And like Pat - we just have to let it reveal its subtler truths by getting to know it better, on its own terms, as one little BL revolutionising a whole genre. Like Pran, Bad Buddy doesn't always give up its secrets easily. But not before Pran gets the opportunity to educate him (and the audience), with a little illustrative role-switching, how implied power dynamics can also be read into the terms used, and why it's a stereotype best discarded. For Pat and Pran, the issue is resolved good-naturedly enough when Pat apologises for calling Pran his wife, confessing that he only did it because he thought it reflected their growing closeness. But in a gay relationship where both partners are equal, the gendering of roles is meaningless and the promulgation of unfair power imbalances that plagued (and still plague) heterosexual relationships should have no place there either. As long as patriarchal stereotypes persist, when a male partner feminises the other's role in the relationship there will be implications of subordination as well. The trope carries the message that the 'female' of the pair (the uke) is a 'little woman' to his 'male' seme. When Pran indignantly confronts Pat in one of the later episodes about calling him a housewife, Bad Buddy is also taking the opportunity to rip into the 'wifey' trope (note the diminutive suffix) trotted out in countless other BL dramas.
