Is anyone else bothered by the large amount of gl novels containing het?

[Sabruness]

It's only bait if it's mostly Chinese food on the menu. If there are two or three niche fusion dishes, then it doesn't ruin the restaurant's billing

Well, that is the basis of the premise is that the menuis almost entirely chinese food. i meant to put an addition in expanding on that point exactly but i forgot to because gacha brain.

so, yes, the problem is GL genre tagged stories with "bisexual protag" that mostly or almost entirely focus on het. it's a bait misuse of genre tag.

Your story is an example of things done well. It's clear in the synopsis that there is a het relationship and then there is a GL relationship. though your novel doesnt work as a positive example with the premise of this thread as it's not a GL novel with "bisexual protagonist".

That's not what's happening with these stories, though. This is about a large number of novels where there's only one MC and they have multiple relationships or encounters across the novel - some of those being with women, but many or most being with men.

However, it's actually the norm for the GL genre to only focus on relationships between women, so it's natural that your readers would expect that unless you tell them otherwise in the blurb.
Other couples are typically only side dishes.

GL is a genre with it's own norms and expectations, so including a lot of focus on het relationships is more like going to an Italian restaurant and finding out that they're serving mandatory haggis with every order.
Some people might be interested but, unless you hung a sign on the door telling people that ahead of time, most people who just came for the Italian food will want to push your haggis away.

 

[GDLiZy]

If both the gl and normal romance are big things of the story, I see no problem with having girl love genre. If you feel cheated then it's a you problem because you have a biased expectation in the first place. You can always walk out of the stories you don't want to read at any time.

 

[BenJepheneT]

If both the gl and normal romance are big things of the story, I see no problem with having girl love genre. If you feel cheated then it's a you problem because you have a biased expectation in the first place. You can always walk out of the stories you don't want to read at any time.

The tags itself kinda set OUR expectations in the first place. Like the metaphors the guys above have given: if I walk into a pure Italian restaurant only to find that every dish on the menu is some eastern-western fusion, of course I'd complain. Granted, I can walk out anytime, but when every pure Italian restaurant in the city is doing the same exact stunt, I'm gonna want some answers for that.

GL is a genre with it's own norms and expectations, so including a lot of focus on het relationships is more like going to an Italian restaurant and finding out that they're serving mandatory haggis with every order.
Some people might be interested but, unless you hung a sign on the door telling people that ahead of time, most people who just came for the Italian food will want to push your haggis away.

The metaphor still doesn't serve it well. Since we can only read a story as its whole without picking and choosing, every dish the restaurant serves has to have haggis integrated into the dish where it can't be individually seperated.

Tainted, you could say, if you're a purist.

 

[GDLiZy]

The tags itself kinda set OUR expectations in the first place. Like the metaphors the guys above have given: if I walk into a pure Italian restaurant only to find that every dish on the menu is some eastern-western fusion, of course I'd complain. Granted, I can walk out anytime, but when every pure Italian restaurant in the city is doing the same exact stunt, I'm gonna want some answers for that.

It set the expectation that there is girl love in it, not that there is only and only girl love. You don't walk into action novel and expected it to be ceaseless barrages of tournament arcs upon tournament arcs.

 

[Moonpearl]

If both the gl and normal romance are big things of the story, I see no problem with having girl love genre. If you feel cheated then it's a you problem because you have a biased expectation in the first place. You can always walk out of the stories you don't want to read at any time.

It's an author's job to manage their readers' expectations. Ideally, you should never end up with a reader who doesn't want to read your type of novel actually reading it, because that leads to negative ratings and reviews.

For many readers, their time and emotional investment in a story is precious and it's a show of poor character for an author to trick them out of that.

It set the expectation that there is girl love in it, not that there is only and only girl love. You don't walk into action novel and expected it to be ceaseless barrages of tournament arcs upon tournament arcs.

Action is a less well-defined "genre" that just indicates that there's going to be a lot of immediate danger and violence. It could be a tournament arc, a survival novel with creatures chasing you through the woods, or even a battle against the gods. Doesn't matter - the reader understands the versatility of that because that's what's normal for that "genre".

In addition, authors rarely fail to flag up what kind of action is going to be in a novel, so there's little to no chance of the readers receiving unpleasant surprises.

Your average BL reader also doesn't expect to go into a BL novel and find that the MC spends 50% of his time in a relationship with a woman, unless the author put something in the blurb to warn them about it.

 

[BenJepheneT]

It set the expectation that there is girl love in it, not that there is only and only girl love. You don't walk into action novel and expected it to be ceaseless barrages of tournament arcs upon tournament arcs.

I think we're speaking on different terms here. Of course I wouldn't have a problem if there's a little het relationship in a GL here and there. The calibre in which I'm talking about is say, if Schindler's List marketed itself as if it's directed by Micheal Bay.

 

[GDLiZy]

It's an author's job to manage their readers' expectations. Ideally, you should never end up with a reader who doesn't want to read your type of novel actually reading it, because that leads to negative ratings and reviews.

For many readers, their time and emotional investment in a story is precious and it's a show of poor character for an author to trick them out of that.


Action is a less well-defined "genre" that just indicates that there's going to be a lot of immediate danger and violence. It could be a tournament arc, a survival novel with creatures chasing you through the woods, or even a battle against the gods. Doesn't matter - the reader understands the versatility of that because that's what's normal for that "genre".

In addition, authors rarely fail to flag up what kind of action is going to be in a novel, so there's little to no chance of the readers receiving unpleasant surprises.

Your average BL reader also doesn't expect to go into a BL novel and find that the MC spends 50% of his time in a relationship with a woman, unless the author put something in the blurb to warn them about it.

If they instantly lose all their investment because hetero romance happens then the story is not that good in the first place, or that it just isn't for them. The author tricks no one out of anything. It's the readers thinking their vision must be right and got "betrayed" when it isn't.

It's one thing to say this novel only has girl love then betray the readers by adding normal romance and having girl love genre then have bg romance alongside gl.

I think we're speaking on different terms here. Of course I wouldn't have a problem if there's a little het relationship in a GL here and there. The calibre in which I'm talking about is say, if Schindler's List marketed itself as if it's directed by Micheal Bay.

Well, that's more of an intentional dick move than misinterpreting the trailer.

 

[BenJepheneT]

It's one thing to say this novel only has girl love then betray the readers by adding normal romance and having girl love genre then have bg romance alongside gl.

I think this can't be cast under such a wide net but rather, taken in a case by case basis. There's so many intricacies, idiosyncrasies and hints within every novel and author in the site that it's really hard to judge which is the latter and which is the former.

But OP must've caught the bad end of the stick enough to make this post. Or he's just a shitdick bag of wet chips. Who knows?

 

[yansusustories]

Actually, there is one on this site it's just under tags. But it's true most sites don't even have it as a tag. There's also a transgender tag. To my knowledge, there aren't any other tags for LGBTQ+.

Tag: Bisexual Protagonist | Scribble Hub

www.scribblehub.com

There might be some but the variety of them is incredibly lacking. I've suggested some to add, as have other users, but so far, nothing has happened.

so why would you let coffee have such a commanding presence in your menu to the point where people would start pointing it out?

While I totally see where this question is coming from (the whole thread, really), we also had a thread asking about why there were so few stories with a bisexual protag tag iirc.

Which leads me to the main point: I totally get the frustration behind reading GL and then having to sit through tons of chapters with het romance. I surely wouldn't want that in my BL. But what is an author to do if they want to write a story about a bisexual protagonist whose bisexuality plays a role in the development of the character and/or story? Put it under "romance" only? But then the 'we only want het' crowd might be displeased. They could also add the GL subplot tag but if it's a big part (say, 50% of the story), then is it really just a subplot anymore?
At the end of the day, I think this is difficult for both sides. Authors are likely to offend either side no matter what they do.

 

[Moonpearl]

There might be some but the variety of them is incredibly lacking. I've suggested some to add, as have other users, but so far, nothing has happened.


While I totally see where this question is coming from (the whole thread, really), we also had a thread asking about why there were so few stories with a bisexual protag tag iirc.

Which leads me to the main point: I totally get the frustration behind reading GL and then having to sit through tons of chapters with het romance. I surely wouldn't want that in my BL. But what is an author to do if they want to write a story about a bisexual protagonist whose bisexuality plays a role in the development of the character and/or story? Put it under "romance" only? But then the 'we only want het' crowd might be displeased. They could also add the GL subplot tag but if it's a big part (say, 50% of the story), then is it really just a subplot anymore?
At the end of the day, I think this is difficult for both sides. Authors are likely to offend either side no matter what they do.

You don't have to include a het romance to create a bisexual protagonist, though. They could have past lovers of other genders, or just express an appreciation for other genders.

In the absence of a het tag, I would honestly advise putting a note at the bottom of your synopsis that there will be het romance included. It doesn't help people when they're filtering for stories they'd like to read, but it will at least keep readers in the right when they pick up your novel.

 

[yansusustories]

You don't have to include a het romance to create a bisexual protagonist, though. They could have past lovers of other genders, or just express an appreciation for other genders.

In the absence of a het tag, I would honestly advise putting a note at the bottom of your synopsis that there will be het romance included. It doesn't help people when they're filtering for stories they'd like to read, but it will at least keep readers in the right when they pick up your novel.

Yeah, but I was thinking of if they want to show the character's sexuality in the current time, not with something that happened before. I honestly think that could make for an interesting story. I see (that's BL though) different relationships a ton in the past but never (as far as I remember) as something currently happening even if it is mentioned that the protagonist is bi (might be different in GL though judging from this thread). I find that quite strange, actually, and it makes me wonder if bi people as readers actually mind?

And I think a note might be the only option unless it's already made clear in the synopsis itself. And for the genres maybe a combination of romance and GL so it turns up for both since, well, both is included. (Although I have to say that I often include romance for my bl-only stuff since I see BL as a subgenre of romance - should probably rethink that.)

 

[Moonpearl]

Yeah, but I was thinking of if they want to show the character's sexuality in the current time, not with something that happened before. I honestly think that could make for an interesting story. I see (that's BL though) different relationships a ton in the past but never (as far as I remember) as something currently happening even if it is mentioned that the protagonist is bi (might be different in GL though judging from this thread). I find that quite strange, actually, and it makes me wonder if bi people as readers actually mind?

And I think a note might be the only option unless it's already made clear in the synopsis itself. And for the genres maybe a combination of romance and GL so it turns up for both since, well, both is included. (Although I have to say that I often include romance for my bl-only stuff since I see BL as a subgenre of romance - should probably rethink that.)

Romance is added to GL that focus on romance, as it should be, so that wouldn't work.

On the topic of minding the lack of different relationship types...

Spoiler

Personally, I've never minded the absence of current relationships with men or other people - I just find the absence of bi and pan people altogether to be unsatisfying.
I come to a GL wanting to read about quality relationships between women, which is almost impossible to find anywhere else.

In addition, too often having a bisexual protagonist is used as an excuse to have a love triangle with a guy and a woman, and the guy is almost always the one chosen. And as a pan woman, seeing that sucks, because it reinforces the idea that we'll always pick men if we have the option. It invalidates the love felt between women.
I'd rather people incorporated bi and pan characters in a more genuine way, rather than using us as a cheap gimmick for drama.

 

[yansusustories]

On the topic of minding the lack of different relationship types...

I see. That makes sense Never thought about it that way, actually.

 

[thedude3445]

This thread helped me realize how much certain tags actually matter for searching. In the beginning, I had had the "bisexual protagonist" for my GL romance novel, but there was no boy-girl romance going on; I was just labeling one of the characters. I removed it later because of the tag limit and replaced it with another, but now I'm very glad for it.

Obviously, though, the primary issue here is that the vast majority of GL stories on the site are written by and for heterosexual dudes, which tends to mean a lot of sexualization geared towards those types of readers. There isn't anything tagging can do to fix that besides previewing some of the content ahead.