Webtoon Changes Perceptions of LGBT People – How did Wanja’s story help create positive social change?

Wanja’s webtoon “Wanja to All” helped change social perceptions by telling the story of a gay man. Despite initial rejection, the webtoon gained positive responses over time, spreading understanding and consideration for homosexuality.

 

On June 6, 2012, a South Korean Naver webcomic by a writer named Wanja began a full series titled “Wanja to All”. The webcomic follows the real-life story of Wanja and his lover Yabu. While watching the first episode, I thought the webtoon was just a normal day-to-day story about a couple’s life together, but when I watched the second episode, I was surprised: they are gay. The story between the lovers was the story of a lesbian couple.
In the prologue of this webcomic, Wanja tells Yabu that he wants to change the world with his comic. Before starting the webcomic, Wanja was very surprised that not many people knew that homosexuals existed. So he decided to start a webcomic about himself in order to show people that gay people exist. However, many of the comments on the early episodes of the webcomic, such as the first date and first kiss episodes, were met with rejection, such as “dirty” and “disgusting.” However, Wanja says that despite the rejection, the purpose of the webcomic is to showcase the existence of homosexuals. Wanja tried to instill awareness of the existence of gay people in our society, and as a result, two years later, the comments on the webcomic are more positive than negative, and many young people who are still unsure about their sexuality have reached out to Wanja directly for advice and have found courage in the webcomic. For me, Wanja’s webcomic has changed my perception of gay people. I had a gay friend when I was younger, and while I didn’t think anything bad about them, I didn’t even know the exact concept of a gay person. Therefore, I was unknowingly resistant to not only homosexuality, but also to aspects of my friend that were different from me. At the time, I thought I treated my friend without prejudice, but now that I’ve read this webcomic and thought back to those memories, I realize that I may have hurt him because of my ignorance of homosexuals. And now that I’ve gained a little more acceptance and consideration for homosexuals after reading this webcomic, I realize that if I were in the same situation again, I would be more accepting and considerate of homosexuals.
However, this webtoon, which gave me a lot to think about, has been criticized due to various incidents. There were also issues with the quality of the writers themselves. For example, there is a scene where Wanja’s mother is crying about missing her grandmother, who has passed away, and Wanja laughs and says, “I can’t see her. She’s dead.” There is a scene where Wanja laughs and says, “I can’t see her. Readers strongly protested this scene, and Wanja issued an apology and revised the content of the scene. He was also criticized for his frequent tardiness in posting the webtoon. There have been other incidents involving homosexuality, one of which was the recently published episode 170, “Let’s Propose”. In “Let’s Suggestion”, Wanja’s gay friend Let’s Suggested that homosexuals, who have relatively few opportunities to meet each other, should have a secret place and a secret sign for homosexuals to recognize each other. Most readers, including myself, were intrigued by the idea. However, rumors began to circulate that some people had secretly joined the LGBT community through the webcomic, figured out the markers, and actually outed them by posting their photos to the community without their consent. Naturally, the arrows came back at Wanja for this incident. Criticism poured in, not only from regular readers, but also from gay people. The reason for the criticism was a concern about the repercussions of the general public learning about a secret marker that only real homosexuals have. In other words, Wanja’s carelessness in thinking and acting on a topic that should have been handled with care provided the impetus for this incident. This didn’t stop at criticism, but led to a petition to stop the series in the next Agora, with a total of 2,867 signatures. However, the webcomic is still running. I think it’s a webtoon that started with a good intention and has a good impact, so if writers take more responsibility for their webtoon series, it will have a much more positive effect than now. I think there are many people who think like me, and that’s why Wanja has been able to continue publishing the webtoon despite all the previous incidents.
Based on my experience, I can say that Wanja’s webtoon has made a tremendous difference in our current society just by creating more people like me. Of course, it would be great if we could go even further and become more accepting and considerate of gay people, but it will take a lot of time and effort to get there. However, thanks to Wanja’s initiative, there are many new attempts being made these days. Recently, the following webtoon about a gay couple called “What is this?” started a full series. The creator of this webtoon says he wants to be a writer like Wanja. Of course, when he first started, he was criticized for being “dirty” and so on. However, this writer persevered in telling his gay story. This reality shows that, as Wanja hoped, many people are beginning to realize that being gay is no longer a taboo subject, and that it is something that should be shared not only among themselves, but with our entire society. I hope that more people like Wanja will continue to create opportunities for people like me who were ignorant of homosexuality in society to change, and for homosexuals to gradually come out of the closet. And I hope that Wanja will continue to walk his path in spite of the criticism he faces in order to continue to create that opportunity.