very well-said and thank you for saying this. it’s so frustrating seeing the way people talk about characters who have experienced social / societal issues, i see it in so many comment lines on this site in stories i keep up with (here with Hamin being bullied so severely he developed body dysmorphia, criticisms about the MC from Ballboy Tactics [who is an abuse victim whose sense of self and relationships is kind of shot due to it and leads him to fumble a lot], criticisms of the ML from Pittosporum [who is a closeted teen with heavy sexual trauma that sleeps around in a n attempt at self-guided conversion therapy]), etc. it’s just kind of insane reading through stories that outline the struggles characters face and then going to the comments and seeing what little empathy people have while reading them. in this case it’s spelled out pretty heavily what happened to Hamin too, so seeing people either missing or dismissing that… it’s disappointing especially because Sweet Shot manages to be a rare case that’s not actually fatphobic about its presentation of the topic while managing to showcase just how severely Hamin’s being bullied for his being fat affected his psyche
as you said, it’s important to remember fictional stories can reflect real-life scenarios and how someone reacts to said characters going thru these scenarios does matter. (ultimately: BL is not exempt from needing to apply media literacy simply because it’s BL.)
well said! i think media literacy is very important when it comes to manhwas, cause some issues can get swept under the rug because of it being a bl and all, and it gets forgotten that some authors know these feelings and put these types of issues in the stories. so yeah! since i am also a victim (of bullying) i know that feeling rlly well
First of all, bullying causes mental stress and cognitive problems to whoever experiences it, and it affects people differently; people can develop low self esteem, they can be very insecure about themselves despite already improving on looks, they can also be shy and may not be able to speak up for themselves because they are scared. The fact that some of you dismiss this and call it pathetic is actually quite sad and diminishes real social issues like bullying and homophobia, that actually affects people. It may be fiction, but please do remember that these stories can reflect real life scenarios and your reactions from the characters also matter.