I can't help but think there's a gender bias that plays into people who read het into the comic, in that it's far more expected to anticipate het feelings among women (even more so people expecting it to align with canonical het pairings as though that is immutable among transformative works). And you know, I also tend to think that if the comic were instead featuring male characters going through the same development as the comic is going through, there might not be as many people calling into question the intention of their relationship and might implicitly understand what the comic might be going for. Or that romantic or sexual fulfillment is still centered around a dude and their reproductive purposes (and apparently traditional gender roles if people are feeling like Lulu might ruin her chances at marrying Wakka is she keeps slinging barbed words at him)
Obviously both genders have people with the straight goggles on too firmly (or outright wanting to deny it) but it seems more apparent to me that female relationships have to be even more explicit to get the message across for some people.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-03-09 08:14 am (UTC)Obviously both genders have people with the straight goggles on too firmly (or outright wanting to deny it) but it seems more apparent to me that female relationships have to be even more explicit to get the message across for some people.