Jiraiyajpn

 

@jiraiyajpn

I think by now you may know that I really enjoy men. And that I'm an equal opportunity objectifier. I like them long and lean and mean and ready and like them big and burly and hunky. I also like men with little to no clothes as much as I enjoy them dressed (Kidding! I like to look at naked men much, much more). And I also enjoy Bara. So @Jiraiyajpn was kind of a no-brainer for me to check out on IG because just look at his men.

I believe that many people are misled by a combo of Orientalism, deception and the myth that dooms Asian men as being somehow submissive and less than strong. That, I think, is due to lack of representation. Just look around you outside Asia and at the movies and tv series you can find and you'll see that there's usually what? One or two movies or tv series every once in a blue moon that have a male Asian lead, if we're lucky?  Not enough.

Enters Bara.

Bara (薔薇, lit. 'rose') is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as gay manga (ゲイ漫画) or gei komi (ゲイコミ, "gay comics"). The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. Bara can vary in visual style and plot, but typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, akin to bear or bodybuilding culture. While bara is typically pornographic, the genre has also depicted romantic and autobiographical subject material, as it acknowledges the varied reactions to homosexuality in modern Japan.

I really like Bara. I think that the overblown masculinity I find in it is a reflection we also see in more Eurocentric forms of art such as what we find in Tom of Finland or Quantiance or Harry Bush and that's nothing new in homoerotic art. I think that gay men have always tend to look at the overblown, the obviously sexual, the lewd, the clearly intended for pleasure. And Bara is just that.

@Jiraiyajpn draws very hot men (IMHO) and brings something different to the table: a different kind of Asian men. Because Bara covers a wide array of homoerotic art, I think it gives people a different perspective of what the gay Asian man is. Not all Asian men are small, submissive and ready to become your boy toy, dear. Some of them are big bruisers with thunder thighs and a fundoshi.

So go check him out. Who knows? Maybe one of his pinups could end up as your wallpaper. Can you guess which of these are mine this week? Yes, I have one for my Lock Screen and one one for my Home Screen. I’m that boy.

XOXO