(Untitled)

[akuma_divine]

You know what I'm sick of? Seeing the word "yaoi" or "shonen ai" in the summaries for fanfics that are NOT for an anime or manga series. It's appropriate to use those terms for a series that was originally in Japanese, because they are Japanese words. It is NOT appropriate to use those terms for a book/play/series that was originally in English or

Comments

[ladyyatexel]

I feel similarly about this - I can't count how many times I've seen Johnny/Edgar and Zim/Dib or even House/Wilson listed under people's "Favorite Yaoi Couples" listed on FFN and cringed at how wrong it felt.

Though, I do think part of the problem is that is no comparable English genre name for this kind of thing. We can say "Boy's Love" if we want, but that's a Japanese term as well. We have the word 'gay' which probably looks harsher and/or more offensive than shonen ai to the people who choose to use that. Our genre tends to be an unbrella 'LGBT themes' or 'homosexual content' kind of thing, and that just feels silly or like we disapprove of it. (I've never seen either of those terms used to mean anything but a stern warning.)

I still can't figure out why these people need to put this kind of thing in their summary to begin with. What's wrong with marking a fic as A/C and calling it done? If both of those characters are men, then clearly it is about the gay.

Entirely excessive comment aside: I agree.

[akuma_divine]

There actually is a comparable English term: slash. Instead of "yaoi" or "shonen ai," they can put "slash" or "slashy fluff" or something. And really, people tend to associate "yaoi" with Asian series', and to associate "slash" with English series'. At least.. I do.

[ladyyatexel]

I do tend to associate those that way, yeah, though slash goes both ways for me. 'Slash' can be the genre for a manga series for me, but 'yaoi' can't be Invader Zim or whatever. I was thinking that with English, there's no comparable way to say 'yaoi' is "Hey, dude, there be sex here" and "shonen ai" as "Fluffy gay love be this-a way." Unless people have been using 'heavy' and 'light' as determiners and I've missed that.

[akuma_divine]

Mmm, I've seen a few that use 'heavy' and 'light' as determiners for slash, but I get what you're saying.

[silver11016]

See, I'm a special case about this. Because usually when my friends and I are discussing gay relationships, we're speaking in Japanese, and therefore no matter what pairing we're talking about it's actually appropriate then to use terms like "shonen ai." (Of course, we also use all the fun words like okama, but still.)

[akuma_divine]

Well, yeah, but you're speaking Japanese, which is my point. People should use language-appropriate terms.