subject (and post) edited for seemliness

[insaneneko]

old post subject: why alpha-bastard semes need their dicks cut off

They think with their dicks. Or, they think that their semen will convey their deep feelings of "love" to their victims ukes. Which...I suppose is not that far off, since the ukes invariably fall for their abusers semes. I guess all sense is fucked out of them?

Though I suppose I'm giving the semes too much credit by claiming they "think" in any way.

Why am I in such a bitchy mood? Read two examples of alpha-bastard semes with true and pure loves lurking beneath all the completely gratuitous S&M shit I had to skim past.

Arisugawake no hanayome by Yukishiro Marie
Uke is summoned by the father he hadn't met in years (classic Ikari Shinji school of hard knocks--bastard father who neglected you for years calls for you only when he wants to use you) to find out he's to take the place of his older sister. She was supposed to marry big bad powerful dude (aka seme) but had run off (because she was smart). Uke is supposed to pretend to be her until she can be found and dragged back and brought back to marry seme. Uke is of course used sexually by seme, even abused right before and during the wedding (please, people. leave your mean deviant behavior at home at least). Uke makes a good faith effort to get along with seme's household and with the seme, but all comes to naught when his sister dies in a car accident and he's told he has to stay married to seme. He had been comforting himself with the idea of being free when his sister comes back, but now he's the seme's till he DIES. He tries to run away numerously, until he's tormented sexually by professionals until he promises not to run away again. He's a shell of an uke for a while, until a trusted nice guy from his hometown suddenly shows up to see if the uke is okay. Trusted nice guy had heard of uke's mysterious death and came to investigate. Turns out he's the long-lost older brother of seme who SHOULD have inherited the family fortune until he had skipped out. Wow, what a coincidence! In any case, uke says no (I don't remember why, I don't really care), and uke and seme convey their love for each other when seme is stabbed (by someone who had a decent reason to hate the seme, btw).

I normally wouldn't even bother mentioning a story this worthless, but I like the cover because the uke looks nice in his pretty kimono (the inside pictures have him in fugly kimonos) and the seme looks like a pimp in his white suit. Go shallow me!

Zettaisha ni torawarete by Katagiri Barbara
Just want to start by saying that I find every book by this author to be pretty worthless. This one's no different. Why do I bother mentioning it? Because of my utter disgust at the very end when the seme confesses that the uke has always been his "angel." Okay, maybe you should treat the uke like he's your angel instead of betraying his trust for you and use him like he's a sex slave!

In any case, the basic premise is that the uke is the younger son of a venerable yazuka family who really wants nothing to do with the family business. He's at college when he finds out that his parents and older brother have died in an auto accident which was no accident. While he's upset and brooding and wanting revenge he runs into the seme, who had been part of their clan until he'd been kicked out. He had taken care of the uke and his mother when the uke's father and brother were away, and the uke had been very attached to the seme. I don't remember exactly how it happens, but the seme tells the uke he'll find out who did it and exact revenge if the uke comes with him...and then proceeds to fuck him a lot. There's some bondage, some humiliation, some tormenting, the usual. Throw in the usual misunderstanding (he does these dirty, dirty things to me because I look like my mom...and here I thought it was because he was obsessed with me!) and the entire resolution of the uke's family's murder which involved betrayal (sorry, didn't pay much attention). There's the happy resolution with the seme's confession that he'd always seen the uke as his "angel" *gag* and probably more sex (I didn't read past the confession, but why bother?).

I did like the art because it's the same illustrator as Mahiru no tsuki, a novel with yakuza that is infinitely better.


I need to recognize these kinds of stories early on (preferably from the blurb on the back) and avoid them like the plague. Because once I start reading and get in too far, it's like a train wreck...hard to stop completely, unable to avoid the inevitable crash and burn.

Comments

[hidden-hero.livejournal.com]

Whether it's manga or novel I too find nothing appealing in these kinds of stories and fail to understand how humiliation = romance.

I read the books to feel good, and when the seme is a (what was that brilliant term you used?...oh yeah) Alpha-bastard, I am screaming at the uke to run for the freaking hills and get disgusted with him when he doesn't ~ and lose all interest in the characters and the story.

I'm sure there is an audience for these types or stories or they wouldn't print them but I am really tired of them. There is nothing I find more frustrating as buying a volume and finding it's nothing but an uke torture manual.

....call me vanilla, but I will never equate true love with non-con and emotional rape. >(

Sorry your wallet got sucked in again.

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

You can find the same cliché in slash fanfic. It makes me cringe every time.

[magicalemi.livejournal.com]

Heh, reminds me of Shinjo Mayu shoujo manga 'heroes' who all look alike and usually rape the heroine a few times till she starts to like it, pffft. Still, in general, I wish I could read enough Japanese to read BL novels, good or bad ^_^

[modorenai.livejournal.com]

You have hit on EXACTLY what aggravates me about the multitude of BL stories I've read that insist on having such bastard seme characters. Sometimes it just makes me want to bang my head against the wall in despair at how it seems like 90% of the BL authors seem to think that men being bastardly and possessive and jealous and selfishly controlling is a sign of TWU WUV. Yuck. Not for me, thanks, not even in fiction where I'm usually willing to indulge in the occasional suspension of belief (and which I find is often essential in enjoying BL). I don't see such behaviour that can EVER be seen as a sign of love unless you happen to be a very masochistic woman whose only goal in life is to be subjucated.

I think if I ever came across a man like that, I WOULD be tempted to channel Lorena Bobbitt.