yaoi from like 2010 or something, its BL in it's purest form and I hate it. This drama is only made to please straight women who fetishize mlm relationships and gay men. This is not okay, as someone who is part of the lgbtq+ community i feel very disgusted with this and the people who are trying to justify the things that are happening in the series.
Here are things that are very problematic about the drama:
1. Liu Mei Fang, the fujoshi
First of all i'd like to say that there are straight girls who know how to be respectful fans, but Liu Mei Fang is not one of them. The whole thing about straight men pretending to be gay to get the girl just is not right. It's literally using fetishizing and queerbaiting to your own advantage (which is not even realistic and harms actual gay people because other people will think that this is normal). Liu Mei Fang herself is a big part of the problem. She was ready to forget about the bullying she faced (which clearly she hasn't gotten over) just to see Xiao Li Cheng harras his male friend because according to her "He's still in the closet." Shipping real people (even if it's in a drama)* is very harmful and it can literally destroy friendships. I'm a kpop fan and have seen the effects shipping has on idols, they get uncomfortable around each other and are afraid of showing too much affection because of "fans" that don't treat them like real people. This happens a lot with bl actors too, who are usually straight and only showing affection as fanservice, they're not actually in love with each other.
*Here I mean that showing shipping of real people in a drama can lead to it being normalized. I'm talking about shipping real people such as actors and idols, not characters in a drama, shipping them is fine as long as the relationship is appropriate (fyi there are no appropriate ships in this drama).
2. The stalking
I don't know what the writer was thinking but this is actually something illegal. Fu Yong Jie secretly copying Ye Xing Si's key and breaking into his house is just so wrong in so many ways. On top of all of this he's too protective of his brother he needs serious help and therapy. He literally tried to beat up one of Ye Xing Si's friend just because they were being touchy with each other. All of this is being excused by saying "they're brothers" which leads us to the next thing:
3. The incest
Incest is way too normalized and romantized in bls and it should not be that way. It's still incest even if they're not blood related and can't reproduce, I repeat IT'S STILL INCEST AND SHOULD NOT BE NORMALIZED. If some of you don't know what incest is, here's the definition: The definition of incest (according to wikipedia) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), ADOPTION, clan, or lineage. If you're saying it's not bad because Fu Yong Jie was adopted, then what about fathers who date their adoptive daughters? You don't just get to pick and choose what problematic tropes can be romantized. Feeding in to the incest trope in BLs harms the lgbtq+ community. Also them being brothers adds nothing to the storyline, there are other kinds of close relationships they could've chosen for them but they went with step-brothers..
4. The sexual harassment
No means no but Xiao Li Cheng doesn't seem to understand that. He keeps trying to persuade Teng Mu Ren to fake date him and keeps touching him inappropriately even when he says no. Even friends have boundaries that you should not cross, especially if the friend directly tells you that they're uncomfortable. And no, begging someone for consent when the other has said no many times but eventually gives in is not consent.
+. The acting
This last thing has nothing to do with the story but I'm so disappointed that the HIStory series has downgraded to this. Trapped was so interesting but apparently it was downhill from there. These actors don't have enough experience and skills to be considered good. The over the top acting and breaking the fourth wall is very cringey and hard to look at. This doesn't seem like a comedy, more like 'we didn't cast good enough actors to do a serious drama so we made it a comedy to excuse their lacking skills.'
BL as a genre is very problematic and should be separated from actual gay dramas, but as for now the line between those two is very blurry and it should not be that way. If you want to tell stories about gay people you can't ignore the struggles we go trough. Every minority goes trough something and everyones experience is different but you can't separate the gay community from the hate and homophobia we face just so you can make profit off of it. People say they just want fluffy BLs that don't touch on these very serious problems and honestly I kinda do too. Not every gay drama has to make these serious things the main point of the plot because there are gay people who live a happy life right now, even if they have faced struggles in the past. It's perfectly fine to do a drama about the life without much struggles, but you need to make sure to tell that especially in conservative countries being part of the lgbtq+ community is not just sunshine and rainbows. An example of a good fluffy BL is Cherry Magic. It's extremely fluffy but still manages to touch on the struggles of figuring out your own sexuality in a serious matter and the fear of judgement lgbtq+ people deal with. Another one would be His - I Didn't Think I Would Fall In Love. It touches on the same things as Cherry magic but from a very different perspective.
Straight cis women writing these kinds of BLs and lgbtq+ stories kinda feels like white people writing POC-stories, they don't have the experience that gay and trans people go trough. People have argued that BL is harmless because it's fiction and it's not supposed to be serious. Some have said that it's okay to fetishize mlm relationships and gay men. IT'S NOT! Fetishizing is never okay and it's not a compliment. With lgbtq+ people, fetishizing can lead to serious problems as it allows straight cis women to be homophobic with the excuse "I watch BL" and then they exclude lesbians, bisexuals and trans people from the lgbtq+.
ps.
Just because you don't think this way doesn't mean that there are not people who do and that leads to normalizing these things. Call problematic behavior out when you see it. Thank you.
pps.
If you thought this was a good drama when you watched this but now educate yourself, I don't blame you, because as I said, many of the things portrayed in the drama are very normalized in BLs. But if you now, even after reading this review refuse to think about these things from an another perspective and get defensive, you're genuinely a bad person.
Here are things that are very problematic about the drama:
1. Liu Mei Fang, the fujoshi
First of all i'd like to say that there are straight girls who know how to be respectful fans, but Liu Mei Fang is not one of them. The whole thing about straight men pretending to be gay to get the girl just is not right. It's literally using fetishizing and queerbaiting to your own advantage (which is not even realistic and harms actual gay people because other people will think that this is normal). Liu Mei Fang herself is a big part of the problem. She was ready to forget about the bullying she faced (which clearly she hasn't gotten over) just to see Xiao Li Cheng harras his male friend because according to her "He's still in the closet." Shipping real people (even if it's in a drama)* is very harmful and it can literally destroy friendships. I'm a kpop fan and have seen the effects shipping has on idols, they get uncomfortable around each other and are afraid of showing too much affection because of "fans" that don't treat them like real people. This happens a lot with bl actors too, who are usually straight and only showing affection as fanservice, they're not actually in love with each other.
*Here I mean that showing shipping of real people in a drama can lead to it being normalized. I'm talking about shipping real people such as actors and idols, not characters in a drama, shipping them is fine as long as the relationship is appropriate (fyi there are no appropriate ships in this drama).
2. The stalking
I don't know what the writer was thinking but this is actually something illegal. Fu Yong Jie secretly copying Ye Xing Si's key and breaking into his house is just so wrong in so many ways. On top of all of this he's too protective of his brother he needs serious help and therapy. He literally tried to beat up one of Ye Xing Si's friend just because they were being touchy with each other. All of this is being excused by saying "they're brothers" which leads us to the next thing:
3. The incest
Incest is way too normalized and romantized in bls and it should not be that way. It's still incest even if they're not blood related and can't reproduce, I repeat IT'S STILL INCEST AND SHOULD NOT BE NORMALIZED. If some of you don't know what incest is, here's the definition: The definition of incest (according to wikipedia) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), ADOPTION, clan, or lineage. If you're saying it's not bad because Fu Yong Jie was adopted, then what about fathers who date their adoptive daughters? You don't just get to pick and choose what problematic tropes can be romantized. Feeding in to the incest trope in BLs harms the lgbtq+ community. Also them being brothers adds nothing to the storyline, there are other kinds of close relationships they could've chosen for them but they went with step-brothers..
4. The sexual harassment
No means no but Xiao Li Cheng doesn't seem to understand that. He keeps trying to persuade Teng Mu Ren to fake date him and keeps touching him inappropriately even when he says no. Even friends have boundaries that you should not cross, especially if the friend directly tells you that they're uncomfortable. And no, begging someone for consent when the other has said no many times but eventually gives in is not consent.
+. The acting
This last thing has nothing to do with the story but I'm so disappointed that the HIStory series has downgraded to this. Trapped was so interesting but apparently it was downhill from there. These actors don't have enough experience and skills to be considered good. The over the top acting and breaking the fourth wall is very cringey and hard to look at. This doesn't seem like a comedy, more like 'we didn't cast good enough actors to do a serious drama so we made it a comedy to excuse their lacking skills.'
BL as a genre is very problematic and should be separated from actual gay dramas, but as for now the line between those two is very blurry and it should not be that way. If you want to tell stories about gay people you can't ignore the struggles we go trough. Every minority goes trough something and everyones experience is different but you can't separate the gay community from the hate and homophobia we face just so you can make profit off of it. People say they just want fluffy BLs that don't touch on these very serious problems and honestly I kinda do too. Not every gay drama has to make these serious things the main point of the plot because there are gay people who live a happy life right now, even if they have faced struggles in the past. It's perfectly fine to do a drama about the life without much struggles, but you need to make sure to tell that especially in conservative countries being part of the lgbtq+ community is not just sunshine and rainbows. An example of a good fluffy BL is Cherry Magic. It's extremely fluffy but still manages to touch on the struggles of figuring out your own sexuality in a serious matter and the fear of judgement lgbtq+ people deal with. Another one would be His - I Didn't Think I Would Fall In Love. It touches on the same things as Cherry magic but from a very different perspective.
Straight cis women writing these kinds of BLs and lgbtq+ stories kinda feels like white people writing POC-stories, they don't have the experience that gay and trans people go trough. People have argued that BL is harmless because it's fiction and it's not supposed to be serious. Some have said that it's okay to fetishize mlm relationships and gay men. IT'S NOT! Fetishizing is never okay and it's not a compliment. With lgbtq+ people, fetishizing can lead to serious problems as it allows straight cis women to be homophobic with the excuse "I watch BL" and then they exclude lesbians, bisexuals and trans people from the lgbtq+.
ps.
Just because you don't think this way doesn't mean that there are not people who do and that leads to normalizing these things. Call problematic behavior out when you see it. Thank you.
pps.
If you thought this was a good drama when you watched this but now educate yourself, I don't blame you, because as I said, many of the things portrayed in the drama are very normalized in BLs. But if you now, even after reading this review refuse to think about these things from an another perspective and get defensive, you're genuinely a bad person.
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