“Ah, has a creature ever perfected the art of denial as finely as a human?”
-Reynardine, Gunnerkrigg Court
An abundance of ship tease! Subtext becoming actual text! Official artwork showing two characters in an intimate moment that is reminiscent of lovers!
Even in the face of all these happenings, some viewers will dismiss lesbian love as seen in yuri shows / shows with yuri themes as not being “real.” Apparently it doesn’t count!
If any of these were to occur for or feature a heterosexual couple, then you can bet that the majority of fans will acknowledge that the pairing is legitimate or that the author intends for them to be together. Dissenters would include individuals who care little for shipping in general, individuals who dislike the pairing in question for various reasons, or individuals who are aware that Truck-kun is a prominent character within the narrative.
At any rate, this post isn’t going to talk about why I think people feel like yuri couples have to work harder to qualify, to become recognized as being official – that’s for another post for another time.
Instead of being analytical, this post is intended to list some of the darndest things I have heard people say as they dismiss the notion of lesbian love (thank goes to Zeria for providing a much-needed starter kit).
“There’s nothing going on in that scene” / “You’re overanalyzing”
“Friends do that” / “They’re just really good friends”
“Just because they do _______ doesn’t mean they’re gay”
“She’s only blushing because she’s embarrassed”
“They’re too young to actually know what love entails”
“She’s staring into her eyes because maintaining eye contact is the expected standard for social interaction”
“She’s not into girls because she looked at a male character in episode ___”
“You’re just a shipper”
The Lily Garden 
“‘Oneesama’ literally means ‘big sister’, so saying it proves the admiration isn’t romantic in nature”
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Oh, that’s a good one! Well, it’s not a good thing to say since it’s a flawed way of thinking, but you know what I mean.
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Nice simple article. Enjoyed it Remy 🙂
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Thank you!
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Your welcome! 😀
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Remyyy, your posts make me want to rant and rave so bad. That’s a compliment btw.
All of these arguments are just so damn stupid. Like Matt, I’m especially pissed off by the ‘looked at a male argument’. Because a random look if often all that takes for a man and a woman to be seen as having chemistry but all the sexual and/or romantic tension in the world is not enough to convince most people about same sex pairings. It’s like they need to have sex on screen to be seen as legit. Fuck that shit.
And it’s not just yuri, male/male relationships get the same treatment. Do you know there are people still arguing that Victor and Yuuri aren’t a couple? It’s like any of the easily passable standards for a het couple fucking vanish once its a queer couple.
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Oh, phew, had me worried there for a second.
Mmm double standards strike again.
Even though this post was more focused on yuri relationships, I was thinking of Yuuri and Victor while I was writing this, too. I’m astounded people can dismiss the ring scene.
Queer couples always have to fight ;___;
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The ‘she looked at a male in episode…’ line really annoys me because it completely ignores both the possibility of non single gender focused sexual orientations and the possibility that someone could like person X but then later realise that only really like people of the same gender. On top of that, shipping can be fun, which is kinda the point of watching anime.
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It’s indeed frustrating.
I have to admit that there seems to be a widespread black-and-white viewpoint when it comes to orientation (you’re heterosexual or you’re homosexual) and I seemed to have indirectly promoted it with the post. My apologies.
Bisexual, pansexual, etc characters are underrepresented and misinterpreted often unfortunately.
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I wouldn’t say you’ve promoted it at all, merely helped point out a flawed argument, so need to apologise at all😀
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Well, my intention was to point out a flawed argument and I guess promoting is the wrong word. I meant that I sort of implied that all of these interactions mean that they’re all gay (despite what the viewers described in this post say) when they could easily be bisexual and that didn’t really occur to me when I wrote this post. So I’m apologizing for not being as inclusive as I should have (and for using a character that has no interest in men under that specific line/quote – Kataoka Yuki from the same series would have been a much better choice).
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Ah, shipping is fun but some people do take issue with shipping!
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