Bara and Gay Media: An Essay

Hello everyone. I hope today has been a good day for you all. Or maybe it just started. Either way, I want to share today a little thought piece. When it comes to NSFW media, a lot of us take them for granted, even if we don't mean to. Or they don't really understand what they mean to their creators. I think that's unfortunate. A lot of us put so much effort into these NSFW stories so it can be a little disheartening to see people be dismissive of them. That's why I decided to write this all out, so I can give people a clear perspective on why I write and draw the stories I make.

But before I get started, I wanted to give special attention to VN Game Den. They're a journalism site that focuses on Visual Novels specifically. Recently they announced that they need $1000 per month in Patreon money in order to keep the site from shutting down, as they need the money to pay the writers and the traffic. They're currently 71% there, so please strongly consider becoming a patron. If you don't then we'll have one less place that discusses Visual Novels. You can become a Patron over here.

Last year, I took a Popular Culture Class, which was as awesome as it sounds, and I had to write a few essays for the class. Specifically about one aspect of popular culture and how people react to that aspect. For the first essay, I wrote about My Brother's Husband by Gengoroh Tagame. In it, I talked about how it approaches homophobia and how you can craft interesting and unique gay stories without being confined to the same stories that mainstream media makes you think queer stories should be like. In the second essay, I wrote about…Earthbound. I like that game. But then I did another essay for fun about how people can hate your story for reasons beyond your control. It also discussed the current status of queer stories in Anime and Manga. You can read both of those essays over here and here. This time I want to talk about bara as a whole and what it means to people. From being a slut with no rights to toxic wolf boyfriends, there's a whole wide array of topics bara can cover. But bara at large hasn't been given any much meaningful discussion beyond "hot man tiddi" and arguing about its exact definition. I think it's good that we do ourselves a service and really talk about bara.

First of all, what is bara? Search on google and you'll see that bara has lots of varying definitions. Theoretically, bara should mean "gay manga created made by gay men that have been published in specific gay magazines" but that definition is obviously too narrow and wouldn't apply to the majority of stuff we consider to be bara. Just like the word "goth", "bara" refers less to a specific genre, and more to a general classification of all things that express "homoeroticism of traditionally masculine characters". But how did the word come to mean this? Well, you can always look up the Wikipedia page. But since it's the polite thing to do, I'll explain it anyways. Bara comes from the word "薔薇族" or "Barazoku", which literally means "Rose Family" or "Rose Tribe" in English. Barazoku was the name of a gay Japanese magazine that began publication in 1971 and continued to do so until 2008. A surprisingly influential magazine as not only is it the origin of the word "Bara" but it also coined the term "Yuri". One thing I'll note about the magazine is that the covers for the issues often featured drawings of attractive, fit, but not particularly muscular men. The contents of the magazine also featured drawings depicting similar-looking men. Quite a contrast from the bulging muscles and gruff faces you'd expect from the modern-day definition of bara. Another Japanese gay magazine that's note-worthy is G-men, a magazine notable for featuring now famous gay Manga artists, such as Gengoroh Tagame and Jiraiya, and ultimately codifying the modern gay manga, or Gei-Comi as it's sometimes referred to. Flash forward to the turn of the century and the early internet, several online communities were hosting places to post erotic content. Content featuring homoerotic content was put into its own thread called "Bara". The people who hosted these forums were straight cis men. Nonetheless, the term caught on the English Speaking internet as a way to identify gay content that didn't fit into the stricter definition of "yaoi". Note that "bara" isn't considered to be a serious term to describe gay manga in Japan. Gengoroh Tagame explains that it's a dated term and was initially displeased seeing English speakers using it to describe his work. However, he later admitted that it was a practical way of searching for gay art created by gay men. It's a word that has a lot of history behind it, and most people aren't aware of most of it when they say they want to dive head first into some "fat bara tiddies". As mentioned, there's some discourse on how the term should be used and if people are misusing it. I think that it's probably for the best that the word "bara" can be used so broadly. It's a way for gay men to celebrate their own sexuality and be open about their tastes. At the same time though, I feel like some people refer to things that aren't really bara just because they think being "bara" is somehow superior. I don't think that's how you should use the term because bara can be just as good or bad as anything else. It's fine if you enjoy something that's not bara, you'll probably find plenty of gay men who enjoy that same thing you do. In my personal experience, I was really excited when I discovered bara. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world, and I wanted to consume everything bara. As I grew older and I discovered the real origins of the term, I've come to understand that while referring to everything you think is sexy isn't ideal, bara can help you understand your own sexuality and help you expand your views on what's sexy.

But why do we care so much about bara? Why bara and not yaoi? I think the one word that answers these questions is "representation". In much of mainstream media, gay men are always never older than 30, they're clean-shaven, and they're interested in traditionally feminine subjects. As someone who used to go on dating apps, I can tell you that gay men who fit into this mold are the minority. You may see a gay character on screen, but that doesn't mean you get to see yourself on screen. You see a similar case with yaoi and BL. While there are more works that focus on older men or muscular men, the vast majority are pretty, vulnerable, and sensitive men in relationships with other pretty men who are slightly less vulnerable and sensitive. They tend to not be realistic at all and are usually just so that women can fawn over them. Not all BL are like this, see Given, but suffice to say that a lot of gay men didn't want to associate themselves with yaoi or BL. With bara, however, there's a lot more variety of gay men available. Old men, middle-aged men, bearded men, mustachioed men, hairy men, and muscular men. They're all represented in bara and they don't have to act how you expect them to act, either. These men can show vulnerability, emotions, and tenderness while still being tough. They don't have to be restrained by the expectations that you have to have an ice-cold heart to be a man or that you have to be a young, skinny man to show emotions. And maybe these emotions and the vulnerability of the men aren't things that we're comfortable with. Gengoroh Tagame will often write about men being brutally tortured and being in intense pain. His work is certainly not for everyone. But the point is that we're seeing these big men act in ways that we're rarely allowed to see in more mainstream media. Most obviously, we're rarely allowed to see these men be sexualized outside of bara. Women constantly get sexualized just about everywhere while men tend to only be sexualized if they're conventionally attractive, which means toned abs and a clean-shaven face. The idea that a fat, old, and hairy man could be sexy would get you laughed at in most places. Not in bara. It's really satisfying when you see men that you're attracted to be ruthlessly sexualized for your benefit. And it's even better when they want to be sexualized and own it. And since most, but not all, bara tends to be erotic, that means more diverse discussions of sex can happen which could add layers to a story if used properly. All of this allows for a wider variety of stories that can be told in bara. While the full potential hasn't been realized yet, we've seen unique stories being told within bara. The mutual bittersweet love a soldier named Akashi has with his lieutenant in one of Tagame's many manga, the difficulties of being a single dad who's figuring out his sexuality in Nanoff's Boomer's Big Date, and the joy of a human living with hot, horny canine men conflicting with his loneliness of existing in a world where he has to work day and night in order to survive in a world that's trying to kill him and everyone he loves in rausmutt's Shelter. There are just so many stories that you can tell with bara. And most importantly, the big guy gets to bottom for the short guy. In all seriousness, bara provides us with the representation that we aren't able to find much elsewhere.

You might be wondering if we love bara so much, why aren't we instead in the bear community? They provide a lot of the same points that I just provided. Now I love gay bears with all of my heart and penis. But while the gay bear community in real life is lively and still kicking, in terms of fiction and stories they're certainly lacking. There just aren't a lot of films and shows that prominently feature gay bears, even considering the indie scene. If you wanted to make a gay bear film, you'll need a good cameraman, a place to record, and people to actually play your characters. Compare that to bara and it's much easier to break into. Want to make a bara comic? All you need is a pen and paper. Want to make a bara visual novel? You just need some art, writing, and some code. I know I'm greatly simplifying what it takes to make these things, but I'm showing you that it's much more capable for a single person to make a bara story than it is to make a gay bear film.

However, there are some vices with the genre. There are some things that are typically glorified in bara. Non-consensual sex, sexual harassment, toxic relationships, toxic masculinity, and so much more. They can appear in bara, and it can be hard to deal with them when they appear. While some are featured in bara to fulfill a fetish, some people genuinely think that these things are okay and don't see the problem with having them appear so often in bara. Bara isn't wholesome. No one is going to see a piece of bara and think that it's going to appeal to all the tenderqueers. That's why people don't really say anything when they see that kind of content, because they want to respect the creator. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be better about this. The great thing about bara is that it allows you to feel better about your own sexuality and identity. If it encourages people to have bad beliefs, then it's not going to be good for our community. We should support works that have a good understanding of what a healthy environment looks like. And if it does contain some of that unhealthy stuff, then the least we can do is include a content warning.

On a less serious note, there's also a tendency for bara works to include sudden drama for no reason at all. I've seen comics where for years they were light-hearted slice-of-life content with a little drama here and there. Then suddenly there's a whole lot of drama involved and characters who should know what to do in the situation are acting like they don't know what to do. There's an expectation for queer creators to put angst and politics into their work. Some people will tear down their own characters, stories, and tone of their stories just to push their own agenda. If there's a cause you want to bring attention to, go ahead and tell the entire world. But don't bring down your story because of that cause. Or it will detriment both you and your fans.

Bara as a whole is very niche. The general public will dismiss bara for several reasons. Maybe it's because it's not high budget, maybe because it's too sexual, maybe because it's a Visual Novel and they decided they hate Visual Novels even though they only played one for ten minutes. There will be a lot of pushback towards bara because it's not what they consider to be good gay content. I think in response to that, you should ignore them and just like what you like. Don't let other people dictate what you should or shouldn't enjoy. I also think that it's important to note that most gay men aren't typically looking for stories about gay men. They're usually looking for good stories that happen to have gay men in them. It's great that we have stories about gay issues like coming out and homophobia, but most people would much rather hear about the stories of what gay men do after they've dealt with those demons. 

All in all, bara is a word that describes the sexualization of men that are muscular, beefy, and/or hairy for the benefit of gay men. It can tell many gay stories that the mainstream cannot tell due to not being afraid of showing the perspectives and tastes of gay men that aren't young and conventionally attractive. It is a wonderful thing that has plenty of potential, but it can also be used poorly. We should strive to develop our community so we can reach greater lengths with bara.