#should I tag jhy

[thefirstimagifabricator]

The amount of fucking iterations of composition this wip has gone through in the past like. 1h30-2h is ridiculous.

Like there’s this, where you can see the original intention, but it’s erased bc anatomy/proportions/perspective were dying

And I actually got that anatomy before to work pretty well—but then changed composition to this bc I realized it wouldn’t fit on the page the other way lmfao and also this was more like my original intention w showing part of the chain of people behind hsy

And then there’s this, the most recent version, which I changed to bc I did reference pics of myself to figure out the hand/arm foreshortening and then realized the second one is fuckery when it comes to anatomical possibility (too much neck and shoulder/back strain involved lmao) in relation to the head position I have established for hsy, which I really don’t want to change bc I spent too much time on that and I like it too much dammit—

ough but might change the face perspective anyway tbh bc the anatomy/perspective is a pain as it is and I kinda liked the second layout of the composition better tbh

argh idk

[directorofthefalselastact]

Seeing your posts about JHY, I’d like to ask: What are your feelings towards SS being accused of transmisogyny, bi/homophobia and gaybaiting as well as the various LGBT-related criticisms leveled at ORV? I apologize if this seems out of the blue, tonedeaf or if you’ve made your stances clear already.

It is pretty out of the blue! Am I being interviewed for something! And to be honest, my personal orv tag is really small and I think I’ve made myself pretty clear. But you know, I love talking so I’ll take this opportunity with pleasure.

How I feel is: um. Happy they’re being criticized? I mean, Sing Shong are adults writing a very popular book with tons of exposure for lots of money now, and if people notice homophobic, transphobic, or really any kind of prejudicial content in their work, then the reader base has the right to bring that up and ask them to confront it. I think people should call these kinds of things to their attention all the time. So, ah, those are my feelings. I think it’s important to acknowledge these failings and inform others seeking to engage with this book about those failings, so that they can then engage with ORV forewarned and forearmed.

Of course, I think there are some interesting things to consider about ORV re: LGBT “representation”, such that it is.

1. Gaybaiting/Homophobia/Biphobia

I don’t think gaybaiting is what’s happening in this novel. Or rather, Sing Shong made a bunch of tacky jokes about “does dok/hyuk is gay”, then they stopped making those jokes, and the rest is fandom having fun with character relation ships AKA the essence of shipping. Sing Shong had no directed engagement with fans desiring gay ship content, and in my mind, without that deliberate marketing of the possibility of your fave gay ship getting together, we don’t really achieve the necessary level of focused teasing that “bait” would require. In addition, ORV isn’t a romance novel; there is no core straight relationship that before which any teasing of this gay relationship is doomed to fail. Either way, it’s undeniable that the theoretical gayness of their relationship was something the novel initially made jokes about, and it is also something that the authors actually addressed!

In a blog post, Sing Shong acknowledge the scenes in the novel that seem to tease at KDJ and YJH being in a relationship and admits that they were 1. Jokes and 2. Something they tried to eliminate from their writing once they realized this would be insulting to actual LGBT people, for which they apologize. They were also addressing people who would (as a form of criticism) call ORV a BL novel, telling them to not disparage BL as a genre AND also to reiterate the scenes that fans read as “proof” of dok/hyuk’s romance were not intended to be read this way. If you’re interested in seeing the post, it’s here: https://blog.munpia.com/terranguy/category/201299/page/1/post/79270

Growth? I think it’s good that they both understood the issue at hand and directly apologized for it. In their words, reading KDJ’s and YJH’s relationship as romantic is a popular and acknowledged interpretation in the fandom that they do not oppose but also did not intend. A pretty boilerplate “you can interpret it that way if you like” stance. In my opinion, I think Uriel is funny as shit and she can write as much RPF about dok/hyuk as she wants. My problematic taste in women.

2. Transphobia

This is the issue I think you wanted me to focus on, and disclaimer before I start: I’m not trans. I’m not really cis either, sure, but I’m not intimately aware of the politics and struggles of the trans community, especially not that of South Korea. I can’t be an authority on the relative correctness or wrongness of how trans characters, or other gender-nonconforming characters, are treated in this novel. This would then just be my personal feelings while reading.

So I think they messed up! I don’t think Sing Shong were actively malicious while writing any of the characters I’ll mention here, I just think there were choices made that, to me, feel kind of cruel.

A. The Pink Kids

This is my actual biggest problem with ORV’s LGBT rep, so to speak. I think the way these crossdressing men were almost all characterized as amoral and treacherous, the way Han Sooyoung mocks Lee Hyunsung for having “bad taste” and calls the Pink Kids “perverts”, and the way their disguises were removed (with the focus on revealing their hairy legs), were all extremely uncomfortable to read when you consider how trans women are often given the same treatment for just trying to live their daily lives, especially if they cannot “pass” at a level acceptable to society.

Now, in this scene, Sing Shong did have KDJ clarify that Kim Yongpal was innocent and that crossdressers (and by extension trans women, since we aren’t actually made aware of how Kim Yongpal personally identifies) aren’t all inherently evil. Just maybe, three out of the four we meet? It’s a bad scene overall, and I’m curious to know why it was considered okay to keep for ebook. Perhaps they felt it was clear they didn’t intend to smear an entire community of people by making Kim Yongpal a good person! That might really be enough! It’s just personally very discomforting to read.

B. Nirvana

Love Nirvana. Admittedly weird that the textually non-binary character is so unhinged, but to be honest, they felt more like a wacky fictionalization of Avalokiteshvara/Guanyin or like one of the gender swapping guile heroes of Indian mythology, so I must personally give them a ten out of ten for being so fun. My webnovel Shikandi. Still, Nirvana’s interest in YJH being used for that “I don’t like men!” gag was, yeah, not great.

C. Jang Hayoung

She is trans! Good night.

(KDJ is so rigid about thinking that even with the novel changing wildly around him that the characters he grew up are going to be exactly the same, Jang Hayoung included. The novel is also dedicated to proving him so, so wrong. I am satisfied. Also, he DOES start using the literary female pronoun with JHY as he does the other female characters after JHY’s first POV scene so I like to think he Learned Something through using Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint on her and just sat there looking like 🤡 for a bit and then getting with the agenda. The real question is why LGY’s going around calling her hyung. I’ll slap a 13 year old, I don’t give a shit.)

D. The Punisher

He’s my girlfriend.

3. Various LGBT criticisms

SangSoo isn’t canon and they didn’t kiss onscreen :(((

That was long! TL;DR I think you should totally confront authors with the elements of their story that are cruel without internal investigation of why that cruelty is necessary. I think it’s so sexy to be critical about even your most favorite pieces of media, because in the end, no matter how important a work is to you, there are real people out there who it might be hurting, and they matter more.