#i wanted to expand more on the misogyny in shonen and how it relates to all this

[gandalftheweeb]

what do you think about this post? https://adropofinkasapoem.tumblr.com/post/643207057812652032/softblanketofstars-hungrygayandtired-okay

i came across this post just now, and i wanted to know your opinion since you write a lot of great metas and i love reading your opinions on this topic! :D

if you’re asking abt the original op’s opinions i have to laugh, bc as the most recent addition said there’s like. absolutely no chance any gay ship will be canon in a shonen jump series unless it’s between 2 super side characters and strictly implicit (rather than explicit). we may get a gay character, but they will undoubtedly be a male side character and probably turned into a spectacle for readers to point fingers at.

internal fandom politics aside, kr//bks’ bloated idolization of kr//bk is actually harmful in that it is genuinely misleading. this is why it reminds me of the dreaded kl*nce dumpsterfire--the ship’s actual canonical foundations are loose, at best there’s a vague shape of structure in place that could be expanded on but is still a ghost of potential rather than anything corporeal, but yet the ship is overbearingly popular in the fandom and ppl break their backs trying to validate it. subsequently, other slash fans not in the fandom see the popularity and mistakenly assume it must be a legit thing in canon and go experience the series. then they either have an incredibly disappointed awakening or their rose-colored glasses are so powerful they continue to be misled and fall into the rabid fandom cesspool.

this is harmful bc obviously misleading ppl abt smth that makes them so passionate--such as the fleeting rush of serotonin seeing a queer-coded or canon gay ship brings for young lgb ppl starved of representation--can lead to real disenchantment and emotional lows. but it is also Very Bad bc it’s not as simple as voltron’s scenario began, where having major gay characters was actually on the table. shonen jump is actively homophobic and regularly queerbaits by exploiting fujin and slash fans with things like merch and non-canon content (the movies, bnha smash, filler eps, ovas, ect) to get their money, while not letting their ships touch canon in any meaningful way. this has been going on as far back as dragon ball z, and as far as i can tell as a westerner, really exploded with naruto and the rise of naruto/sasuke in the late 90s/2000s.

as much as i’m sure shonen jump and all the shonen megafauna probably despise it in the most heteropatriarchal way possible, they are not stupid. they know that slash is an immensely popular fan culture both in japan and internationally (especially in the west). they know they can make money off of us. but they don’t want to actually give us what we want, because that means endorsing our weird queer interests that are obviously unfounded ravings of social pariahs. so they use merch and filler and movies and everything shy of actual canonization to string our interests along without actually listening to or indulging them. the shonen rival trope we know (born via naruto & sasuke) itself even reflects this, as they know this trope is popular among fujin and that any story containing it will garner some attention from slash communities for them to line their pockets with. their willingness to flesh out the relationships between characters like naruto and sasuke, and even include homoeroticism in canon sometimes to stoke the flames with the most milquetoast fire poker ever, is not queer-coding or endgame hinting or some peripheral acknowledgement of queerness and certainly not a romantic subplot. it’s queerbaiting, and if it’s not it’s the blatantly homophobic mindset that men can only like women and thus can’t be gay Ever, born of the rampant misogyny in shonen culture that op of the addition mentioned. this is the shitty reality of gay ships in shonen, and it doesn’t change just bc it's a ship you like.

also for the record the ship that gets the most queerbaiting in canon and canon-adjacent content is not actually kr//bk, it’s bkdk. kr//bk tends to be pretty removed from canon with its queerbaiting tactics (mostly merch and spoofs, w a few exceptions), meanwhile they used a whole ass sex metaphor for deku vs kacchan 2 in canon. so while i don’t want to undermine kr//bks being manipulated & i honestly think it’s even more slimy that they do fanservice for smth that has no foundations in the story, it is important to acknowledge the ship that is actually used to queerbait within canon. even if the queerbaiting is unfortunately kinda complicated and could have a whole essay of its own.