Knee jerk reaction

[beelikej]

Ugh. Brought two books with me on the bus this morning and both of them made me angry only a few pages in.
Yuri Monogatari, a lesbian-themed manga has several different (badly drawn) stories which turned out to be filled with cliches and shameful generalisations.

The Threesome Handbook by Vicki Vantoch managed to make me doubt the rest of the book when I read on page 5 that there had been a three way marriage in the Netherlands.
Dear Vicki, just because Fox News "reported" on that, doesn't make it true. To my knowledge marriage in the Netherlands is and always has been a contract between two people. I would like to have your source for that throw away comment.

I fear it was made to give 'evidence' that three people can live in a commited relationship. As if you need a (legal) paper to prove that and even so, is that the only validation for (enjoying) sex/intimacy? That seems sad and on the same dubious level of acceptance as this video about an experiment on tolerance.

Despite the probably best intentions of the people conducting this experiment, why does it have to specifically mentioned that the actors are in fact gay and in a 'long term, commited relationship with each other' in real life? Has that any bearing on the experiment? Is it relevant? I think not.

Back to the subject of the above mentioned books: I will give them a second chance on the way back home, you may expect a more in depth review later. I just had to get this off my chest as soon as possible;) *break over; back to work for 90 more minutes*

Comments

[yasmine32068.livejournal.com]

Small Minded people amaze me! People are just people! If a couple of women or men for that matter want to make out, hold hands, or whisper sweet nothings to each other go for it! Cause you bet your sweet ass if I decide to kiss my hubby or hold hands, give him a hug in public I'm going to! Love and affection is just that Love and affection!

Thanks for sharing the vid it was interesting!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

What I found interesting about what they showed of the experiment is that the man and woman kissing in the bar were going much further than the same sex couples in the park and people still didn't mind!

It all looked perfectly sweet to me;)

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

I'm not too familiar with it, but isn't Yuri like Yaoi, in that it has its own...um...for lack of better phrases, style and audience?

There's some yaoi that well written, or at least fun, but I've rarely found any that was amazing or realistic. I don't know much yuri, though I have seen that Muyiki-chan In Wonderland thing, (that link is just to part one) and the other one just like it, and I got the impression it was as over the top as yaoi.

Hmmm. But again, I'm going off a pretty small sample.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I've read regular mangas and yaoi before, but this was my first yuri, so I'm still learning;) As far as I can see you have a point:
I managed to finish the rest of the stories and was happy to find some original storylines and interesting drawings in the book as well, but most were indeed over the top. Interestingly enough, like the men/boys in yaoi, the women/girls in this collection of yuri are more often androgynous than immediately recognizable as their supposed gender. They also all have masculine names (Josephine is Joey, etc). In this particular book there were no male characters in any of the stories.
In the regular mangas and anime I've seen (including your example) the girls are OTT girly - with the short skirts and the pigtails. *shivers*

I'm definitely interested in reading more, but for now I'm going to focus on some 'regular' books, so I can do the visualizing myself:)

[rispacooper.livejournal.com]

Was it rec'd somewhere?

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

You mean the one I read? I found that in the bargain bin at Forbidden Planet in London (massive nerd-comic shop). I prefer not to invest too much while exploring new genres *grins*

[tanisafan.livejournal.com]

Eww, I hate it when they try to make a point like that. Knee jerk reaction inDEED. Bah.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I was all "Ooooh" and then I went "Aaargh". :(