Anime Fandom Culture: A Push for More Homosexual Ships

While reading Wartenberg’s “Intelligence and Class in Good Will Hunting”, his statement of "unlikely couple films" reminded me of most anime fandoms. Let me explain.

Recently, I have been watching a My Hero Academia spin-off called My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. I love scrolling through Pinterest, Instagram, or TikTok reminiscing on scenes or characters from the show and reading the comments of each post. However, I have noticed that in the MHA fandom (and others) there is a heavy push toward more homosexual couples even though they aren't canon. The biggest example of this in the MHA fandom is the protagonist Izuku Midoryia (Deku) and his childhood friend and opposite Katsuki Bakugo. 

In the first season, we see the contrast between Deku and Bakugo and how Bakugo ultimately bullied Deku throughout their childhood up until high school. Bakugo was insecure about Deku's lack of a quirk (a supernatural ability), but how he always stood up for what was right, even without any type of power to aid him. Bakugo, having a quirk, was always more selfish and violent, showing carelessness towards others even though his goal is to become the number 1 hero. However, while in the final season, Deku and Bakugo become close friends, it still makes no sense to me why anyone would push them to become a couple, when every encounter they have is everything short of romantic.

Sellnow mentions in his chapter, "A Neo-Marxist Perspective" that hegemony is "is the privileging of a dominant group's ideology over that of other groups" (pp. 117). He includes the example of how "[h]eterosexual people are more empowered than homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual people." While this is true in the US, I cannot say if homosexuality is more dominant in Japan or not.

Similarly, in the MHA graphic novels Deku is confirmed to end up with Ochaco Uraraka one of his female classmates. Also, most of the MHA ships I have encountered are heterosexual such as Shoto and Momo, Kaminari and Jirou, Kirishima and Mina, and others. 

There are many popular animes with homosexual representation such as Sailor Moon, Yuri!!! on ICE, Given, etc., although there is still a desire and popularity for homosexual ships like Deku and Bakugo as I mentioned earlier. I see more comments and fanart depicting Deku and Bakugo than with Deku and Uraraka. The same goes for Haikyu!!, another anime I love, where the protagonist Hinata is shipped with his middle school rival Kageyama, even though like Deku and Bakugo, they become friends in the end.

These examples and others make me believe that because homosexuality is the more dominant group in anime fandom culture that there is such a heavy push for more homosexual ships.

Now my question to you readers: do you believe that hegemony can be flipped on its head? For example from Sellnow's chapter, can poorer people become more empowered than wealthy? Can homosexuality become more empowered than heterosexuality? What would that mean for society?