Would a female light be more oblivious to girls crushing on her and just chalk it up to them having really intense admiration towards her?
Good question, and my answer is no.
I already expressed how I think female Light is, which is not really different from the male version. Male Light likes to be admired and loved, and he can recognise the difference between these and uses them in his favour. So, female Light would be the same.
She would know if a girl were actually crushing on her or just admiring her.
So, the problem wouldn't lay into misinterpreting their emotions towards her but the context of all this happening - Japan, early 2000s - and the fact that I believe that female Light would not have any romantic feelings towards anyone, because she deems them as inferior and undeserving of her (sounds familiar?).
Now, I'll be going on a tangent about Japan and how female Light would act towards them, because I cannot shut the fuck up lmao.
- Context:
1) Japan has a no-PDA cultural policy in place, even for heterosexual couples, so everything that is more than handholding and - maybe - hugging is frowned upon.
2) Prior to the 2000s, homosexuality was used as a comedic relief in media, while in the early 2000s, it was seen more as a fetish, so not a real sexuality.
3) Lesbianism/wlw is underrepresented everywhere, and Japan follows this trend.
First two points alone would make female Light not want to engage in anything like that, because if she does, she would surely be negatively looked at, and she cannot afford that.
I don't think the character herself is homophobic, but she wouldn't outright support gay people if it's not required. She would be in the middle, making remarks that agree with what the person she is talking to thinks, so she can swing the narrative in her favour, even if gay people would understand why she would dismiss the LGBTQ+ community in public spaces, because they would probably do the same to conceal their sexuality.
Since PDA is limited, it's also very hard to find openly gay people, so you really must have a good eye to spot them. I won't say if she wouldn't or would be capable, because, as I said, there was barely any representation of wlw in the media or public scene in the early 2000s. The first openly lesbian was an assemblywoman woman in Osaka in 2005, so a bit after L's death in-universe. And what does that mean? How does she show that she interested in other women? So, you would have to think either that female Light is sapphic too and may understand how things work, or the she would inform herself, if she thought a woman may like her. This seems to contradict what I said in the beginning, but truth be told, it doesn't in my opinion, since she would have her doubts and feel like there's more going on than simply admiration but wouldn't like to make a mistake and would prefer to have the complete picture before doing anything.
["may understand", because people display romantic and platonic affection is so many different ways and it also depends on how the other person interprets any gesture. So, unless some romantic gesture, like confessing, is actually done, it might be hard to understand if they are being nice or feel something more, and this applies also to homosexual people, especially if none of the parties involved has actually shown to be interested in the same sex.]
Going back to what I was saying before, she wouldn't make her position 100% clear on the LGBTQ+, but enough for a person to infer on what that is - pro or against.
Not very progressive of her, but I mean... Killing people isn't either.
And so, depending if the girls crushing on her catch that or not, they might or might not show that they are actually interested.
- About her:
The alternatives are two: does she feel romantic or sexual attraction towards women or not?
I've always thought male Light is on the aroace spectrum, so, to me, female Light wouldn't feel any type of attraction towards anyone, and if she catches someone crushing on her, she will simply use it as an advantage for whatever reason.
And now this part gets tricky.
Japan's culture is quite different from the ones I experienced, so I actually have no fucking idea how flirting or romance works in modern-day, real-life Japan, especially between queer people, so I'll have to improvise and make it more anime style. Every time I answer these type of questions, I try to make it as realistic as possible, because, I don't know, I just like when things are grounded in something tangible, but I can't find an accurate source, since they are mostly up to date, and I don't need that.
So, this is what I have imagined:
Since we are talking about girls, any type of flirtatious behaviour to keep them on their toes and give them hope would be mostly in private or secluded areas, where not many people can see them, while friendly behaviour in the open would be quite exaggerated.
I believe she would act like a naive bubbly person with them (Misa 2.0), so she could then explain and in some way excuse her attitude in private if something goes wrong.
If she acts super amicable, adding some romantic or sexual undertones (subtle but enough to be understood by the targets), and someone calls her out, she can say that that's just the way that she is, she's just being "friendly". But to be honest, I don't think anyone would ask, because... Early 2000s and that would be seen as insult or similar, and nobody would have the balls to say something like that to female Light - the popular, pretty, and perceptive girl.
This is her external behaviour towards girls, but internally, she would hate it, just like male Light hated Misa's affection/obsession.
If this affection comes from girls from which she can gain nothing of substance, she will definitely find it a waste of time, that she has to endures so her social status isn't affected by it. Since it's still early 2000s, I don't think the girls are going to show openly that they like her but would still try to get her attention and affection in some way, and if it's in the middle of the Kira case, goddamn if she is going to hate it.
In a wlw relation, things are more balanced gender wise, so it's more of a matter of status. Female Light is at the top in high school/university, both socially and academically. Someone like Takada would try to monopolise her time, while other girls less fierce would try to get her attention in some other ways, by befriending her, inviting her out as a friend, giving her gifts, etc. or anything that is socially acceptable to be done by friends and possible romantic partners.
On this site, it's said:
"Recently, women also tend to give chocolate to other people in their lives too. They might surprise their friends with tomo-choco ("friend chocolate") [...]."
So that could be a start, but this is still "recently", so I don't know how socially acceptable would be in 2003/4.
I tried to research how Japanese women experience friendships.
Found different posts by foreigners that can't really fit in the environment and find it hard to make friends - useless here.
Found a book about the homosexuality themes in the shōjo genre - but fiction =/= reality, especially shōjo.
Found a research - but it's largely on pre-war Japan.
Searching "women friendship Japan" only leads me down a rabbit hole of non-Japanese people trying to befriend Japanese girls.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough knowledge about this specific topic to be really accurate or give a satisfactory answer.
But, to sum it up, she would just use any affection or admiration they have to her advantage, if possible. She would not shoot them down or anything like that, because you never know how that could impact her very fragile ego.
Now, as I write this, it seems like I'm talking of a swarm of bees that follow her around, trying to suck her titties, but I mean, realistically (in universe), I think she would only have to deal with Misa's obsession, that can be platonic or romantic, and she would just do what male Light did: reduce her feelings to a tool, so she can win.
However, I believe she would try to hide better her disdain for Misa, because male Light doesn't have to show PDA, because he might reserve that when they are alone, since they are a “couple”, but female Light would have to act as if she at least likes to be around Misa. Otherwise, why would you hang out with her? Because she's an idol? But wouldn't that mean that you are lying to her, manipulating her into believing you are friends? Hmm, manipulation and lying... Just like Kira does??? Busted, girl. Get her boys.
You know, ridiculous, but that's her way of reasoning, so let's try to avoid that and seem as genuine as possible.
That's all, I think. I know I added all this stuff for no reason, because the question wasn't about this, and if this were an exam, I would practically fail it, but it's fun to pointlessly write things that I have not been asked to.
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