Sir, Butler and Boy ~ A Cream Tea ~ End
And that’s the end of the first chapter! I’m obviously not the first person to make comics about queer servants, if you want to see some of the places I got inspiration from check these out!
(All not safe for work!)
Fyodor Pavolv’s a Gentleman’s Gentleman
Ha! Didn’t see that coming. I loved this first chapter.
btw, Tab, it looks like the “latest” link is redirecting to the archives right now instead of this page. My bookmark and the Gay Buttlers lastest page link in the upper right both bounced me over there.
Urrrg, dammit wordpress. I’ve added a list of ‘latest comics’ to the side, hopefully that will help make navigation easier!
Hahha, I enjoyed that.
I mean, I believe you that it’s consensual… But if the two older guys are actually employed by the “Boy” and this is actually set in the 19th century (i.e. they’re not just playing fancy dress-up), then it’s still problematic. Because the servants don’t really have the ability to refuse without facing serious negative consequences, so they don’t really have the ability to give meaningful consent.
It’s kind of a “Me too” situation.
Sexual abuse of live-in servants was a widespread problem (usually sexual abuse of young maids, but still), and the servants were pretty much completely helpless in this situation, far more so than a person would be nowadays when they’re sexually harrassed by their boss. Back in those days, there were no laws to protect employee’s rights and you could be fired for no reason at all, and if your employer refused to give a good “character reference” (normally this was refused if the servant had misbehaved, e.g. been lazy or drunk or stole something), then you were highly unlikely to find another position in service with a different employer. There was no unemployment insurrance or welfare system, so women who were fired after refusing to have sex with their boss (or management-level servants who could give them orders, like the butler) often ended up with no other choice but to prostitute themselves.
Unlike women working in service, the gardener here could get another job, but only something unskilled, physically back-breaking and far less well paid than his current profession (e.g. digging canals, building railroads or mining), since the work he’s actually trained for – gardening was a skilled profession with a multi-year apprenticeship – would only be needed at other manor houses. And if he refuses the advances of the little lord who’s taken an interest in him, or the head butler, then he would be out on the street without a reference.
Or are you saying only the bottom / sub / feminine partner in any sexual encounter needs protecting from abuse? That’s no different from the double standard that says adult men cannot be rape victims. (Which is still the assumption in most counties’ law codes, including Japan’s. Hence all those date rape plots in Yaoi and Bara that are presented as if it’s not a problem at all.)
For my peace of mind, I’m going to pretend that the “Boy” met the two older guys first for sex, and THEN decided to hire them to make a discrete gay relationship easier to manage. Though I’m kind of having trouble imagining a scenario where a young lord would come into contact with middle-aged working class guys who are not already his servants. Other than the military, which results in the same consent problems – even if a young gay lieutenant hiring his “batman” (an enlisted man who acted as the manservant of the officer, helping him dress, cleaning the uniform, and so on) or sargent as a manservant or butler to have an excuse to bring them home was not unheard of in reality. Though, again, the gardener and most likely the butler as well, would have been working in service since they were 14 or younger, in order to reach the relatively high-level position of butler and the kind of gardner who would be allowed to work without supervision by another, higher ranking head gardner.) Well, maybe he hired them away from another noble family after having a brief afair at that family’s hunting estate, or something.