Bent-con (it's like Comic Con – only
gayer) was bigger and better than last year. I only got to see one
day, and it was still jam packed with fun. There were even more
booths with indie comics, film and book vendors. And there were
really cool panels that go behind the scenes in all these geek
oriented, creative industries. It took a little longer to have long,
drawn out conversations with these great vendors, but it was still
possible to do so. Do you want to find work as an artist? There were
people to hook up with. Do you want to know how to get your own book
published? There were people to answer that. There were even people
who could talk to you about where to pitch that screenplay. For
Fujoshi, there were lots of beautiful artwork of any type of male
beauty (from lithe young bodies to the biggest bears) in all states
of undress everywhere! There was even a stage with beautiful men to
draw. They weren't as naked as the art that was available for sale,
but they were very pleasant to see nonetheless.
My goal for this year's convention was
to introduce gays and lesbians to Yaoi. I had a couple of encounters
with both groups during this year's Yaoicon. I was a bit taken aback
by a pair of gay men who had come to Long Beach to check out the
convention dismissing Yaoi as fetish based porn. Meanwhile, the
lesbians who spoke to us were puzzled over other lesbians who were
obsessed with the genre. I wasn't sure if I could disuade the one
opion or explain the obsession, but I was certain that I could talk
about the evolving nature of yaoi and the direction I felt the genre
was heading. To that end, I ran a panel called Yaoi 101 where I
covered the initial types of yaoi were stories with no plot or point
(the original definition of the word) to manga and anime series like
Junjou Romantica that had complex character arcs and were
increasingly dealing with the realities faced by gay men in Japanes
society. Ironically, shortly before the convention it was announced
that Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai, the
spinoff to Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi, was going to have it's own anime
series
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-11-29/sekai-ichi-hatsukoi/yokozawa-takafumi-has-anime-in-the-works
. This series deals with a homosexual relationship between
co-workers. One of them is a widower with a young daughter. These
mangas and animes have had the best character arcs and the highest
emotional and professional stakes ever seen in yaoi. They are proving
to be very popular with a growing audience. By fortunate
happenstance, I spoke after a panel run by Lyn Jensen on the early
history of yaoi. The genre was well represented.
Women Make Queer Genre was my other
panel and one that I was blessed to moderate for a second time.
Pioneer indie comic artist, Wendy Pini, and Iconic TV show writer and
producer, Jane Espenson, were the speakers once again. They talked
about how they came to write gay characters in their work and the
kind of reception that departure from the mainstream attracted. Jane
Espenson had been trying to write a gay character on Battlestar
Galactica since her arrival on the writing staff. Finally, she was
able to reveal that Felix Gaeta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Gaeta
was gay in literally the final scenes shot of the series. “If not
now, when?” she had argued. Ironically, the grief she got over
writing a gay character was for taking so long to do it. Wendy Pini
has already written an epic gay romance that takes place in a world
where sexual orientation was a non-issue. Wendy Pini's Masque of the
Red Death presents powerful and comples characters who just happen to
be gay. Still, Jane's statement gave her pause about Elfquest, the
legendary indie comic series that she created with her husband,
Richard Pini. In the wake of that panel Wendy decided to write a same
sex romance for the current series that 'will have a lot of drama but
will also have a happy ending.' This already compelling panel broke
major news on the US comic scene!
You can see more of my Bent-con photos here: http://www.sybpressyaoi.com/p/bent-con-2012-photos.html
I can't wait to see what next year's
Bent-con brings! I hope to see a lot more Yaoi fans. This convention
really appreciates all that is Bishonen, and it really loves Cosplay!
Manga Review: Hoshi no Yakata
or Palace of the Stars by
Tori Maia
This manga was
highly recommended by some attendees at my panel on BDSM at Yaoi-con.
I was complaining mightily about how badly the BDSM lifestyle is done
in most yaoi. These attendees promised me that I would really like it
and that it was amazing. That is a tall order to fill with me. And
this is not just because I'm snarky or prone to nit picking. I
understand that this is fiction. I get that works like these are
meant to be looked on as fantasy. My experience has been different.
Because I talk
publicly about being a Dominatrix, I hear from a lot of people who
seem to have trouble separating fact from fantasy. And these aren't
just net friends. I have personal acquaintances who think that the
writings of the Marquis Du Sade were an instructional manual! For the
record, they were fictional work that brutally satirized the social
mores of that time. I've had to advise many a reader that they might
not want to jump into a hard core S&M scene with someone that
they barely know from the internet. I nearly ended a friendship with
a long time friend that I knew was not interested in being anyone's
sub, because he insisted that there was some way that he could be
comfortable with those scenes. The woman in question was smoking hot.
He did not find a way to be comfortable, but he didn't stop until he
ended up in the ER. I cannot give bad BDSM a pass because it's
fiction.
Hoshi no Yakata is
an anthology series that centers around the employees and clients of
an upscale BDSM brothel. Overall, I found the first volume
interesting. I disagree with the negative reviews that claim there
are no pots and no characters. That is not fair and not true. It may
be hard to notice the characters in the middle of all those whips and
chains and dildos...so many dildos of ever size and shape. I do
wonder why they used that many dildos when everyone is male. But I
digress. I'll get back to why the dildos are a problem later.
The
first story, Kneel Down and Kiss my Boots,
was an impressive start. In it, the Number One Dom is startled to
realize that he has fallen in love with a client and that that love
is not returned. During their last session together, the Dom cannot
help but give some much needed advice to the client to pass along to
his lover on how to play hard in scenes without causing injury. The
scene was really hot. There was a nice character arc for the Dom, and
the information was quite good. Things go down hill rapidly after
that for me. There is the mysterious Master encouraging a trainee Dom
to kill his boyfriend, so that he could be a great employee. Really?!
If he can kill a man he professes to love, why is it not likely that
he will kill a client who is simply annoying? What kind of business
model is that?
After the brilliant
information in the first story, we move on to making Dom's available
as subs at a special price from special clients. NO!! Doms may do
that in their personal lives with their lovers, but that is a bad
idea for a pro. What if I'm a client of that Dom who I view as the
pinnacle of power – the only one who could take me down, and I see
said Dom crawling by on a leash held by someone who looks like a
child (I'll get into that later)? That would be my last visit to that
bordello. And as I am really vexed by that plot, I get the Master
himself being drugged by his Number One (BAD) and being worked over
by their most submissive of subs (WORSE). To have such a strong
beginning followed by these egregious transgressions was jarring. It
became difficult for me to read through to the end of the volume.
These
are not nits. Let's look at this as a business. Even high end
bordellos that are allegedly above the law will not cross any line
that will endanger their guests or their employees. Drugs would be
verboten. Using them on the boss would get an employee fired at the
least. They may get beaten to death by a guy who encourages employees
to snuff their boyfriends. And then we have clients and employees
that look like children. That is incredibly dangerous for a place
that trades in discretion. One disgruntled client or employee could
bring down authorities on a place that has children about. I'm
painfully aware that the drugging of sex partners and shota and
incest are a part of yaoi (oh, I forgot to mention that there was
incest in one of the scenes). That doesn't mean that it isn't lazy
writing.
Now, in the
category of nit picking, there is the look of the characters. This is
beyond Bishonen. I really couldn't tell that they were men or girls
for the most part. That took me out of the pleasure, because I like
to look at males that are pretty but very clearly males. And then
there is the constantly being in fetish gear even in off hours. Real
pros don't do that. They need to get out of their 'Dom space' or 'sub
space' every so often for their own sanity. And I think a reader can
tell who the Doms are even in civvies on in nothing at all. It's in
the way they stand or their expression. I had a server at a bar on
his knees when I was in frumpy clothes fresh from the farmers market.
I even had a little push cart of vegetables. I raised a brow at him
rather than reaching for my martini. He got on his knees to bring the
glass closer – as he should have.
I'm not sure if
I'll read all five volumes. I'll have to be persuaded that the other
stories are more like the first.
