100% agree with everyone here about how refreshing it is that the prince character actually wants to be butch. When I was young I settled for the scraps of "wants to be feminine, forced to be masculine and secretly hates it" but now I'm too old to settle for such weak representation.

last edited at Jun 16, 2024 1:33PM

smirks in Light Novel reader

So sad we'll probably never get more on this because Microsoft closed the studio for no reason.

I can't even see the qrts because Twitter is so broken now.

Now I'm curious, how do Japanese folks find new books in bookstores if things aren't genre sorted? I'm guessing that the imprint serves as a shorthand for genres, like how Harlequin is all romance novels? How does that work for huge companies that publish tons of different genres?

This one sucks

Fetishizing (Futa instead of trans)

Other stuff I think you have a good point, but as an AFAB butch with bottom dysphoria I usually feel extremely distanced by how transwomen treat their penises, even if they're not dysphoric about them. I vastly prefer futa/omegaverse because it often mirrors how I feel about it more closely.

'd think that some people esp. there are just very into the idea that a woman (without quotations, talking from our perspective) can dominate and impregnate a man. Or a man another man. Or woman to a woman. In ABO world, "men" aren't the only ones to dominate the world, alpha "women" can also do that since there doesn't seem to be any difference - I've seen a story where 5 omega-bullying beta men ran from one alpha woman in terror. This probably genuinely feels empowering to some, despite or regardless of how rapey it is. There's a lot of our-world yuri in this site and everywhere with very clear "this girl is the man" and "this girl is the wife" as if nothing changed in any dynamic with same gender relationship, after all.

It's late so this might be a bit rambly.

For me, it's not about the rapey stuff. It's that in ABO-verse, alpha women have dicks and can (usually) be masculine without repercussions. For me as an nb butch, that's actually hitting my gender euphoria. I read a lot of f/f ABO (and g!p) and it's really the only time I've felt like I've seen myself in fiction.

I really feel like even in many story dynamics where you have this girl is the man and this girl is the wife, it never really presents female masculinity as a real option, just an aping of het dynamics. One girl is more "tomboyish" than the other, but still acceptably within the bounds of femininity: they wear dresses at formal events, enjoy a bit of make-up now and again, etc. In ABO, it feels like that's not what it is, that it can be the protective, nurturing, soft parts of masculinity without being divorced from the rough and powerful (the sex).

First time I see glands mentioned in an ABO story so I have no idea what MC is supposed to be looking for, but I asume blonde girl is hiding them, somehow.

I assume pheromone glands, they're usually on the neck, In some stories betas can produce pheromones as well, but this story seems to be going for alpha/omega pheromones only.

zooms in on tattoo Oh god it's a fucking Mucha pinup Ms. Frizzle and I love it.

last edited at Jan 7, 2022 12:32AM

I hadn't considered this perspective, which is totally me showing my own arse here. I apologize, I was stuck inside of my own perspective a bit.

TBH I think it's not one a lot of people, trans or cis, think about. The gender binary is often rerealized, imo, to include trans people, but enbies just can't fit neatly into it at all. For most people, I'd say this is subconscious, just as subconscious heteronormativity still exists even in very queer people.

However, I did not intend to suggest that "writing women with dicks who aren't AMAB trans" is the issue, although I understand how I left that impression. There's clearly nothing inherently wrong with trans bodies, I'm just unhappy when they're used exclusively as fetish material. A woman with a penis doesn't have to be AMAB trans (no matter how hard I personally might find it not to try to map my own experience onto them), it's more important that they are a fully realized character.

I do get that, ABO etc can still definitely fall into the 1D character fetishization trap. There's definitely even ABO written by wlw that falls into that trap, tho I don't read it.

I was specifically using "trans feminine" and "trans masculine" here instead of "trans woman" and "trans man" in an attempt to more broadly include nonbinary identities, but I did not meet the mark. Even then my comment is still a bit reductive, I know, but getting things perfect is a bit out of my grasp, still.

Also, it seems like everyone's genitals aren't actually relevant to the manga, which is nice. I apologize for my part in continuing a discussion on that, as though it's okay to talk about other people's parts like this.

Honestly, I don't consider myself trans, really, my enbieness feels like its own category (tho many NB people feel their enbieness is trans, ofc). And tbh, it's hard to get the every shifting world of gender completely right, what's important is willingness to learn and update your perceptions.

In this type of fictional setting I'd assume trans people could exist but also totally new types that are girls with dicks?

Yes, clearly trans people could still exist. But choosing to create a type of character who has a trans body, and then writing about those characters while ignoring trans people, sends the message that trans people aren't worth considering, and our experiences aren't worth writing about, and that it's acceptable to consider our bodies as sexual objects without having to accept our basic humanity (since so much ABO stuff, and also futa, is straight up smut). It isn't difficult to look at real world fetishization of trans bodies to see how this dynamic is harmful.

I get that, but me and a lot of the writers I follow who write ABO are AFAB nb people that still identify with the female end of the spectrum in some way. We don't want an AMAB, trans woman experience, because we don't have dicks and we want them. Hell, I read futa, and still read a lot of g!p, because those are also bottom euphoric for me.

While I get being frustrated at trans fetishization in general and also some of the rapey themes that can come in ABO, I'm tired of people saying "writing women with dicks who aren't AMAB trans" equals transphobia. Writing like that basically the only way I've ever seen my ideal gender in media.

EDIT:

Although I will note that if it's the penis thing (i.e. she doesn't have one), that seems particularly dissonant with actual trans feminine experience. So if that ends up being what "defective" means I'll choose to headcannon Akina as trans masculine, makes much more sense.

Case in point, Akira matches pretty closely to how I feel about my gender, and it frustrates me that "trans masculine" is the only possiblity you could think of to match what the manga says.

last edited at May 18, 2021 2:58PM

I'm which ever one that dislikes to be put up in categories like this.

Hell my gender identity is butch and I hate this "you gotta be a wlw type" thing. Also damn that biphobia.

That being said, the mention of studs makes me think it was a black lesbian who wrote this, so I looked into it. Seems I'm right as the original is by Natalie Simone around 2000 and was wasn't meant to be serious: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/6057636-dyke-categories

The F/F omegaverse is actually really interesting because I know a ton of nb wlw use it to deal with gender dysphoria (raises hand), Supercorp ABO fanfics especially. I understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea and it can be badly done (Omegaverse Sisters, etc), but it's actually really been a balm on my soul. F/F omegaverse also seems to be much less rapey and if there is rape in the story it's usually very "we know we're here for the noncon kink we're not kidding ourselves".

-Alphas have knots on the penis. I dont know why this was the one wolf anatomy thing they decided to keep but whatever.

I guess some people find it/idea hot?

For me it's the idea of being intimately linked to a partner and also because ABO knotting is meant to keep semen inside the receiving partner (ala reality) / usually coincides with increased fertility. I'm in that early-30s biological clock phase and the idea of making sure your semen stays in so that your gf/wife can get pregnant is insanely hot..

Took me a second to realize why Amity is covering her neck in the last panel. Apparently Luz is a bit more hardcore with her kisses when they get older!

Just something for those that may not know: "The moon is beautiful" thing is a reference, tho one I only know incidentally. In the Meiji era saying "I love you" to a partner was still somewhat bold in terms of frankness, so Natsume Soseki once opined to a student that it was better to translate "I love you" from English into "the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" in Japanese.

I tried debating him, foolishly, because I wanted to see how his mind works. I still don't understand it, he seems set on some weird definition of deduction and reasoning where he's right and nobody else can be. How someone can be so invested in fictional characters being "insulted" is beyond me.

I kinda want to see the crazy that got him banned in the first place, aside from his essays.

Ch 60 is pretty terrifying if you think about it. What's to stop the majority from calling reasonable views warped? The Puppus guy even mentions that and then it gets shut down.

There is one thing that this makes me wonder, since Yamada is totally an innocent about sex does that mean when she saw Kase-san's naked breasts, she really was only self conscious about her size comparatively rather than being turned on by her girlfriend's body?

That would be a kind of sad reading of the situation.

You can be aroused without realizing that it's what you're feeling. I certainly didn't know what those funny feelings were when I was young! If Yamada is really that innocent she might not have realized that she was embarrassed seeing Kase's breasts for reasons other than self-consciousness.

I suspect the cry of "No toys!" is tied up in some sort of "pure yuri" concept, where it's girls' bodies and nothing else. Not that fingers, tongues and such aren't sufficient, it's just there are more things you can do to have fun.

Personally, I'm simply not that interested in toys (and the weird giving the toy head thing is just that, weird) but vibes and stuff aren't a problem.

I don't get the "pure yuri" thing at all, people use toys when they have sex cause it's fun, not because they want to be straight or anything. I know me and my gf do. (Also, honestly, seeing a woman give a toy head is hot to me in a power differential sort of way.)

Holy shit, my heart. Puppy roleplay is the cutest thing in the universe.

Imouto is fucked up. She literally prefers having her mother dead and their family broken up, just so she can love her sister. I've gotten a lot closer to my mom while she's had cancer, but I'd trade it all for her not to die early, despite the good that's come out of it. It's like imouto didn't love her mother at all.

Holy shit, this guy's art is amazing. It was hard not to drool looking at it.

I need to get my gf to dress in those police uniforms.

Why do writers ruin potentially good bondage with dark themes and people ignoring consent? I just want to read about people being happily tied up.