aarinfantasy's YAOI Collection

Schoolboy Homoeroticism

  1. Artemis Moonsong
    Artemis Moonsong
    I remember there was a recent discussion in the Gakuen Heaven thread about the boarding school atmosphere and how older boys must treat younger boys, and whether or not Keita was likely to have been mistreated or even hated by other boys because he was so pampered by the elite ones like Niwa and Kaoru.

    Seems like there's this great history of homoerotic undertones involving boys in boarding schools; like the young, in-coming boy inevitably becomes attached to, almost enamored by an older boy. In David Copperfield, for example, David becomes obsessed with that idiot Steerforth, and now I'm watching Tom Brown's Schooldays (starring Stephen Frye who you know played Oscar Wilde , so ... XD) and it's the same thing: young boys idolizing strapping young men in tight rugby shirts.

    Tell me I'm not just being an over-obsessed fangirl.
  2. heehee
    heehee
    You're not being an over-obsessed fangirl. (Well you are!lol) I hat watching movies about friendship between two boys now, since I hate how nothing happens between the two concerned parts.lol(I do still watch them though!)
  3. Artemis Moonsong
    Artemis Moonsong
    Yeah, and it's interesting b/c a critic made an obvious connection between that history of understated homoeroticism and the interest that slash fans take in the Harry Potter series. I never thought such pairings made much sense, but when you think about the history of English boarding schools, how boys were separated from the girls ... well I wonder if that sort of bled into Rowling's presentation of the characters. There are times when the female characters in the Harry Potter books seem almost ... extraneous.
  4. heehee
    heehee
    haha! I'm myself impressed about slash... 'cause I don't read them, I find for myself that they break my view of the story and I don't like that. Same with doujinshi. Only exceptions are stuff like 'wild adapter' where the mangaka (kazuya minekura) hints the whole time to something but it never happens. Those are the only ones I did like.
    And about the history of homosexuality I heard so many different views on it that I can't decide myself anymore about what must be real or not. I guess there was still more than what is usually thought of by most of the ppl.

    I read a historical book once where a girl had to get married in an arranged marriage, and that she never even knew what sex was until her man arrived onto her on her wedding night. How could a poor girl like that ever enjoy it? For men, they could still go to brothel, being more free (no chaperones on their back). It was in the Renaissance, when nouveau-riches (bourgeois, thus poor ppl getting prosper and making suddenly loads of money). They wanted to be distinguished from the nobility and they did that by being overly protective of their marriages and connections I was told.
  5. Artemis Moonsong
    Artemis Moonsong
    Yes, a girl would have been kept ignorant of sex for fear of her losing her virginity and thus possibly producing a bastard, which would have been disastrous (just ask Charles II). Girls were married off very young, sometimes as early as 12 or 13; there are even instances of children (both boys and girls) being wedded, though of course the marriage could not be consummated until they were older. Marriages at the time in Western Europe were about money and property (well, money was tied up in property, hence the term "landed gentry"); they were not about love. Why do you think tales like "Beauty and the Beast" ever came to be?

    I don't know hardly ANYTHING about the Renaissance; my area is 18th and 19th century British and American, as well as Children's literature You can be our resident Renaissance expert

    Btw, I was doing research on Tom Brown's Schooldays and I learned that "hazing" was termed "***ging" in those days. The younger boys were called "***s" and they acted as servants to the older boys ... and sometimes more
  6. heehee
    heehee
    What is hazing? I'm not that good in English yet! And I'm not that knowledgeable about the renaissance... just that I had a lot of courses about art history, one given by a crazy smart teach who loved to illustrate the courses with all other stories, going in detail for anything,telling all the background stories he knew. I loved it!
  7. Starlightshadow
    Starlightshadow
    "hazing" today is, I think, a form of extreme bullying that puts the victim in publicly embarrassing situations.

    Back then, it meant that a freshman at school (or just an underclassman) had to play servant to an older student, taking care of his wardrobe, his food, his room, his fire... and sometimes warming his bed, too. Generally, these boys had next to no rights in regard to the ones they were serving and had to suffer humiliation and even physical punishment without real cause.

    It's not my area of expertise, I never went to a boarding school, but that's what I have read on the topic so far.

    I guess it's only natural to admire a particularly outstanding individual of your own gender if all you have around you are same-gender people. Same as someone might get picked out as the "school princess" by having a pretty face- one of my friends went to an all-male boarding school and told me there was a boy there who was just pretty enough to be a girl and would be picked on every day. He didn't tell me if it extended to touching, but it's really not a big leap of imagination to get there.

    Hmm, I think that if you squint a lot you might even find homoeroticism in Robinson Crusoe. It's all a matter of perspective, in my opinion.
  8. ChildofAvalon
    ChildofAvalon
    i dunno if this really counts, but it seems to me that the attitude toward homosexuality and homoeroticism are completely unfounded. some of the worlds greatest leaders have been bisexual, if not outright gay. look at Alexander the Great, it was well known that his best friend was his lover, and in greek and roman culture homosexuality was almost expected within the ranks of the army. i mean you get a bunch of guys together and indulge in some naked mudwrestling, whats not to love? and i'm fairly certian some of those "wrestling" matches lead to something MUCH more intresting.
  9. tightgrip
    tightgrip
    There's a French film called "Saint-Cyr" (Hopefully this is the correct orthograph) dealing with two girls taken into a female-only boarding school. One of them develops feelings for the other while a man tries to seduce her as well. I haven't watched a film dealing with a male-only boarding school, though the reason why it's an ideal setting for same-sex relationships is probably because it is more secluded, hence more apparent from the inside. The reason why those feelings develop in my opinion is down to how individuals perceive themselves and the object of their affection, regardless of their upbringing.
  10. PollyW
    PollyW
    I have seen a film based on a journal of one of the english poets (not Oscar Wilde), but, sorry, I do not remember the name of the poet or even the title of the film (it was movie with a lector so it was translated). However, the atmosphere shown in this school was very interesting. The older boys had the younger ones as a servants, or even more - as a slaves. The homoerothicism was going strong because of the pent-up sexual energy, however it was understood, that to allow yourself to have sexual contact with the other boy was forbidden and could lead to the public humilitation and expulsion. Therefore, you could do that only with a person who is completely dependant on you, understands his lover position and will be silent no matter what. It means, of course, cruelty and humilitation. However, it was understood, that it was a passing stage, that when the slave will get older, he would be able to do the same to the new younger student. The movie have shown it as an unbroken circle of sex, humilitation and cruelty with only rare cases of relationships hiding in the darkness. And this relationships were treated by everybody as unnatural, even by the boys, who regularly used the other boys as sexual toys. Quite awful.
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