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You know, I've been wondering for some time what is it about books like Twilight that people, including women, find so romantic. There's the same audience in Phantom of the Opera phandom that totally root for Eric & Christine to get together and portray Raoul as an abusive drunkard, despite the fact that Eric is clearly out of his head, constantly stalks Christine and makes threats to her life, snaps at her like crazy when she first takes his mask off, etc... hell, even tries to blow up the opera house in the book with a no-win situation (As long as Christine chosen the Scorpion, aka agreed to stay with Eric, the opera house won't blow up and no one has to die). Then there's the people who misunderstand the point of Wuthering Heights and think Heathcliff's a woobie.
I like bad boys as much as the next fangirl, but there's a difference between acknowledging what they do wrong and that they're messed up as hell, to actually thinking all the yelling and throwing objects and death threats is actually romantic, like such abuse is something acceptable in an ideal relationship. Even something to dream about.
Case in point, someone's review of Meyer's The Host. What gets interesting is when someone brings up Miki Aihara and her manga Hot Gimmick (which I've had the fortune to have never read). The gist is the main character, Hatsumi, is a wimpy spineless twit. Some jerkass Ryoki blackmails her and eventually forces her to be his slave. Guess what? They get married! Yay! Oh boy. But wait, here's another one (bolding/underlining mine):
"Really? I've never read Hot Gimmick so I'll take your word for it that it sucks, but nothing I've ever read gave me chills like Boys Over Flowers.
I worked at a battered women's shelter years ago, and all the women had romances like Boys Over Flowers in their heads: "He's a good man, he's just been hurt and if I work hard enough he'll change!"
The Domyoujis of the world who do things like throw garbage on people and destroy them for fun don't change. Ever. And all those women in the shelter ended up dead...or worse.
If Boys Over Flowers was just a fantasy to women, it would be one thing, but the amount of women who take those stories seriously is truly terrifying. I literally can't read Boys Over Flowers, or watch the TV show/anime, without getting sick. Particularly the parts like where Doumyjouji tries to RAPE Tsukushi, and her thought is? "His lips were so gentle!" To romanticize a raping, bullying sociopath because he's rich and handsome...ugh."
Ye god. Not to mention TONS of yaoi animanga are like this. Older-Guy-Raping-Weepy-Uke-Boi, awwww! Hell, look no further than Okane ga Nai. It's hideous.
It's... I don't get people. I don't get it at all. Is this part of the reason why we have a 50/50 divorce rate in this country?
I like bad boys as much as the next fangirl, but there's a difference between acknowledging what they do wrong and that they're messed up as hell, to actually thinking all the yelling and throwing objects and death threats is actually romantic, like such abuse is something acceptable in an ideal relationship. Even something to dream about.
Case in point, someone's review of Meyer's The Host. What gets interesting is when someone brings up Miki Aihara and her manga Hot Gimmick (which I've had the fortune to have never read). The gist is the main character, Hatsumi, is a wimpy spineless twit. Some jerkass Ryoki blackmails her and eventually forces her to be his slave. Guess what? They get married! Yay! Oh boy. But wait, here's another one (bolding/underlining mine):
"Really? I've never read Hot Gimmick so I'll take your word for it that it sucks, but nothing I've ever read gave me chills like Boys Over Flowers.
I worked at a battered women's shelter years ago, and all the women had romances like Boys Over Flowers in their heads: "He's a good man, he's just been hurt and if I work hard enough he'll change!"
The Domyoujis of the world who do things like throw garbage on people and destroy them for fun don't change. Ever. And all those women in the shelter ended up dead...or worse.
If Boys Over Flowers was just a fantasy to women, it would be one thing, but the amount of women who take those stories seriously is truly terrifying. I literally can't read Boys Over Flowers, or watch the TV show/anime, without getting sick. Particularly the parts like where Doumyjouji tries to RAPE Tsukushi, and her thought is? "His lips were so gentle!" To romanticize a raping, bullying sociopath because he's rich and handsome...ugh."
Ye god. Not to mention TONS of yaoi animanga are like this. Older-Guy-Raping-Weepy-Uke-Boi, awwww! Hell, look no further than Okane ga Nai. It's hideous.
It's... I don't get people. I don't get it at all. Is this part of the reason why we have a 50/50 divorce rate in this country?
