Hello, everyone, i'm new to the site! I ove mangas and animes a plenty!

...Okay, how about i get straight to the point. I'm a yaoi lover, and since my friend told about it early last year i'v read a wholew bunch of it and even decided to change a storyboard around completely to make it a yaoi!

For a quick plot setting, my story is comical and takes place in the edo era of feudal japan. In this time, foreigners were absoliutely not allowed in japan(one who knows alittle about japan's history knows). One of my main characters is a foreigner disguising himself as japanese and has successfully snuck in the country, and he quickly falls in love with another main character, who is japanese.

The foreighner, a dutch boy, is at conflict with himself. Now here's where it get's complicated. This is around tear 1680, so he's an "old time christian "(please ask me to clarify if u don't feel u understand in my sense) that believes homosexuality is a sin, but he's in a country where homosexuality is greatly accepted.

I don't really feel strongly about how i should approach this part in the story...
I ...I ask you forum members to give me your opinions about how i should approach his reasoning. I would also appreciate any comments about your opinions on guys in yaoi sories at conflict with themselves...

I take it that you meant 'old time christian' by dark ages like, god-fearing person right?

I may not read much yoai (not my type) but I'm sure that your character's reasoning can be done by him understanding his lover's religion (be it Shinto or Buddahism) and japanese way of life. Sure there will be personal conflicts amongst the pair but their love can slowly surpass that.

Hope this is helpful and good luck with the story.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed that homosexuality was not as much a stigma in certain sects of Christian religion at that time period.

I suppose it depends on how philosophical you want to get with the story. If you're looking for something light, then going into depth about his beliefs vs. his desires doesn't fit. If it fits the story to be more meaningful than lighthearted, then you can approach it from the angle of understanding the other culture/religion, as Animate84 suggested, or you can potentially look at it as the erosion of blind faith in the teachings of Christianity - the "Why does it have to be this way?" factor. He essentially justifies it to himself based on the belief that God is merciful and not smiteful.

If the act of sex is only supposed to be about procreation, then why does the emotion of (romantic) love or the feeling of pleasure exist, since they're not necessary for procreation? God had to have made those emotions for a reason, so why is it a sin to feel them at times other than procreation? What is the point in having created those emotions if they're not to be used? And if God created (romantic) love, shouldn't that mean that any form in which it exists is acceptable to Him, as long as it is a pure love and doesn't degrade into lust? God smote Sodom and Gamorrah, but if it had been more about love than lust and pleasure, would the same thing still have occurred? (And, in my opinion, this would lead him toward being uke in order to accept someone else's love as opposed to giving.)

As for personal internal conflict - in most yaoi I've read, it's been focused on more of the modern-day "coming out of the closet" type of internal struggle than the deeper religious belief on the wrongness of homosexuality struggle, so if done correctly it could be a really meaningful piece. Ukes are often portrayed as weak-minded and weak-willed, so having one with such a strong inner conflict and who is not easily swayed would be nice. Of course, if you build it up right, then you're not talking about a one-shot, or the whole struggle would be lost and wasted.

Last edited by Liria at 10:05 pm, Jan 16 2009

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If you've ever thought or said "Nice Guys finish last" and really meant it, then you should probably read this LJ post by DivaLion. It's incredibly insightful whether you're male or female.

From a bumper sticker I like:
"If you're gonna ride my ass, at least pull my hair."

Sounds like a pretty good setup for an angsty yaoi story. I still wouldn't read it cause I'm not into yaoi but it seems like the setting has potential for alot of drama.

Just be careful to get your dates straight (ie was there still open homosexuality in Japan in the 1600's and were Christians against homosexuals at that point). Believe it or not, there was a time when it was quite normal for Christians to be homosexual. Back when members of the clergy could marry, they would often marry other clergy members who were male. Then around 900 - 1000 AD they decided that clergy members shouldn't be allowed to marry after that and sometime afterwards, homosexuality was deemed a sin. I mention this because you mentioned that your character was Dutch and given that in certain era's the western world, Holland in particular, was very open about such things, your character might have realistically been exposed to such behavior before.


Do you mind sharing the religious background and mindset of your character? I'm taking an ethics class right now so I'm particularly interested in such things. Is he Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, or something else entirely?
Depending on which sect he is a part of, he will probably react to Japan in very different ways.


Edit:
Lol I just realized that I probably went way too deep into the *don't care, need more smut* zone. Feel free to disregard my ramblings if you want. This is what happens when you're up at 3 AM doing philosophy hw