Screenshot of Viktor hugging Yuuri before a performance, saying “I love pork cutlet bowls.”
Or, why Yuri!!! on Ice hops off the relationship escalator, disrupts homonormativity, and I CLOSE MY EYES AND TELL MYSELF THAT MY DREAMS WILL COME TRUE
Mild spoilers throughout, major spoiler at end.
Avoiding Tropes and the Relationship Escalator
I get so tired of “gay” (bi folks exist!) romance stories because the narratives are so tropey and limited. In Japanese mainstream anime and dramas (read: not BL, not manga), there’s a lot of queer angst directed at a partner who doesn’t reciprocate (Last Friends, IS: Otoko demo onna demo nai sei), and a lot of queer-baiting. (I tend to avoid these shows because I don’t need that, but you can read about recent examples here, even though the author also forgets bisexuals and bi characters exist).
In “Western” media, the plots seem to be more along the lines of 1. an out gay person (because they’re always monosexual) meets a person who identifies as straight and then they fall in love, live happily ever after, and no one mentions the pesky “B” word. 2. Queer folks have a torrid romance and then one of them dies, typically in a hate crime, possibly with sexual violence. 3. A mean bisexual goes back to their different-gender partner and breaks the heart of the sad gay, who has to carry on all by themself.
Screenshot: Viktor, touching Yuuri’s lower lip, saying, “No one in the whole wide world knows your true eros, Yuri.” (Their lips are very shiny and Yuuri’s eyes are huge, a drop of sweat rolls down his cheek.)
To return for a minute to the “happy ending” plot, it’s just another version of the relationship escalator, but with coming out: meeting, first kiss, dating, coming out and resulting homophobia, commitment ceremony/marriage, kids(?), bickering old married couple. There are many, many ways to be queer and happy, but in media, if queer couples get a happy ending at all, it’s usually through the relationship-escalator model, where the queer couple looks and acts “just like a straight couple.” The message of that model is that unless you’re “just like straight people” and your relationship is a (relatively) socially approved one, you’ll be sad and alone forever (or dead).
Being “just like straight couples”–fetishizing wedding culture, adhering to butch/femme standards, and propagating capitalism– isn’t the path to queer liberation. Rather, queer relationship models have the potential to break down cisheteronormative gender norms. Yuuri and Viktor’s uniquely unconventional relationship isn’t like anything I’ve seen before, and I can’t emphasize how important that is.
Who’s the–?
Neither. No one is “the man” and no one is “the woman” in same-gender relationships (or, I would argue, in different-gender relationships where all members are queer). Both Viktor and Yuuri–as well as most of the other skaters–utilize feminine, masculine, and androgynous elements in their routines, costumes, and style.
Other than JJ making a comment about “ladies first” to Yuri “Yurio” Plisetsky, the youngest skater, there’s no femme-shaming. The other skaters might laugh at Georgi’s being way too emotional about being dumped by his ex-girlfriend and working his pain into his routine or about how Seung-Gil’s facial expression is completely dead while he’s trying to skate a sexy routine, but there’s no machismo, no snark, and no bullying.
Yuuri has trouble accessing his sexuality for his “Eros” routine, so, after telling Viktor and Yurio that katsudon is eros to him, he tries to make up a story about a playboy who comes to town and seduces the most beautiful woman, then casts her aside. However, the night before his first performance of “On Love: Eros,” he asks his ballet teacher (Minako-sensei) to teach him how to move in more feminine ways, changing the story so that the most beautiful woman seduces the playboy, then casts him aside.
Image: Yuuri practicing posing his arms with Minako-sensei. Subtitle: “I want to be the most beautiful woman in town, who seduces the playboy!” (Image source)
Yuuri notes that skating the routine from the perspective of the beautiful woman being “closer to how [he] feel[s],” is not played as a joke. Yuuri’s femininity isn’t something to be mocked. Additionally, his relationship with Victor and general gender expression isn’t “feminized”–neither of them is exactly butch or femme but rather acknowledges gender slippage, a point that made my little genderqueer heart sing. Also, Viktor doesn’t fall into the tropes of having to protect Yuuri or being predatory (he keeps trying to tell Yuuri how he feels but has a sense of boundaries).
Changing the narrative to seducing the playboy mirrors his relationship with Viktor throughout the series. Yuuri constantly worries he’s not good enough (at skating) for Viktor, and that Viktor will leave him. What actually happens is that the narrative follows Yuuri’s routine: he (the beautiful woman) seduces Viktor (the playboy) with his skating, asks him to be his coach till he retires (proposes), then tells him he’s going to retire after this season (casting aside the playboy). Unlike the story of “Eros,” they actually talk about their feelings and their relationship. Actually seeing a real conversation, especially between men, about what they want from their unusual relationship, was a delight.
Everyone is Fine with This
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
I kept waiting for the queerphobic hammer to drop, because that’s always part of the narrative, but it didn’t. Even when Phichit notices Yuuri and Viktor’s pair rings, he gasps, and you’re waiting for someone to say something awful, and instead he says, “Everyone! My good friend just got married!” Yuuri and Viktor hold up their rings and the whole restaurant applauds. The only thing that sours the evening is when Viktor says that he and Yuuri will get married when Yuuri wins gold at the Grand Prix Finale — in front of all the other competitors, including JJ, who has just showed up (and has made the same promise to his fiancee.) This interaction is so positive, and it just made me so damn happy.
“CONGRATS ON YOUR MARRIAGE! EVERYONE, MY FRIEND GOT MARRIED!”
“these are engagement rings, we’ll get married once he wins gold” #yurionice pic.twitter.com/2zzWYZuKLM— ji@7/1約束✨と宗介クラスタ🏊⛸ (@soukatsu_) December 7, 2016
——end spoilers
The real gift of YOI is showing a different kind of queer romance between two men with somewhat androgynous gender expressions. As a genderqueer bisexual person in a somewhat unconventional (by cishetero standards, anyway) relationship, I rarely see characters like me in anime or on TV. This show was truly born to make history, and I can’t wait for season 2.
“When I open up, he meets me where I am.”
The Lobster Dance 
[…] And speaking of everyone’s favorite skating series, L.M. Zoller posts an intriguing essay about “overcoming homonormativity” in Yuri!!! On Ice. [The Lobster Dance] […]
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Very well written article. You articulated very clearly why so many enjoyed it I think. I also heard from a number of people who had been avoiding anime lately, mostly because of complaints about nothing but fan service and bad CG, who said they did watch this after some prodding and enjoyed it. This includes those who would not watch a normal BL anime.
I had many of the same thoughts about this as I watched it. I kept waiting for some awful joke to show up and ruin it, but it never did. It turned out to be one of my favorites for 2016.
Thank you for writing this and sharing your thoughts. You have a very insightful view and I enjoyed reading this.
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I can’t really add anything to this so I’m just popping in to say YES and THANK YOU. A great article here, which articulated a lot of why I loved Yuri on Ice so much far better than I ever could.
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[…] This Feminist Friday post was originally featured on The Lobster Dance. […]
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I’m uncomfortable with people calling homosexuality “queerness” and homosexual people “queer”. Homosexual people are not queer. They are not an anomaly or confused. Call homosexuality what it is: homosexuality.
I don’t think Yuri on Ice depicts realistic male homosexuality. I’m pretty sure it is not based on realitisc male homosexuality but just on a fetishistc idea to satisfy the female audience.
Male homosexuals don’t think nor do they base their relationships and who they love based on heterosexual standards of romance and interactions. The series forces heterosexual standards such as the feminine and masculine energy which is not exactly what male homosexuals look for and find attractive about other men. Homosexual men don’t want a feminine half or someone assuming a female role for a relationship to work; gay men are attracted to masculinity; not femininity. The series, however, forces that heterosexual notion on a seemingly homosexual incipient relationship.
The series does so because it is not based realistic male homosexuality but based on heterosexuality carried out by two characters of the same sex in order to make it a closed experience toits main target: WOMEN coipled with the fetishistic element: two men being romantic or even sexual.
As a matter of fact, the series doesn’t resonate with most gay men at all and that is because realistic male homosexuality is not presented in Yuri on Ice.
Homosexual people are not an audience the anime industry tries to appeal to since the topic is still taboo and homosexual poeple are considered a small group. Heterosexual women, on the other hand, are numerous and powerful consuming force.
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I’m uncomfortable with people calling homosexuality “queerness” and homosexual people “queer”. Homosexual people are not queer. They are not an anomaly or confused. Call homosexuality what it is: homosexuality.
Hello, Hau. “Queer” is an umbrella term used to describe a variety of identities that are “not straight.” The show does not specifically name Yuuri’s and Viktor’s sexual orientations: Yuuri is strongly hinted at being bisexual with a strong preference for, well, Viktor,* and, other than Yuuri, we don’t know who else Viktor is attracted to, so I use the word queer to describe their sexualities.
First, yes, queer is a reclaimed slur, and not everyone wants to use that, especially older GLB folks. Here are some articles about reclaiming that word to describe “not straight, not cisgender” identities, particularly bi+ identities (bi, pan, queer):
https://www.glaad.org/reference/lgbtq
http://time.com/4544704/why-lgbtq-will-replace-lgbt/
Keep in mind too that terms for sexual orientations in Japanese and Russian do vary from English.
As a bisexual/queer person who is constantly erased by monosexuals (people only attracted to one gender), it’s not as simple as calling Yuuri and Viktor “homosexual,” which is also not a term that’s used often in the LGBTQ community any more. Of course, if you use the words homosexual or gay for your own identity, that’s fine, but homosexual is considered offensive and old-fashioned:
Offensive: “homosexual” (n. or adj.)
Preferred: “gay” (adj.); “gay man” or “lesbian” (n.); “gay person/people”
Please use gay or lesbian to describe people attracted to members of the same sex. Because of the clinical history of the word “homosexual,” it is aggressively used by anti-gay extremists to suggest that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologically/emotionally disordered – notions discredited by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association in the 1970s. Please avoid using “homosexual” except in direct quotes. Please also avoid using “homosexual” as a style variation simply to avoid repeated use of the word “gay.” The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post restrict use of the term “homosexual” (see AP & New York Times Style).
https://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive
I don’t think Yuri on Ice depicts realistic male homosexuality. I’m pretty sure it is not based on realitisc male homosexuality but just on a fetishistc idea to satisfy the female audience.
I also wish there were more space for queer men, women, and nonbinary folks to make anime and manga about their own sexual identities, but the point of this piece was to point out how Yuri!!! On Ice challenges the tropes that straight people creating media about gay, bi, and queer men often write–that is, not replicating fetishizing tropes. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when queer folks make our own media, people complain that we’re pushing an agenda. If straight producers would elevate our voices and fucking pay us for our work, that would be ideal. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it is possible, if not common, for straight cis creators to make work about LGBTQIA folks that is deep and meaningful and avoids stereotypes, and ideally, that opens up doors for queer creators to make our own work or to work together to utilize the straight creator’s access to resources.
Male homosexuals don’t think nor do they base their relationships and who they love based on heterosexual standards of romance and interactions. The series forces heterosexual standards such as the feminine and masculine energy which is not exactly what male homosexuals look for and find attractive about other men. Homosexual men don’t want a feminine half or someone assuming a female role for a relationship to work; gay men are attracted to masculinity; not femininity. The series, however, forces that heterosexual notion on a seemingly homosexual incipient relationship.
What am I arguing in this very piece is that Yuuri and Viktor’s relationship defies homonormative tropes: they get off the “relationship escalator” and having neither of them being particularly femme or butch does in fact upset the idea of mapping cishet norms onto queer relationships. The homonormativity referenced in the title is the idea that queer folks are just like straight folks and want to replicate cisheteropatriarchal relationships and to assimilate. Yuuri and Viktor’s relationship challenges homonormativity in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: 1. Viktor and Yuuri have both canonically performed fluid depictions of gender in their skating and all the skaters’ performances of gender on and off the rink are treated with respect; 2. Neither Yuuri nor Viktor is depicted as butch or femme, when the trope-version of this narrative would be Viktor as the seme and Yuuri as the uke; 3. Both men are allowed to express their emotions and talk through and cry without being shamed (with the exception of Yuri Plisetsky yelling at Yuuri for crying in the bathroom at the beginning of the show), which is throwing off the toxic masculinity that permeates homonormative narratives.
I’m not sure I understand who you think is the “feminine” one and who you think is the “masculine” one in this couple, and the entire concept of binary gendered energy is not only not represented in this series, it’s a reductive concept used by transphobes and monosexuals to uphold cissexist and monosexist standards for queerness. For yourself, it’s fine to prefer butch/masc guys, but the spectrum of gay-male/queer attraction isn’t limited to “masc for masc.”
https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/01/homonormativity-101/
The series does so because it is not based realistic male homosexuality but based on heterosexuality carried out by two characters of the same sex in order to make it a closed experience toits main target: WOMEN coipled with the fetishistic element: two men being romantic or even sexual.
As a matter of fact, the series doesn’t resonate with most gay men at all and that is because realistic male homosexuality is not presented in Yuri on Ice.
Homosexual people are not an audience the anime industry tries to appeal to since the topic is still taboo and homosexual poeple are considered a small group. Heterosexual women, on the other hand, are numerous and powerful consuming force.
As a queer nonbinary person, I can’t speak to what cis gay men liked or didn’t like about the series, but luckily we have Johnny Weir who talked about the show: http://thegeekiary.com/johnny-weir-watched-yuri-ice/40241
As someone who was and still is, to some degree, fetishized and loathed by straight people, I get it. It’s not fun to watch media that depict queer relationships and people in a fetishized way. This series, for me at least, was closer to my own experiences with my partner, more so than most depictions of queer romance I’ve seen. I know quite a few positive bisexual narratives but didn’t speak to my experience or attraction, and some of the rare depictions of nonbinary folks also don’t speak to me. Some of those I don’t like because they aren’t positive, but I also know that claiming some narratives aren’t realistic because they don’t match my experience exactly alienates others who did have those experiences.
It’s okay if Yuri on Ice didn’t speak to you personally as a gay man, and it’s okay to call for more and better representation made by and for queer folks, especially folks who are not white gay cis men. There is no singular queer experience, and our differences, I think, make us stronger as a community, but only if we recognize that our own gender expressions, orientations, preferences, etc., are different, and that being different doesn’t mean being wrong or bad.
*And not as a “Viktor is an exception”–he’s had a crush on Viktor since he was a tween.
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[…] A look at the art that inspired the silhouette art in Utena and other anime, including Yuuri Katsuki’s description of the narrative of his “On Love: Eros” routine. […]
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