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Yaoi (やおい)^{[nb 1]} is a popular term for fictional media that focuses on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, yet is generally created by and for females. Originally referring to a specific type of dōjinshi (self-published works) parody of mainstream anime and manga works, yaoi came to be used as a generic term for female-oriented manga, anime, dating sims, novels and dōjinshi featuring homosexual male relationships.

In Japan, the term has largely been replaced by the rubric Boys' Love (ボーイズラブ ,Bōizu Rabu^?), which subsumes both parodies and original works, and commercial as well as dōjinshi works. Although the genre is called Boys' Love (commonly abbreviated as "BL"), the males featured are pubescent or older. Works featuring prepubescent boys are labeled shotacon, and seen as a distinct genre. Yaoi (as it continues to be known among English-speaking fans) has spread beyond Japan: both translated and original yaoi is now available in many countries and languages.

Yaoi began in the dōjinshi markets of Japan in the late 1970s/early 1980s as an outgrowth of shōnen-ai (also known as "Juné" or "tanbi"), but whereas shōnen-ai (both commercial and dōjinshi) were original works, yaoi were parodies of popular "straight" shōnen anime and manga, such as Captain Tsubasa and Saint Seiya. BL creators and fans are careful to distinguish the genre from “gay manga,” which are created by and for gay men.^[1][2] However, some male manga creators have produced BL works.^[3]

The main characters in BL usually conform to the formula of the seme (aggressor) who pursues the uke (the target).

Contents 1 Terminology 1.1 Usage 1.2 Seme and uke 2 Shōnen-ai 3 Dōjinshi 4 Global BL 5 Publishing 6 Fandom demographics 7 Thematic elements 7.1 Female characters 7.2 Idealism 7.3 Rape 7.4 Tragedy 8 Critical attention 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Further reading

[edit] Terminology

[edit] Usage

Although different meanings are often ascribed to yaoi and boy's love, (with yaoi generally said to be more explicit and BL generally said to being less so) there is conflicting information on their usage.^[4]

Yaoi is an acronym created in the dōjinshi market of the late 1970s by Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu^[5] and popularised in the 1980s^[6] standing for Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし ^?) "No climax, no point, no meaning". This phrase refers to how yaoi, as opposed to the "difficult to understand" shōnen-ai of the Year 24 Group,^[7] focussed on "the yummy parts".^[8] The phrase also parodies a classical style of plot structure.^[1] As of 1998, the term yaoi was considered "common knowledge to manga fans".^[9] A joking alternative acronym among fujoshi (female yaoi fans) for yaoi is Yamete, oshiri ga itai (やめて お尻が 痛い^?, "Stop, my butt hurts!").^[3][10]

Originally in Japan, much BL material was called "june" ジュネ ,^[11] a name derived from a publication of the same name (See Publishing) that published male/male tanbi 耽美 ("aesthetic") romances, stories written for and about the worship of beauty,^[11] and romance between older men and beautiful youths^[12] using particularly flowery language and unusual kanji.^[11] Mori Mari in Koibito tachi no mori (恋人たちの森^?, A Lovers' Forest), considered "the first work of BL per se",^[13] used such unusual kanji for her characters' names that she converted to spelling their names in katakana.^[12] Kaoru Kurimoto had also written "shōnen ai mono" stories in the late 1970s that have been described as "the precursors of yaoi".^[5] June magazine, in turn, had been named after the French author Jean Genet, with "june" being a play on the Japanese pronunciation of his name.^[14] Eventually the term "june" died out in favour of "BL," which remains the most common name.^[11]

Another term for yaoi is 801. "801" can be read as "yaoi" in the following form: the "short" reading of the number 8 is "ya", 0 can be read as "o" - a western influence without doubt, while the short reading for 1 is "i" (see Japanese wordplay). For example, an Internet manga called Tonari no 801-chan, about an otaku guy who dates a fujoshi, has been adapted into a serialised shōjo manga and a live-action film. 801-chan, the mascot of a Japanese shopping centre, is used in the manga.^[15]

Yaoi has become an umbrella term in the West for male/male manga or Japan-inspired comics,^[11] and it is preferentially used by American manga publishers.^[16] The actual name of the genre aimed toward women in Japan is called 'BL' or 'Boy's Love'. BL is aimed at the shōjo and josei demographics, but is considered a separate category.^[11][17] Yaoi is used in Japan to include dōjinshi and sex scenes,^[11] and does not include gei comi, which is by gay men and for gay men.^[1][11]

The terms yaoi and shōnen-ai are sometimes used by western fans to differentiate between the contents of the genre. In this case, "yaoi" is used to describe titles that contain sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes and "shōnen-ai" is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and do not include explicit sexual content.^[18][19] When using the terms in this way, Gravitation is considered to be shonen-ai due to its focus on the characters' careers rather than their love life, while the Gravitation Remix and Megamix doujinshi by the same author, which emphasize the characters' sexual relationships, would be considered yaoi. Sometimes the word hentai is used as an additional modifier with yaoi - "hentai yaoi" - to denote the most explicit titles.^[20] However, Kaze to Ki no Uta^{[nb 2]} was groundbreaking in its depictions of "openly sexual relationships", spurring the development of the shōnen-ai genre in shōjo manga.^[21] The use of yaoi to denote those works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with use of the word to describe the genre as a whole. Yaoi can be used by fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction.^[23]

While shōnen-ai literally means "boy's love", the two terms are not synonymous. In Japan, shōnen-ai used to refer to a now obsolete subgenre of shōjo manga about prepubescent boys in relationships ranging from the platonic to the romantic and sexual. The term was originally used to describe ephebophilia, and in scholarly contexts still is. Boy's Love, on the other hand, is used as a genre's name and refers to all titles regardless of sexual content or the ages of characters in the story (with the exception of titles featuring prepubescent boys, which are categorized as shotacon, a distinct genre with only peripheral connections to BL).^[11]

Recently a subgenre of yaoi has been introduced in Japan, so-called "muscle BL" or "Gachi Muchi" ^[24] (also referred to as "bara" among English-speaking fans ^{[25] [26]}), which offers more masculine body types and is more likely to have gay male authors and artists. Although still marketed primarily to women, ^[24] it is also thought to attract a large crossover gay male audience. ^[27]

[edit] Seme and uke

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The two participants in a yaoi relationship (sometimes also in yuri^[28]) are often referred to as seme ("attacker",攻め or せめ) and uke ("receiver",受け). These terms originated in martial arts and do not carry any degrading connotations. Seme derives from the Japanese verb semeru (“to attack”) and uke from the Japanese verb ukeru (“to receive”). Though gay males are often referred to in English as "tops" or "bottoms," seme and uke are more nearly analogous to "pitcher" and "catcher." The seme and uke are often drawn in the bishōnen style and are "highly idealised",^[29] blending both masculine and feminine qualities.^[9]

The seme is often depicted as the stereotypical male of anime and manga culture: restrained, physically powerful, and/or protective. The seme is generally older and taller,^[30] with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine, even "macho",^[31] demeanour than the uke. The seme usually pursues the uke. The uke usually has softer, androgynous, feminine features with bigger eyes and a smaller build, and is often physically weaker than the seme.^[16][32][33] Anal sex is a prevalent theme in yaoi, as nearly all stories feature it in some way.^[32] The storyline where an uke is reluctant to have anal sex with a seme is considered to be similar to the reader's reluctance to have sex whilst still a virgin.^[34] One stereotype that is criticised is that the protagonists do not identify as gay, but rather are simply in love with that particular person.^[2][32] This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love,^[35] but is also pointed to as avoiding having to address prejudices against people who consider themselves to have been born homosexual.^[2] Newer yaoi stories have characters that identify as gay.^[3] There has also been criticism of the uke in particular - that he has stereotypically "girly" behaviour.^[33] It has been questioned if yaoi is heteronormative, due to the masculine seme and feminine uke stereotypes.^[16][36] It has been noted that yaoi stories are often told from the uke's perspective.^[16] One yaoi anime that has been told in the seme's perspective is Sensitive Pornograph. "There are many favorite pairings of this," says yaoi expert Zamakiya Tumora. Tumora-sensei have been studying yaoi for a long time. When asked if yaoi is pornography or therapy for girls, Tumora-sensei replied, "It can be both if you ask me. I consider it therapy because when girls are under stress, they like to enjoy seeing to male or more to either calm themselves or be happy with who they are." Tumora-sensei also thinks that, looking at her distant cousins and uncle, pairings such as Sasunaru or Narusasu, either way, are the most common among fangirls.^{[citation needed]}

Though these stereotypes are common, not all works adhere to them.^[4][33] Mark McLelland says that authors are "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the insertive partner and the receptive partner.^[37] The possibility of switching roles is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters, which has been said to show that the genre is aware of the "performative nature" of the roles.^[38] Sometimes the bottom character will be the aggressor in the relationship,^{[nb 3]} or the pair will switch their sexual roles.^[40] Riba, リバ (a contraction of the English word "reversible") is used to describe a couple that yaoi fans think is still plausible when the partners switch their seme/uke roles.^[39] In another common mode of characters, the author will forgo the stylisations of the seme and uke, and will portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men". In this case, whichever of the two who is ordinarily in charge will take the "passive role" in the bedroom.^[31]

[edit] Shōnen-ai

Shōnen-ai (少年愛 ,boy-love^?) originally meant ephebophilia or pederasty in Japan, but from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga, primarily by the Year 24 Group, about beautiful boys in love. Characteristics of shōnen-ai include that they were exotic, often taking place in Europe,^[41] and idealistic.^[42] Suzuki describes shōnen-ai as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand",^[7] saying that they required "knowledge of classic literature, history and science"^[42] and were replete with "philosophical and abstract musings".^[43] She says that this challenged the young readers and expanded their minds. Although they could not understand the works at first reading, as they grew older they would come to understand the works more. In the meantime, "the readers' attention became focused on the figure of the male protagonist" and how he navigated his sexual relationships.^[43] By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published shōnen-ai was declining, and yaoi dōjinshi was becoming more popular.^[8]

[edit] Dōjinshi

The dōjinshi subculture has been considered the Japanese equivalent of the English-language slash fandom, especially as they both do not have typical "narrative structure", science fiction works are particularly popular in both,^[9] and they both originated in the 1970s.^[6][18] Typical yaoi dōjinshi features male-male pairings from non-romantic, published manga and anime. Much of the material derives from male-oriented shōnen and seinen works which contained male-male close friendships and are perceived by fans to imply homosexual attraction,^[8] such as with Captain Tsubasa^[1] and Saint Seiya, two titles which popularised yaoi in the 1980s.^[6] For a time, yaoi dōjinshi was known as “Captain Tsubasa”.^[44] Dōjinshi has been described by Comiket's co-founder Yoshihiro Yonezawa as being "girls playing with dolls";^[34] yaoi fans may ship any male-male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or creating a story about two men and fitting existing characters into the story.^[1]

Matt Thorn notes that unlike in slash fandom, a canonical homoerotic element "takes away the fun" of creating yaoi for that series, for example, From Eroica With Love is more popular with slash fans than it has been with dōjinshi artists.^[8] Kazuko Suzuki outlines the thematic development of the yaoi fandom, from curiosity about sexuality, to taking a parodic revenge against men, to a feminist protest, and lastly, exploring "ideal relationships".^[45]

Important characteristics of the early yaoi dōjinshi were that they were amateur publications not controlled by media restrictions, the stories were by teens for other teens, they were based on famous characters who were in their teens or early twenties, the same age as the yaoi fans.^[6] During the early 1990s, dōjinshi played a part in popularising yaoi.^[29] Yaoi dōjinshi has been compared to the Plot, what Plot? subgenre of fan fiction.^[46]

Though collectors often focus on dōjinshi based on particular manga, any male character may become the subject of a yaoi dōjinshi, even characters from non-manga titles such as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.^[47] Video games have also been parodied, including titles like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy.^[48][49]

Most dōjinshi is created by amateurs who often work in "circles"^{[citation needed]}; for example, the group CLAMP began as an amateur dōjinshi circle. However, some professional artists, such as Kodaka Kazuma create dōjinshi as well.^[50] Some publishing companies have used dōjinshi published in the 1980s to spot talented amateurs,^[18][32] such as Biblos hiring Yōka Nitta.^[51]

Convention when labelling stories differs between Japanese fandom and slash-influenced fandoms. In Japan, the labelling is to put the two names of the characters separated by a multiplication sign, with the seme's name being first, and the uke's being second.^[52]

[edit] Global BL

As Japanese yaoi gained popularity in the U.S., a few American artists began creating gay-themed original English-language manga referred to as "American yaoi." The first known original English-language BL comic is Sexual Espionage #1 by Daria McGrain, published in May 2002.^[53] What started as a small subculture in North America, has, since approximately 2004, become a burgeoning market, as new publishers began producing male/male erotic comics and manga from creators outside Japan.^[54] Because creators from all parts of the globe are published in these original English language works, the term 'American yaoi' is not used; the term 'Global BL'^[55] or 'GloBL' is considered more acceptable.

Current North American publishers of 'Global BL' are Yaoi Press, who in 2007 had over twenty titles on the market,^[56] as well as newcomer Yaoi Generation who announced intentions to publish GloBL in the coming years,^[57]. Publisher DramaQueen, which debuted its 'Global BL' quarterly anthology RUSH in 2006^[58] has since ceased releasing RUSH and has been uncommunicative with creators involved in the project, as well as fans.^{[59] [60] [61]}

Former publishers include Iris Print.^[62][63]

[edit] Publishing

The earliest magazine about Boy's Love was June, which began in 1978 as a response to the success of commercially published manga such as the works of Keiko Takemiya, Moto Hagio and Yumiko Ōshima.^[52] Other factors was the rising popularity of depictions of bishōnen in the dōjinshi market and ambiguous musicians such as David Bowie and Queen. June was meant to have an underground, "cultish, guerilla-style" feeling – most of its mangaka were new talent. Frederik L. Schodt describes June as "a kind of 'readers' magazine, created by and for the readers." Essays about the characteristics of the June genre were published with the manga in June. In 1982, Shōsetsu June ("Novel June"), a sister magazine to June began publication. Its content is text-only stories with male romance. As of the mid-1990s, Shōsetsu June outsold June.^[64] As of 2008, June was still running,^[65] although the target audience's ages have widened and the style of stories has changed from being "soft love" to more overtly pornographic.^[52] The magazine Allan (アラン ,Aran^?) (1980-1984) which was more text-based than June was influential in cultivating a lesbian culture.^[66] The Japanese publisher Biblos was a BL publisher established in 1988 but their bankruptcy due to failure of their parent company^[32] caused them to fold in April 2006.^[67] Most of their titles were picked up by Libre.^[68]

Japanese BL works are sold to English-speaking countries by companies that translate and print them in English; companies such as Digital Manga Publishing with their imprints 801 Media (for explicit BL) and June (for "romantic and sweet" BL),^[18] as well as DramaQueen, Kitty Media, Central Park Media's Be Beautiful^[16],Tokyopop under their imprint BLU, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, Aurora Publishing under their imprint Deux Press, and Yaoi Generation. The earliest officially translated BL manga sold was in 2003, and as of 2006 there were about 130 English-translated works commercially available.^[32] In 2007 following Biblos' bankruptcy, Libre published an open letter on their website which said that English-language publishers had to renegotiate publishing rights for Biblos' former series with Libre, specifically naming CPM's releases as "illegal".^[69][70] Diamond Comic Distributors estimated the U.S. sales of yaoi manga as being approximately $US 6 million in 2007. In English-speaking countries explicit stories are either sold online or displayed in shrink wrap.^[71] BLU reports that although bookshops are becoming more willing to stock BL titles, they are conservative about how the books are labelled, leading to books being shrink wrapped and rated for over 18s which previously would have garnered an over 16 rating, and do not "really follow through on the [adult content] promise."^[13]

[edit] Fandom demographics

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Fujoshi . (Discuss)

Most yaoi fans are either teenage girls or young women. The female readership in Thailand is estimated at 80%,^[73] and the membership of Yaoi-Con, a U.S. yaoi convention, is 85% female.^[72] It is usually assumed that all of these are heterosexual, but there is also a presence of lesbian manga authors^[3] and lesbian, bisexual or questioning female readers.^[74] Although the genre is marketed at women and girls, gay,^[32] bisexual^[75] and straight males^[72][76] also form part of the readership. In one U.S. survey of yaoi fans, about one quarter of respondents were male.^[77] It has been suggested that Western fans may be more diverse in their sexual orientation than Japanese fans and that Western fans are "more likely to link" BL to supporting gay rights.^[13] That is not to say that the majority of homosexual men are fans of the genre as some are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of homosexual life and instead seek "Gei comi" (Gay comic), written by and for homosexual men,^[3] as gei comi is perceived to be more realistic.^[1] Lunsing notes that some of the narrative annoyances that homosexual men express about yaoi manga are also present in gei comi.^[3] Some male mangaka have produced yaoi works, using their successes in yaoi to then go on to publish gei comi.^[3] Thorn noted that fans tend to prefer BL to both non-BL shōjo manga,^[17] and Suzuki noted a preference for BL over other forms of pornography, for example heterosexual love stories in ladies' comics.^[78] Deborah Shamoon said that "the borders between yaoi, shōjo manga and ladies' comics are quite permeable", suggesting that fans of BL probably enjoyed both homosexual and heterosexual tales.^[79]

As of the mid-1980s, fan translations of the series From Eroica with Love began to circulate through the slash fiction community via amateur press associations,^[8][80] creating a "tenuous link" between slash and shōnen-ai.^[81] Although the English-speaking online yaoi fandom is observed to increasingly overlap with online slash fandom,^[82] slash fiction has portrayed adult males, whereas yaoi follows the aesthetic of the beautiful boy, often highlighting their youth. Mark McLelland describes this aesthetic as having become problematic in recent Western society.^[37] Yaoi fans tend to be younger than slash fans, and so are less shocked about depictions of underage sexuality.^[83] Kazuma Kodaka, in an interview with Giant Robot suggested that the Japanese yaoi fandom includes married women who had been her fans since they were in college.^[84] Dru Pagliassotti's survey indicates that loyalty to an author is a common factor in readers' purchase decisions.^[13] Yōka Nitta has noted a split in what her readers want - her younger readers prefer seeing explicit material, and her older readers prefer seeing romance.^[85] There is a perception that the English-speaking yaoi fandom is demanding increasingly explicit content,^[86] but that this poses problems for retailers.^[87] In 2004, ICv2 noted that fans seemed to prefer buying yaoi online.^[88] Andrea Wood suggests that due to restrictions placed on the sale of yaoi, many Western teenage fans seek more explicit titles via scanlations.^[38] Dru Pagliassotti notes that the majority of respondants to her survey say that they first encountered BL online, which she links to half of her respondants reporting that they get most of their BL from scanlations.^[13]

In the mid-1990s, estimates of the size of the Japanese yaoi fandom were at 100,000-500,000 people,^[3] and also at around that time, June had a circulation of between 80,000 and 100,000, twice the circulation of the "best-selling" gay lifestyle magazine Badi.^[83] Most Western yaoi fansites "appeared some years later than pages and lists devoted to mainstream anime and manga". As of 1995, they "revolved around the most famous series", such as Ai no Kusabi and Zetsuai 1989; and by the late 1990s, English-speaking websites mentioning yaoi "reached the hundreds".^[89] As of 2003, on Japanese-language internet sites, there were roughly equal proportions of sites dedicated to yaoi as there were sites by and for gay men about homosexuality.^[90] On 16 November 2003 there were 770,000 yaoi websites.^[6] As of April 2005, a search for non-Japanese sites resulted in 785,000 English, 49,000 Spanish, 22,400 Korean, 11,900 Italian and 6,900 Chinese sites.^[37] In January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for 'yaoi'.^[91]

[edit] Thematic elements

This section requires expansion.

BL has similar themes to heterosexual shōjo manga, several exploring adolescent romance and the "interiority of the characters."^[92] Common characters in yaoi are schoolboys and yakuza.^[80] Sometimes, schoolboys are depicted in sexual situations, which is controversial when these titles are licensed in countries where underage sexuality and its depiction is taboo.^[93]

[edit] Female characters

Female characters have very minor roles in yaoi, or are absent altogether.^[35][94] Suzuki notes that mothers, in particular, are portrayed badly, such as Takuto's mother from Zetsuai 1989, who killed her husband in front of her young son. Suzuki suggests this is because the character and the reader are attempting to replace a mother's lacking "unconditional love" with the "forbidden" all-consuming love presented in yaoi.^[95] Nariko Enomoto, a yaoi author says she feels that when women are shown, "it can't help but become weirdly real".^[96] When yaoi fan works are created from a series which originally contained females (such as Gundam Wing),^[97] the female's role is either minimised or the character is killed off.^[94]

[edit] Idealism

Most BL manga have been said to "foster an aesthetic of purity, even when depicting hard-core sex acts."^[98] Many BL manga have fantastic, historic or futuristic settings, and many fans consider BL to be an "escapist fantasy".^[79] Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all,^[4] is used as a plot device to "heighten the drama",^[99] or to show the purity of the leads’ love.^[12] Matt Thorn has suggested that as BL is a romance narrative, having strong political themes may be a "turn off" to the readers.^[8] Yaoi narratives show characters "overcoming obstacles, often internal, to be together". The theme of the victory of the protagonists in yaoi has been compared favourably to Western fairy tales, as the latter intends to enforce the status quo, but yaoi is "about desire" and seeks "to explore, not circumscribe, possibilities."^[100]

[edit] Rape

According to Suzuki, sexual intercourse in yaoi is a way of expressing commitment to a partner, and "apparent violence" in sex is a "measure of passion". Suzuki elaborates that when a woman is raped, she is stigmatised by society, but in yaoi, boys who are loved by their rapists are still "imbued with innocence", a theme she attributes to Kaze to Ki no Uta.^[101] Rape fantasy themes have been said to free the protagonist of responsibility in sex, leading to the narrative climax of the story, where "the protagonist takes responsibility for his own sexuality".^[93]

[edit] Tragedy

June stories with suicide endings were popular,^[64] as was "watching men suffer",^[102] but by the mid 1990s the fashion was for happy endings.^[64] When tragic endings are shown, the cause is not infidelity, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world."^[103]

[edit] Critical attention

BL (shōnen-ai, yaoi) manga has received considerable critical attention, especially after translations of BL became commercially available outside of Japan in the 21st century.^[8] Different critics and commentators have had very different views of BL. In 1983, Frederik L. Schodt observed that “aesthetically” depicted male-male homosexual relationships had become popular among female readers as an extension of bisexual themes already present in shōjo manga.^[104] Japanese critics have seen BL as allowing girls to distance sex from their own bodies,^[105] as allowing girls to avoid adult female sexuality while simultaneously creating greater fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality,^[106] and as rejecting “socially mandated” gender roles as a “first step toward feminism.”^[107] In more elaborate theorizing, Kazuko Suzuki sees BL manga emerging from girls' contempt and dislike for masculine heterosexism and from an effort to define "ideal relationships" among men.^[108] BL has been compared to romance novels by English-speaking librarians.^[30][99] Parallels have also been noted in the popularity of lesbianism in pornography.^[32][34]

Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie BL. Shihomi Sakakibara (1998) argued that yaoi fans, including herself, were homosexually oriented female-to-male transsexuals.^[109] For Sandra Buckley, bishōnen narratives champion “the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations"^[110] and James Welker described the bishōnen character as "queer", observing that manga critic Akiko Mizoguchi saw shōnen-ai as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian.^[111] Welker added that shōnen-ai liberates readers "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity."^[111]

Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the yaoi ronsō or "yaoi debate" of 1992-1997.^[3][12] In May 1992, gay activist Masaki Satō criticized yaoi fans and artists in an open letter to the feminist zine (or minikomi in Japanese) Choisir.^[3][12] Satō said that yaoi failed to provide accurate information about gay men, promoted a destructive image of gay men as wealthy, handsome, and well-educated, ignored prejudice and discrimination against gay men in society, and co-opted gay men as masturbation fantasies.^[12] An extensive debate ensued, with yaoi fans and artists arguing that yaoi is entertainment for women, not education for gay men, and that yaoi characters are not meant to represent "real gay men."^[12] As internet resources for gay men developed in the 1990s, the yaoi debate waned^[112] but has had later echoes, for example when Mizoguchi in 2003 characterised stereotypes in modern BL as being "unrealistic and homophobic".^[113] There has been similar criticism to the Japanese yaoi debate in the English-speaking fandom.^{[4][114][115]} In 1993 and 2004, Matt Thorn pointed to the complexity of these phenomena, and suggested that yaoi and slash fiction fans are discontented with “the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a social environment that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent.”^[8][116]

[edit] See also

• Category:Shōnen-ai—for specific shōnen-ai titles.
• Category:Yaoi—for specific yaoi titles.
• BL game
• Glossary of anime and manga
• List of manga magazines—includes BL magazines.
• Pornography in Japan
• Shudō

[edit] Notes

1. ^ In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, IPA: [jaoi] ya-oh-ee.
2. ^ First serialised in Shōjo Comic in January 1976, Kaze has been called "the first commercially published boys' love story",^[21] but this claim has been challenged, as the first male-male kiss was in the 1970 In the Sunroom, also by Keiko Takemiya.^[22] Matt Thorn says that Kaze was "the first shōjo manga to portray romantic and sexual relationships between boys", and that Takemiya first thought of Kaze nine years before it was approved for publication. Takemiya attributes the gap between the idea and its publication to the sexual elements of the story.^[8]
3. ^ This character has been called an "Osoi uke" (襲い受け, "attacking uke"). He is usually paired with a "Hetare seme" (ヘタレ攻め, "wimpy seme").^[39]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Aoyama, Tomoko (1988) "Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers" in The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond, Gavan McCormack, Yoshio Sugimoto eds. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-34515-4.
• Buruma, Ian (1983) Behind the Mask: On Sexual Demons, Sacred Mothers, Transvestites, Gangsters, Drifters, and Other Japanese Cultural Heroes
• Butcher, Christopher (11 December 2007). "Queer love manga style". Xtra!.
• Cha, Kai-Ming (13 March 2007) Media Blasters Drops Shonen; Adds Yaoi Publishers Weekly
• Cooper, Lisa "Laugh it up" Newtype USA, October 2007 (Volume 6 Number 10)
• Fujimoto Yukari (2004). "Transgender: Female Hermaphrodites and Male Androgynes". U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal 27: 76.
• Giant Robot issue 42
• Haggerty, George E. (2000). Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780815318804.
• Kakinuma Eiko, Kurihara Chiyo et al. (eds.), Tanbi-Shosetsu, Gay-Bungaku Book Guide, 1993. ISBN 4893673238
• Lees, Sharon (July 2006). "Be Beautiful: Yaoi Publishers Interviews Part 3". Akiba Angels.
• Levi, Antonia (1996) Samurai From Outer Space - Understanding Japanese Animation
• Lewis, Marilyn Jaye (editor), Zowie! It's Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys' Love. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2006. ISBN 1560259108.
• Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
• Mautner, Chris (2007) "Introduction to yaoi, part 1"
• McCarthy, Helen, Jonathan Clements The Erotic Anime Movie Guide pub Titan (London) 1998 ISBN 1 85286 946 1
• McHarry, Mark. "Identity Unmoored: Yaoi in the West". In Thomas Peele, ed., Queer Popular Culture: Literature, Media, Film, and Television. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. ISBN 140397490X.
• McLelland, Mark; Yoo, Seunghyun (March 2007). "The International Yaoi Boys' Love Fandom and the Regulation of Virtual Child Pornography: The Implications of Current Legislation". Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, Vol. 4, No. 1, pages 93–104. DOI:10.1525/srsp.2007.4.1.93.
• Mizoguchi Akiko (2003). "Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of Yaoi Fictions". U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, 25: 49.
• Nagaike Kazumi (2003). "Perverse Sexualities, Perverse Desires: Representations of Female Fantasies and Yaoi Manga as Pornography Directed at Women. U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, 25: 76.
• Nishimura Mari (2001) Aniparo to Yaoi Ohta Publishing ISBN 978-4-87233-643-6
• Newtype USA, August 2007 (Volume 6 Number 8) "Why we like it"
• Pagliassotti, Dru (8 July 2008) Japanese Transnational Fandoms Papers
• Perper, Timothy and Cornog, Martha (March 2002) Eroticism for the masses: Japanese manga comics and their assimilation into the U.S. Sexuality & Culture, 6 (1) pp. 3–126
• Salek, Rebecca (June 2005) More Than Just Mommy and Daddy: "Nontraditional" Families in Comics Sequential Tart
• Solomon, Charles (30 June 2004) Young men in love Los Angeles Times
• Simona's BL Research Lab @ Akibanana
• Simona's BL for Dummies Crash Course
• Simona's BL for Dummies Crash Course - Intermediate Level
• Thompson, Jason (2007) Manga: The Complete Guide Del Rey ISBN 978-0345485908

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