#feel free to send in your reasons for liking bl/gl

[princeofvelvet]

Hi.....Do you mind if I ask you some random thing? I used to love shounen and shoujo manga equally....But ever since I found BL manga 3 years ago, my interest in shoujosei (especially het romance) decrese a lot, and what I search for is just the dynamic between mc (male) and male lead...I don't want to read mc (female) and male lead or mc (male) and female lead...And what I want to read mostly are just mlm or wlw stories....

What do you think is happening to me? Is it really weird?

Hi! I don't mind random asks at all! First I wanna say it's not weird, and you're certainly not alone! I cant know for sure the reason, but I can tell you how it was for me.

m/f oversaturates mainstream art. It's easy to become tired of it. I know at a very young age i was already bored with the age old tale of boy meets girl. Once i learned about the gender/sexual diversity in the real world, my interest in the romance between boy and girl took a nosedive because it was just so.. expected? boring? (and frankly a lot of the time not done in a way that gets me invested in the relationship), while my interest in m/m especially grew. There can be great joy in seeing something you dont normally see in mainstream media, especially if it resonates somehow with your identity, although this is not necessary in order to find joy in queer media.

BL and GL tropes are sometimes a lot different from m/f media, and a lot of the times that too can influence why we like it. If you like the "but im not gay!.. or am i?" that's one that you wont find in m/f easily lol. same with like, say "we're in an all-girls' school and kiss 😳" those are interesting and unique and rarely explored!!

There can also be a feeling of... either seeing yourself or freeing yourself from comparisons, depending on what you like? for example, a girl who reads m/m might feel more at ease without feeling like she has to measure up to something, because she's not part of the story! but she might also like to read f/f because she likes girls and wants to read stories where the girl gets the girl! Again, these arent always the case and the kind of dynamics you like in your media can be completely unrelated to your irl sexual/romantic interests, but they are options

Allow yourself to like what you like, gravitate towards the stuff that interests you and makes you happy without worrying about fitting your likes into boxes! Sometimes you end up liking an m/f couple over the f/f or m/m one and that's okay!

tl:dr your likes are normal, you are normal! love what you love