(I wonder will anyone bash me for this lol. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong too!)

Well, I noticed a lot of people wasn't happy with the fact that the BL novels were placed under the Female Lead section. I can see why. I'm neutral towards this but it did cause some confusion for me when I was looking up for new novels to vote.

I get people want to either shift the BL novels to the Male Lead section or, just make a new section entirely and name it LGBTQ+. Honestly, I do too. (And yus, I understand there's a tag for it once you click for more info)

I don't know do any of the staff monitors the forum section here (probably do) but, there is a suggestion discussion in the forum for a reason.

Taking your complaints to the review section isn't exactly the right place to do so. All I wanted to see was a REVIEW for the book. Not a list of suggestions asking the staff to shift the LGBTQ+ genres away from the Female Lead section.
(I also know someone said they will delete their review once the staff does something about it.)

So here I am just making a suggestion, will you guys please add a LGBTQ+ section specially for this genre?

I agree... It's very confusing to look at series staring female leads and then reading the synopses that clearly listed male leads instead. If the sections are going to be titled in such a way, shouldn't BL series be in the male lead section? Likewise, any GL series should go to the female lead section. It is completely irrelevant whether the series cater to a female audience or a male audience.

What I think would be the easiest way to eliminate the confusion is to put all the "female lead" and "male lead" series together for the new series section. I feel like the series said to have female leads receive an unfair advantage because they're the first page a person sees. It took me a little while to realize there was a separate male lead section when they were first separated. Webnovel could continue to have three female lead series, three male lead series, and then a couple of LGBT+ series to vote on. Wouldn't that be fine? If not, the series starring males should be counted with the male leads while the series starring females should be in the female lead section regardless of their sexual orientation.

I've seen this suggestion floating around on the forums several times but imo having an LGBTQIA+ section makes no sense because that's not what the voting sections are about. They're about gender while most LGBTQIA+ identities are about sexuality.
A new section also wouldn't be a good idea if you consider that they'd have to pick three books every week then (since there'd be three sections and they take one book from each every week). Considering how many novels are/were dropped in the past or went on an indefinite hiatus I doubt that'd be a wise choice. They'd just drop even more novels after some time because they lack translators.

Webnovel just needs to decide on whether they want people to vote on the gender of the MC or whether they want people to vote on the targeted audience. Then they need to stand by that choice and any backlash they might receive for either.

Veronica8

But then there would be too many genres to cover. I think at this rate they shouldn't label it as anything and should just chalk out any random 6 books for voting. XD
And just title it "Vote for the next two books to be released!" šŸ˜‚

Also, I didn't know that this issue was going around in the forum u-u. Which was why I questioned do staffs even read this.

Some people took it to the FB group too and other than agreements, disagreement or neutrality, I don't see any form of addressing towards the matter.

While others took it to the reviews. I get it's to gather their attention buuuut I guess all 3 platforms so far isn't really gathering any. Or maybe they noticed it and could be fixing it. Idk. I hope this get solve soon though. šŸ˜¶

      Yeah I agree they need to re-sort the entire lgbt section. Alot of people are angry BL is under female lead... :(

      No need. Gay male lead is still male lead. Lesbian female lead is still famale lead. If the lead is a trans person just put it in the gender they refer themselves into. If they are gender fluid thereā€™s no problem putting the novel on their cis gender.
      The problem to be addressed here is not a new pool or if anyone is offended wherever pool it goes into but how gender and sexuality are being confused. Being homosexual is different from being trans.
      Also just to remember: the pools are not about genres, nor about tags, and not about readers gender. It is about the main lead gender and that is what shouldā€™ve been done.

      shelwyn Asexual and demisexual leads are fairly common in mainstream series, so that'd be hella complicated. Of course, that would only be sexual identity rather than gender identity or biological sex. Talk about making things complicated... I have a feeling Webnovel wouldn't be too inclined to read these titles in advance and do an analysis of biological sex/gender identity/sexual identity to categorize things.

      It's true that the easiest way to do this would be to put the male leads with the male leads and the female leads with the female leads regardless of sexual orientation. I still don't know why they didn't do that in the first place.

        "Male" or "female" should be decided by chromosome.
        All i want is for LGDBTQ+ themed novels to be properly tagged on the cover as well.
        It's a voting screen only so it should be obvious it's LGDBTQF+ themed.
        A separate voting section could work as well

        Or Just put them all up together in a grid view with the appropriate tags so people can vote for the themes (sexual or not) they care about

          Problem is most males skip directly to male lead..
          BL and other yaoi is usually female targeted, if they end up in males section those novels will never reach the audience they're meant for and will not get votes.

          They could change it to male oriented female oriented, but that'd be a problem for novels that don't target specific gender, like ccg for example.

          No gender distinction also means that dominant group on the website might dominate the rankings as well..

          I guess there should be a note of some sort..

          On the other hand, even if they're male they might identify as female for the time of voting.

            BookKitty But then there would be too many genres to cover.

            Possibly, but it also gives opportunity. If they focus on a genre per day/week eventually cycling through all genres, and pick 2 books to vote. Readers are able to vote on a greater variety.

            Focusing votes on gender leads likely causes confusion when LGBTQ is present as noted in this thread.

              ashtonx Not really. Women donā€™t fear ā€œturning lesbianā€ by reading male lead novels, so we do check the novels on the male pool too. So women who would vote BL would still vote BL.
              Then again, the pools ate about main lead gender. Not readers gender not main lead sexual orientation. Itā€™s not that complicated.

                xcares Well... actually thereā€™s more then XX XY to define genders scientifically speaking. Its more like curves and male/female are peaks but well, I digress...
                For novel pruposes male/female are enough genders for main leads. Never really seen an agender main lead. So donā€™t think a pool specific for them is necessary.
                A tag for lgbt+ is wellcomed, in that I agree. The point here is stop confusing gender and sexuality. And using readers gender as an excuse is ridiculous. The reasons the pools are female and male lead is exactly because thereā€™s readers from both genders in all of them.
                Itā€™s enough that the female lead section is full of romance. We donā€™t need BL there too only because itā€™s romance. Being gay doesnā€™t make the main lead less of a man than an hetero lead. No reason for them not being in male leadā€™s pool.

                    Nizze Females might read male lead novels, personally though I and I'm guessing many males skip the female lead novels since I don't care. Most of them are about ceo wives anyway. If there's something good enough with female lead aimed at guys I'm sure I'll hear about it sooner or later.

                    lots of webnovels aim at one specific gender. Not all, but I'm guessing more than half.

                      4 days later

                      xcares The ones I saw in the voting section were tagged with the alphabet, but people kept complaining anyway. If they can't read, I don't see why they're on this site at all.

                      Categorizing male and female by chromosome would be too complicated. If a character is a transgender woman, then she'll be referred to with female pronouns. Likewise, a transgender man would be referred to with male pronouns. Series about this issue are not common in web novels, but genderbender stories use concepts like that all the time. Say a woman dies and reincarnates or transmigrates into a man but doesn't accept being a man. She'd be a transgender woman. Way too complicated. If there's character development, then she may end up accepting herself as a man and change her gender to match her sex.

                          ResidentialPsycho
                          A woman dies and reincarnates into a man and doesn't accept her male body -> Male protagonist
                          A man dies and reincarnates into a woman but doesn't accept his female body -> Female protagonist
                          .... bla bla bla. Has a male unmodified body -> Male protagonist
                          .... bla bla bla. Has a female unmodified body -> Female protagonist
                          Easy

                          A woman modifies her body in some way to become male-like -> trans male
                          A man modifies his body to become female-like -> trans female
                          easy right?

                          Nothing about sexual orientation. Nothing complicated
                          LGBTQfdshfeiwhi+ should be used only to tag any non-straight sexual orientation (chromosome doesn't count for this) and gender modifications.

                          As for referring to characters (and real people really) according to their sexual orientation (they/their etc)......
                          Meh. Too bothersome.
                          I don't care about the sexual orientation of real people irl. Why would you care about the sexual orientation of fictional characters.It is what it is.
                          I'll not be reading any LGDBTqbnjkfdhbfwi+ novels anyway

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