What are your honest thoughts on GL stories?

[Fox-Trot-9]

I used to be really into GL when I was younger but now not so much due to overexposure to not-so-well-written examples. There's only so much kissing and scissoring and tonguing and fingering and moaning and the like before it all get stale from overexposure. Same thing with futa and bdsm and the like. I used to be really into all of that. Not so much anymore, as it has since evolved into my current fixation on femboy traps.

Part of the appeal to me about GL and futa early on was the novelty of what it would be like to be in that situation, but the novelty wore off. Now I'm less into the physicality of it GL / futa / sex scenes in general and more into the emotional / relationship aspect of GL / crossdressing BL. Like the existential shit, the moments of anxiety of having to interact with people that don't share your lifestyle choices, and the overall aspect of trying to keep up appearances; you know: the mundane stuff in the vein of what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-here, not so much the sexy stuff anymore, but I digress.

Anyway, if you wanna read a good example, well, a well-written example of what I'm talking about, check out A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett. It's got some awesome bdsm in one of the stories in it. It was hella painful to read, though, so if you're brave enough, check it out.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I understand this thread is mostly bait to rile up some forumgoers, but I'll give my two cents anyway

It's interesting how I did the same thread about BL way back, yet for some reason no one thought it was a bait and were pretty chill about it. Maybe the problem is you if you think it's a bait? Think about it.

P.S. If you check it out, yes it was phrased differently. Everything I wrote on forums back then was different because I tried too much to fit in. Now I I just want to be myself. Oh, and I had less experience with BL as well, another reason why it is different.

Are not most GL tagged things romance novels with an extra twist?

As for transmasculine stories, I can't really think of a webnovel that I've read. I'm sure there are some out there, it just isn't my cup of tea.

My honest thoughts though? I think this thread is dangerously close to kink-shaming. People have different interests, so one person's like can easily be another person's dislike.

I mean... No? I just started a convo. Also, see the reply above to shrimp. Talked about BL, everything was chill. Maybe it is GL lovers problem that take their gay girls too seriously and are too defensive about it? I said multiple times, it's not like I wrote anything in my OP defenitively. It's true I sneaked in a joke(everyone who know me has to see it from miles away), but c'mon man.

 

[ShrimpShady]

It's interesting how I did the same thread about BL way back, yet for some reason no one thought it was a bait and were pretty chill about it. Maybe the problem is you if you think it's a bait? Think about it.

I have not seen that thread

Although I obviously can't read your mind (yet) and say with certainty that this thread is bait, several comments such as:

So yeah... I don't want to read those super fetishized works. I believe in a you do you concept, at the same time, I think reading GL tells a lot about the personality of a reader.

Multiple women agreeing on something is pure fantasy. Like, c'mon.

Maybe it is GL lovers problem that take their gay girls too seriously and are too defensive about it

Lead me to believe that you at least intended for the thread to rile people up. There's some other stuff too, but I'm more willing to give the benefit of the doubt on them

With that said,

Now that I have engaged with the "bait", I will now recommend that you please please please please read the GL manga Kakeochi Girl it's really good, I swear. Not totally vanilla, but not fetishistic at all and is written by a woman. It's really nice to read while listening to Frank Ocean too.

Or if you're the kinda guy who dislikes labels on relationships, please please please please read the GL-but-not-exactly manga Stretch. Very vanilla and cozy, great character dynamics, has a little bit of real human drama. You can level up to gayer manga from there.

 

[Sarandib]

Also, I'm not super gung-ho about realism, it's not my hill to die upon. But man, GL at its core is such an unrealistic genre.

You aren't anal about realism, but in the same breath you complain about GL being unrealistic.
You're shaming people for liking something (you call it creepy, idiotic, scary) but add "tee-hee you do you, this is just my opinion" to avoid criticism. Your entire post boils down to "I think it's icky so you should too."
Yes, GL harem is self-insert, fetishistic slop. That's the point. I don't see how it differs from any other escapist fantasy.
"it says something about the reader." I hate how people try to use fantasy to make a point about the author or audience. People play Grand Theft Auto, they play Postal II. Do they want to go around murdering people? Lolicons exist, yet the vast majority have zero interest in real children.
These stories are fun to write, fun to read. But they are strictly fantasy. It is childish to read fiction to gather information about the author or about an audience.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

Those stories exist. I exist. We exist peacefully in this mortal plane.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

You aren't anal about realism, but in the same breath you complain about GL being unrealistic.
You're shaming people for liking something (you call it creepy, idiotic, scary) but add "tee-hee you do you, this is just my opinion" to avoid criticism. Your entire post boils down to "I think it's icky so you should too."
Yes, GL harem is self-insert, fetishistic slop. That's the point. I don't see how it differs from any other escapist fantasy.
"it says something about the reader." I hate how people try to use fantasy to make a point about the author or audience. People play Grand Theft Auto, they play Postal II. Do they want to go around murdering people? Lolicons exist, yet the vast majority have zero interest in real children.
These stories are fun to write, fun to read. But they are strictly fantasy. It is childish to read fiction to gather information about the author or about an audience.

 

[JayMark]

I'm riled up. That's it. I'm riled up now. You all gonna get kicked by my hoof! Then I'm gonna write a GL webnovel. Imma gonna do it too.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

I wrote a GL and completed it but never completed a BL.

Lol, I don't write anything with smut. Just not that talented of whatever. So I normally try to keep the dating sub-plot simple. If I'm gonna write romance it has to have supernatural stuff and action stuff in it as the main focus.

Romance use to give me burnout

Besides that little rant I do like BL, GL, and Hetero.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I wrote a GL and completed it but never completed a BL.

Lol, I don't write anything with smut. Just not that talented of whatever. So I normally try to keep the dating sub-plot simple. If I'm gonna write romance it has to have supernatural stuff and action stuff in it as the main focus.

Romance use to give me burnout

Besides that little rant I do like BL, GL, and Hetero.

 

[FieryLou]

I'm into GL, preferably vanilla and with little to no smut, but I'm not into GB, and the reason is simple. As someone who's comfortable with their own gender and doesn't want to change it, I only see value in reading GB if it's part of character growth, and it actually has consequences for suddenly being a woman. Since you won't find this in 80% of GB stories, as most MCs are just girls with a dick, I see no reason to waste my time on it.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I'm into GL, preferably vanilla and with little to no smut, but I'm not into GB, and the reason is simple. As someone who's comfortable with their own gender and doesn't want to change it, I only see value in reading GB if it's part of character growth, and it actually has consequences for suddenly being a woman. Since you won't find this in 80% of GB stories, as most MCs are just girls with a dick, I see no reason to waste my time on it.

That's what I heard from my friends as well.

 

[Rezcore]

It... like Boys Love is not my cup of tea. Straight love for me please

 

[RepresentingWrath]

It... like Boys Love is not my cup of tea. Straight love for me please

Same, same.

 

[3guanoff]

I do not read anything tagged "Smut". Nor do I read anything with suspicious tags. Hence, I believe there is but one GL story I ever read. And that would have been the now deleted Isekai Speedrunner by RiaCorvidiva. I thought it was quite decent. No odd sexual scenes in the twenty-odd chapters that were published, no scissors, no? genderbender (my memory is fuzzy on that one), no crass language.
It was not the height of literary fiction, but it more than met genre expectations, considering it was a LitRPG.

I am no expert on gay women. In fact, I have always considered myself a bit of a bigot - Is it not a loss to preemptively decide not to like someone as great as 3guanoff?
Yet I firmly believe it is possible to write about two women being in love and make it proper literature that even I could read.

Thus, I would not avoid something merely because it is tagged as GL. Nonetheless, do consider that only one work has ever met those conditions.

Edit, having read through some of the other responses:
Heavens above, no BDSM. Grandpa is about to stroke out here. There are people reading such things? No wonder the world is a mess. Heavens.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I am no expert on gay women. In fact, I have always considered myself a bit of a bigot - Is it not a loss to preemptively decide not to like someone as great as 3guanoff?

Yet I firmly believe it is possible to write about two women being in love and make it proper literature that even I could read.

Fr.

 

[Anaktoria]

Personally I don't read GL. The reason I don't is because I think GL has long ago been appropriated by men and heavily fetishized. Don't take me wrong, I like fetishized stories, I like smut and so on, but I don't want to read how two girls fingerbang and scissor each other in the first chapter, all while one of the 'girls' is a man inside. It's so creepy. Oh, and genderbend FUTA GL? Now that's plain idiotic. The only difference between straight and GL at this point are boobs. And the way they always pretend like men don't exist? That's weird. It's as if they want to monolize all the women all while self inserting as quasi women themselves. This legit scares me.

You might say, man I just read normal GL, one written by women. The problem here is, a local vampire told me those GL stories are built different. It's the most brutal, fucked up shit you will ever see. I'm a vanilla guy. Liking big booty milfs =\= liking hardcore bdsm torture. After leaning about GL written by women from my friends, I can't believe I say this... I am kind of happy that sites like RR censored it? I am usually very pro-sex and anti-violence, but that type of GL is pro violent sex, yuck.

Also, I'm not super gung-ho about realism, it's not my hill to die upon. But man, GL at its core is such an unrealistic genre. Forget adding GB into the mix and use it as an isekai, a nothing burger that won't matter to the story in one chapter. No, my problem is much deeper. Multiple women agreeing on something is pure fantasy. Like, c'mon. And what if they have a GL harem? Bruh, that's just unrealistic.

So yeah... I don't want to read those super fetishized works. I believe in a you do you concept, at the same time, I think reading GL tells a lot about the personality of a reader.

But maybe I and my GL loving friends are wrong, do tell me what did I miss, why you like it? I won't judge you.

Could you elaborate on this? As an RR transplant trying different platforms in hopes of finding one where a character-driven lesbian sci-fi drama will be accepted, I'm struggling to pick my way between the Scylla of objectified lesbians/yuri and the Charybdis of readership that simply isn't interested in sapphic/LGBT narratives at all. I'm really holding out for a good home for this piece, but seeing posts like this definitely concerns me. D:

 

[Supperset]

Nothing.

 

[Valmond]

The one time I don’t have popcorn.

Well anyway, I think the points have been answered. Generally, if you want to find any actually good ones.

You will be digging deep and far, and not on sites like these.

I think I have only read one good one on RR a while back, but that was the outlier.

Needless to say, I personally dive into very deep themes. A tight structure, a focused story. The connections of the characters, the world itself, etc.

There were several types I wrote.

1. A more structured kingdom/adventure story to say. It was somewhere between the middle ground of the two.

2. A horror themed loop.

3. A race against time. This one follows how the protagonist evolves into the true enemy. A deeply tragic story that doesn’t take the foot off the pedal.

4. The recent one follows return of a certain character, but more importantly. The character that takes other gods powers to save someone, as well as the consequences of it.

Needless to say all are tragic stories, and dives into deep themes.

The four are.

1. Solem et Lunam

2. Vita et Mors

3. Azure Night

4 Sovereign Night

The heaviest out of all of them, would be Azure Night. The lightest would be Solem et Lunam.

Sovereign Night is pretty close to Azure Night, and Vita et Mors is right along that line as well.

Anyway, I think I have gotten off track. The thing is, I’ve decided to put those stories behind a paywall. I wanted to give an experience, and the data I did collect on the first three did show there was people interested in it.

It is just that these sorta stories attract some interesting folks(I rather not get into the whole drama again). And so, if I am gonna slave away, might as well make something from it.

I believe if you want to find anything of quality, it might have been put behind a paywall at this point.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Could you elaborate on this? As an RR transplant trying different platforms in hopes of finding one where a character-driven lesbian sci-fi drama will be accepted, I'm struggling to pick my way between the Scylla of objectified lesbians/yuri and the Charybdis of readership that simply isn't interested in sapphic/LGBT narratives at all. I'm really holding out for a good home for this piece, but seeing posts like this definitely concerns me. D:

Forums are non-representative. Main site has a lot of readers that like genres which might be divisive here. Isekai, Harem, LitRPG, Smut, GL, and other are very well recieved on main site. Objectified isn't the problem. The main problem you have to tackle is how to make your story entertaining. There is no need to write smut or describe 'hot' bodies in every chapter, yet you have to not bore readers.

 

[Dark_Phoenix_Zaetyk]

I'm the biggest fun of gl/yuri especially those smuts or fluffy one's but i agree with how fetishized they are, don't even get me of those i was a man now i'm a woman let me fuck all ladies ?. GENERALLY any genderbend is a not zone for me plus those degenerates toxic gl.