Absolutely, she'd have been labelled a pest a long time ago by this point in the story if she were a male.
To keep things short, at the expense of details: very little of what happened in this story could work if it were a heterosexual relationship. The dynamics and issues of the story depend on their being lesbian and the relationship type being one that's been historically mistreated and criticized. A comp that could be serviceable might be an interracial relationship set years in the past maybe. It could work as long as the lead woman acted as conflicted as Hiroko and struggled against societal pressures as she did. Been done before.
This. This story is explicitly about the fact that there is a generation of older people right now dealing with the fact that they grew up in an environment that was far more homophobic and intolerant than the world we live in now. You see it in these forums all the time. "Why is XX like this? Why don't they just acknowledge their feelings for YY? Nobody cares about gay relationships these days!" There is literally a generation of young people that are currently navigating the social landscape that have no idea what it was like to be literally afraid for your physical safety when you were young if people around you found out you weren't straight. They don't realize the trauma that induced on the people just a few years older than them.
Hiroko was right on that line. She built this department up, everybody there admires and respects her. Nobody cares if she's into women. But she's still pushing Ayaka away, not because she wants to, (she's miserable over it, There was specifically a panel about how she looked like she was going to cry after she turned Ayaka down,) but because she's controlled by an irrational fear induced by a personal trauma.
last edited at Aug 9, 2023 12:15AM