소프트 비엘 만화 장르의 재미와 의미

Abstract

This study begins by showing that, unlike in Japan, the establishment of the Boy's Love (BL) genre in Korea was a "soft" BL from the beginning: it was neither misogynistic nor homophobic but rather possessed a progressive character that challenged heterosexual norms. I will then examine the most common criticisms of BL and argue that they are inadequate. These criticisms usually mention this genre's sexual objectification of LGBT people, its lack of understanding of LGBT realities, and its superficiality. I then analyze the attraction for the soft BL genre. This is first and foremost about the attractiveness of the characters and their relationship. It usually focuses on what attracts each of these two men to each other, and how they go through the arduous process of becoming indispensable to each other. In other words, no matter how good-looking a BL makes its main characters, the story cannot succeed if it does not integrate this fact into a narrative. I then propose that what is known as BL's pleasure, or "multi-identification," should be newly seen as providing the reader with the pleasure and liberating experience of wandering from one gender to another outside the gender that they have been socially assigned to perform. The repeated access to this experience could help us transcend the rigid boundaries of our society's gender binaries, to understand that gender can be bisexual, polyamorous, or much more, and how violent the imposition of social binaries can be. Some soft BL comics that have recently gained attention are increasingly realistic, so it is expected that they will serve as a bridge to LGBT comics that are more realistic.