I Don’t Care What The New, Uncensored Versions Say. Hua Cheng Being A Rough Bully Dom Top In Bed Is

alright, I was originally gonna make this as a comic but I’m really busy so I can’t manage that. I swear, this is my last anti-fujoshi post and then we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled inane nonsense.

firstly, I’ve seen a lot of people saying that they dislike the term ‘fujoshi’ to describe these people because of its misogynistic origins. I find this to be reasonable, so I will be referring to them as maiali pervertiti instead. It’s Italian! Hope y’all like it xx That out of the way, let’s begin.

I have put real, genuine, actual research into this. I scoured maiali pervertiti blogs to find their arguments, their mindsets, their justifications. As far as I could find, there are four main arguments. These being the following: ‘It’s just fiction, not reality’, ‘Hating us is misogynistic’ ‘hating us is transphobic/homophobic’ and ‘hating us is racist’. I will be unpacking each of these, looking at them from both perspectives, and explaining why exactly they’re flawed perspectives. Hopefully, a properly researched and informed take on this will help to clear the waters.

Let’s start with the first take. The ever-quoted ‘it’s just fiction, not reality’. This is an argument you’ll find in a lot of places, mostly in any place which is in support of questionable things being treated as erotic. Pro ships and pro-shippers also love to tote this. Now, on its surface this argument seems logical. However it starts to fall apart when you think about it critically. When we consider how the brain works, you’ll see what I mean. To be concise, the human mind slowly accepts things the more it’s exposed to justifications for them, regardless of how reasonable those justifications are. It associates a bad thing with ‘but nevermind, it’s fine’ and you stop feeling shame or regret over time. This is why you’ll often see lolicons say downright atrocious things about child characters- they’ve justified it for so long that they don’t see a problem with it.

Now, on the ‘it doesn’t affect reality’ claim, let’s look at other groups for this. Think about how many studies have been done saying that men who watch rape porn are more likely to become rapists. Think of all the people raised on the ‘I can fix him’ mentality on tv growing up to get in bad relationships or romanticise abuse under the idea that they can make an abuser better by loving him. It’s no secret of society that, actually, fiction does affect reality. The most concise, albeit silly way I’ve heard it put was ‘But you’re still jacking off to it. It’s affecting your dick and balls’. And I think that sums it up.

Next, let’s look at the ‘If you hate us you’re misogynistic’ claim. The mentality behind this claim is that women in Japan were referred to as ‘rotten girl’ for liking yaoi and bl, and to continue that rhetoric of not liking them is the continuation of misogyny. Again, this is a take that seems logical right up until you pick it apart. First we have to understand that the reason these men were calling these women rotten was because they disapproved of them exploring their sexuality and reading erotic content at all. They don’t hate women for reading gay porn, they hate women for reading porn period. The gay people criticising maiali pervertiti on tumblr aren’t hating them for the same reason. We don’t hate you for reading porn, read all the porn you’d like, we just want you to stop fetishising us. The difference is in the context; the men who were shaming Japanese women were shaming them for exploring their sexualities, were shaming you for treating an entire minority of people like they’re a porn category and for spreading gross, abusive content of mlm because you think it’s hot. It’s also important to note that Japanese women mostly started reading yaoi and bl because of the culture toward female sexuality in Japan. They couldn’t read erotica of straight couples, or they’d be seen as perverts. They couldn’t read wlw erotica, or they’d be seen as lesbians and shamed. Their only option for exploring their sexuality became mlm erotica. You, Lindsey from California, do not share this same issue.

Next we have the ever-irritating ‘If you hate us, you’re a transphobe’ argument.

*deep, deep sigh*

stay with me, fellow trans achillians. We can get through this. This argument is based in the idea that transmascs, specifically mlm transmascs, might read yaoi to explore their genders through sexual content. Unfortunately, exploring your gender through erotica and having a fetish are two different things. I personally did explore my gender through gay sexual content. Mostly fanfiction and mental fantasy, but with the odd fanart or comic sprinkled in there for flavour. The difference is that I never had a fetish for it. Most maiali pervertiti seem to argue with a very subtle straw man by implying that reading mlm content is the same as reading the gross rape porn yaoi that ‘fujoshi’ spaces are steeped in. This is not the case- there is a clear divide. I personally consumed actual, healthy content of gay sex. To go further with this argument, I actually think it’s actively harmful to perpetuate the idea that young trans people struggling with their gender should be exploring it through the things that are spread in fujoshi spaces. I’ve read some pf this stuff mostly by accident or against my will and that shit should not be associated in a young trans person’s mind with their gender. It isn’t safe.

Next we have ‘it’s homophobic to hate us’ which is definitely. A take. The rhetoric here is that by hating on the fetishisation consumption of yaoi, you’re really just hating gay men.

this is just… can I drop the nuance voice here? It’s bullshit. It’s gross bullshit. Gross, steaming, cowpat bullshit. Okay, nuance voice back up, let’s explore. maiali pervertiti, please understand that it’s mostly gay people who don’t like you. This is, again, a straw man argument. They’re trying to yell homophobia so they can ignore the real criticisms. The problem isn’t the homosexuality, my dear sweet perverted little fucking weirdos, it’s the rape porn and incest and abuse. Just read normal fucking mlm content I’m begging you.

Finally, we have the ‘it’s racist to hate us’ argument. This is an example of what I like to call ‘the firemen diversion’. This name comes from an example where a person might take the statistic of their being higher fatality risk the more firemen walk into a burning building, and then using it as an argument to suggest that it’s dangerous to call the fire brigade if there’s a fire. There’s a tiny nugget of reasonable argument in there, but it’s backing up a complete and utter bullshit lie.

This is basically what this argument is. The idea here is that the term ‘fujoshi’ was originally a reclaimed slur, and that westerners are changing it to degrade women again and are therefore misunderstanding the actual language behind it.

Now, this is based in a little bit of truth. Westerners do, in all fairness, misunderstand the term. I can’t speak for the reclamation of the slur, considering how I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that the way it’s used has been quite incorrect a lot of the time. That’s the true bit. The rest of the argument, however, is nonsensical. While yes, some people misunderstand the word ‘fujoshi’, it doesn’t mean that the criticism of the culture (especially the culture in the western world) is racist. Please, don’t cry racism when you see people asking not to be fetishised. You will end up making the actual movement against anti-Asian hate crimes (which have increased in recent years, need I remind you) look less credible. Once again, I am asking allies to shut the fuck up talking for the minorities they claim to represent while being batshit insane x

TL;DR: no, it is not misogynistic, racist, transphobic or homophobic when gay people tell you to stop fetishising us. Stop arguing straw men and just take accountability.

Also, maiali pervertiti are the female equivalent of straight men who watch lesbian porn. But somehow worse. That’s all, have a good day.

Fucking. I keep getting comments like ‘How would you know his character better than the author?’ And ‘Just cause you don’t have the kink doesn’t make it heteronormative:/‘ and I don’t vibe with it. I realise y’all couldn’t utilise reading comprehension enough to get through the original post, so this might not help cause you’re still illiterate, but maybe it’ll send you in the right direction.

(Yeah it was only two people and three comments, but I’m nipping this in the bud because I would rather rip my own eyes out of my head and bury them in my garden than actually try and debate barely-literate heterosexuals.)

Firstly, I don’t claim to know MXTX’s characters better than they do. What I do claim to know, however, is how character writing works. I fucking hate the claim of ‘But how would you know it’s ooc better than the AUTHOR?’ like. An author is fully capable of writing their own characters in a way that doesn’t line up with their established personality traits. While Hua Cheng is MXTX’s character and I can’t tell them what to write, I am well within my rights to point out how little sense it makes with Hua Cheng’s established character to be some rough dom sex bully. He’s literally the most caring, devoted, protective person on the planet toward Xie Lian. Not to mention, MXTX didn’t even write him like that even in the uncensored version. There’s a way more concise explanation (with a screenshot) of this in the reblogs, but I’ll explain briefly. While there is one scene in the uncensored version where Hua Cheng is acting rough and handsy, it’s also a scene where he’s blatantly acting outside of his own control. With his normal personality, he would never even touch Xie Lian without assured consent, let along make out with him like that. Also, he was handsy. No mention of bullying, cruelty or weird dom vibes. I was misinformed when I made my original post, because of everyone’s immediate gushing about him being a borderline sexual batterer, and that’s my bad. Also see the screenshot in the aforementioned reblog, where Xie Lian recalls Hua Cheng’s voice as being gentle and without coercion. Rough dom bully top abuser Hua Cheng is not and was never confirmed- but back to the original point, yes. An audience has full rights to point out inconsistent character writing where it exist. What, do I need to flash my media literacy license. Let me on the crime scene, I work for the FBI (Fans of Book Investigation).

Secondly, what kinks I have is irrelevant to my interpretation of media. I’m actually pretty fucking kinky, and I’m super into the whole rough sex, dom top, bullying thing. I think it’s hot as shit. That being said, I was still uncomfortable with this characterisation. Why? Because the idea of the designated ‘guy’ of the relationship (to explain that, while MXTX didn’t write either of them as the ‘guy’ or ‘girl’ in the relationship -thank god- fandoms often latch onto the idea that one character, usually the one who’s taller and less meek or polite, is the guy in the relationship. That’s why the shorter and nicer one gets feminised so violently) being sexually violent and insatiable is neither new, nor a foreign idea in heteronormativity. It happens a lot; the designated ‘man’ in the relationship is constantly horny and super sexually brutish, because tHe bOyFrIeNd wAnTs sEx bUt tHe gIrLfRiEnD sAyS nO cAuSe gIrLs dOn’T gEt hOrNy oR kInKy. It’s bullshit, and y’all need to stop pretending not to notice so your faves can stay unproblematic UwU.

I don’t care what the new, uncensored versions say. Hua Cheng being a rough bully dom top in bed is too heteronormative for me to ignore how it makes no sense for his character, sorry.

You ever have a dream that makes you just So Concerned, but not for the traditional reasons. Like, I don’t mean “omg I had a dream about doing bad stuff I must be insane” but moreso. I had a dream last night where I found out I had a stalker who was obsessed with me romantically. For some reason my choice of action was to lay next to him in my garden (because he had been watching through my window) and demand that he share his cigarette. I don’t know why, but I had the oddest desire to indulge him. Anyways this is concerning solely because it reveals a frightening amount about my self-preservation instincts. Or lack thereof.

I know damn well Shorter would be the most IRRITATING older brother type, and it’d be so cute

maybe dont go on a date at the exact restaurant shorter works at next time

OH BOY THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE AS A DRAFT

is this a safe space to say that if he was real this man would not be safe from me

There would be nowhere he could go where I would not find him and ask him out. Asexuality be damned, he could be go to the ends of the earth and I would sense him like a shark and chase him with speed previously unseen by humanity. He could be hiding in a little house in the ass crack of the turtle holding up the planet and I would show up at his door with a rose between my teeth. I want him biblically. I want him in a way that would make Jesus himself rise from the ground and punch me in the throat. Then Jesus would see this man and join in instead.

The audacity Ash Lynx has to call ANYBODY ELSE a fag while wearing those glasses and having that boyfriend needs to be studied

ugh nauseating the way eiji looks at ash when he's pouting about their little lover's quarrel

some serious faggotry happening in the new york public library

I’m??? In tears??? How dare u this is so cute.

It took me so fucking long but I finally found the drawing. Don’t mind the rips and coffee stains and folded corners, this thing has been through it (it fell down the back of my desk)

please dude my little brother made me design what we’d look like in the Zelda franchise because he’s a strange little autistic Lima bean of a child (seriously, he’s memorised Breath of the Wild so thoroughly that he can tell you what’s in every chest before you open them) and I know it’s cringey but they low-key fuck would y’all publicly execute me if I showed them off :/

new batch of xie lian memes but theyre just really sad and existential this time hahaa

The adult one looks ashamed. The child one looks angry. Screams until I die.

oh sweet angst,,