The Blurb
"STJEPAN SEJIC continues the critically acclaimed SUNSTONE series with volume three. A classy, sexy, fun, and emotional look at two women and the alternative lifestyle they live. It’s all fun and games until someone falls in love! But the fun and games carry on!"
There is actually a different blurb on the back of the comic but that might spoil Volumes 1 & 2 so..
So in this volume we continue to see Ally and Lisa's relationship deepen, more aspects of BDSM explored, and learning more about the other characters that were introduced in the last volume.
I'll just get my complaints out of the way. There were some scenes that seemed...un-necessary, out of character responses for Ally & Lisa (specifically dealing with Alan's bullshit), and like it was just there for the purpose of the male gaze and not the story itself, unlike the first 2 volumes. And i'm a bisexual female myself and if it even remotely fit the story or felt ok I wouldn't mind one bit, but it felt so...forced and weird, not in a good way.
Also there are a TON of red-headed, pale, green eyed characters. I have trouble figuring out who is who, and it's a comic, it really shouldn't be that complicated but when so many look like twins even when they are not...
And one last thing, the thing that bothered me the most to be honest. Both Ally and Lisa have history with men, substantial history (I don't want to spoil anything), and now they are being labeled as gay. It feels so much like bi-erasure and fear of just saying bisexual. What makes people so uncomfortable with bisexual? Or pansexual? Or anything that isn't straight or gay? Being with someone doesn't erase their attraction to other genders when someone is bi. Bisexual people can be monogamous and happy (nothing against polyamory people, sexual orientation and being monogamous or poly-amorous are 2 different things) and still be bi. It just really disappointed me.
That stuff out of the way I still very much enjoyed Ally & lisa, their characters and getting to know more about them and seeing their relationship progress, and the protrayal of BDSM is still on point! So I still very much enjoyed this volume but not as much as the first 2. I gave it 3.75 stars.
I'm not alone! I too get tired of this so-called "lesbian" love story.
ReplyDeleteI have less issues with Ally being called a lesbian. She didn't have toys etc for men, implying a lack of sexual attraction. Her thing with Alan was purely sex and I can't recall her ever describing their relationship as having love in it, or her mentioning attraction to him. (If I'm missing something feel free to correct me). It's the action of domination she likes, so she went with what she could have, initially. That makes her dude relationships more experimental in my book. And experimenting doesn't change your orientation.
But Lisa? She loved her male ex. She literally said the L word in how she felt with him. How can that be ignored? To call her a lesbian is to eliminate her past relationship with him. So to call her a lesbian because she's currently with a woman is flat-out, bi erasure. And that is why I will never own this series.
Yeah I see your point with Ally, I didn't of that.
DeleteBut with Lisa actually saying she loved her male ex, and to then erase that? It really bothers me too. Which sucks because I love so much about this series. To find good BDSM portrayal and to be a same-sex relationship on top of it is just so amazing to me but the bi-erasure does piss me off, being bisexual myself, there is so much bi-erasure already out there and I just can't wrap my head around why bisexuality bothers so many people.