More on Yaoi -from Yaoi-con
"What is Yaoi?
Yaoi is a Japanese publishing genre that encompasses manga, novels and short stories produced by female artists and writers for the enjoyment of female readers. It's a fantasy form which focuses on the romantic, emotional, and above all, sexual relationships of guys together. The word yaoi is derived from the first syllables of each word in the expression, yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi, which means "no peak, no point, no meaning,” and originally referred to badly drawn self-published fan comics (doujinshi). Yaoi is similar to the American genre of slash (m/m pairings based on popular tv series, movies or books), but typically with more of a visual aspect.
Boy's Love (BL) is the usual term used by the Japanese publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women. Many Westerners use yaoi as a catchall term to indicate any story that includes a male/male relationship and is linked to Japan, be it commercial manga, anime, games, game-based slash fiction, English-language fan fiction, fan art, etc., just as BL is used as an umbrella term in Japan. In Japan the term yaoi typically refers to just doujinshi and sex scenes. Referring to a commercial work as yaoi, or to a shoujo (girls') or BL manga artist as a yaoi artist may be considered offensive.
Who are the fans?
As mentioned above, the intended audience is female. Which isn't to say that guys, regardless of sexual persuasion, don't enjoy yaoi. Some definitely do, and enjoy it immensely, but the intended audience of Japanese yaoi is exclusively female.
So it's hentai or gay porn for women?
Not at all. Remember that it's all written by women for the enjoyment of other women, so the works display a female fantasy of what's sexually attractive, not necessarily a gay male one. Secondly, there's a common misconception that yaoi is all about the sex, nothing more than hentai or pornography for women. Yaoi manga, novels and anime actually cover a wide variety of genres, from comedy to science fiction, from giant robots to high school romance and have been known to have long, complex, volume-spanning plots.
Which isn’t to say that yaoi works can’t be sexually explicit. Some of them are very much so, and definitely not for minors. It's worth noting that even in the more sexually explicit yaoi anime, there's never full-frontal nudity. There are always strategic camera angles or discreetly bent limbs to blunt the effect. Or there are the infamous "glowing cones of light” (or ghostly outlines) which replace genitalia during sex scenes. "
See..It's absolutely fascinating on both an emotional and analytical level!! (I mean: I love it and it's really strange and interesting) It isn't really porn, because it's more affectionate; It's about gay men (they are the main characters and their relationships are the emotional center of these stories/movies/etc.) but is intended to be read by straight women. IT makes absolutely no sense, and perfect sense at the same time. I'm not quite sure of the implications of the situation/literature. Is this the female version of the gratuitious lesbian scene in straight male porn? What does it mean that the sex (more explicitly the penis itself) is being "left out" or "blurred?" Is this form a result of the VERY obvious exclusion of any consideration for female or gay male viewers in mainstream pornography? Or is it a "celebration of male love and beauty?" The characters certainly are lovely, and quite beautiful. I won't say it isn't really, really appealing...but I'm curious as to what some close reading might surface about this type of literature...what if it's only seemingly liberating, is this a damaging type of objectification somehow? I guess I think too much about things. I'll write more on this as I learn more.
FOR crissakes though, I AM, without a doubt, the perfect target audience (although I wouldn't mind if they left the full frontal unblurred...what's wrong with showing a penis? I think penises are pretty cool!)! It's no different than Anne Rice books: beautifully unearthly men sharing real affection for one another...ah, fantasy. I am a smitten kitten.
Yaoi is a Japanese publishing genre that encompasses manga, novels and short stories produced by female artists and writers for the enjoyment of female readers. It's a fantasy form which focuses on the romantic, emotional, and above all, sexual relationships of guys together. The word yaoi is derived from the first syllables of each word in the expression, yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi, which means "no peak, no point, no meaning,” and originally referred to badly drawn self-published fan comics (doujinshi). Yaoi is similar to the American genre of slash (m/m pairings based on popular tv series, movies or books), but typically with more of a visual aspect.
Boy's Love (BL) is the usual term used by the Japanese publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women. Many Westerners use yaoi as a catchall term to indicate any story that includes a male/male relationship and is linked to Japan, be it commercial manga, anime, games, game-based slash fiction, English-language fan fiction, fan art, etc., just as BL is used as an umbrella term in Japan. In Japan the term yaoi typically refers to just doujinshi and sex scenes. Referring to a commercial work as yaoi, or to a shoujo (girls') or BL manga artist as a yaoi artist may be considered offensive.
Who are the fans?
As mentioned above, the intended audience is female. Which isn't to say that guys, regardless of sexual persuasion, don't enjoy yaoi. Some definitely do, and enjoy it immensely, but the intended audience of Japanese yaoi is exclusively female.
So it's hentai or gay porn for women?
Not at all. Remember that it's all written by women for the enjoyment of other women, so the works display a female fantasy of what's sexually attractive, not necessarily a gay male one. Secondly, there's a common misconception that yaoi is all about the sex, nothing more than hentai or pornography for women. Yaoi manga, novels and anime actually cover a wide variety of genres, from comedy to science fiction, from giant robots to high school romance and have been known to have long, complex, volume-spanning plots.
Which isn’t to say that yaoi works can’t be sexually explicit. Some of them are very much so, and definitely not for minors. It's worth noting that even in the more sexually explicit yaoi anime, there's never full-frontal nudity. There are always strategic camera angles or discreetly bent limbs to blunt the effect. Or there are the infamous "glowing cones of light” (or ghostly outlines) which replace genitalia during sex scenes. "
See..It's absolutely fascinating on both an emotional and analytical level!! (I mean: I love it and it's really strange and interesting) It isn't really porn, because it's more affectionate; It's about gay men (they are the main characters and their relationships are the emotional center of these stories/movies/etc.) but is intended to be read by straight women. IT makes absolutely no sense, and perfect sense at the same time. I'm not quite sure of the implications of the situation/literature. Is this the female version of the gratuitious lesbian scene in straight male porn? What does it mean that the sex (more explicitly the penis itself) is being "left out" or "blurred?" Is this form a result of the VERY obvious exclusion of any consideration for female or gay male viewers in mainstream pornography? Or is it a "celebration of male love and beauty?" The characters certainly are lovely, and quite beautiful. I won't say it isn't really, really appealing...but I'm curious as to what some close reading might surface about this type of literature...what if it's only seemingly liberating, is this a damaging type of objectification somehow? I guess I think too much about things. I'll write more on this as I learn more.
FOR crissakes though, I AM, without a doubt, the perfect target audience (although I wouldn't mind if they left the full frontal unblurred...what's wrong with showing a penis? I think penises are pretty cool!)! It's no different than Anne Rice books: beautifully unearthly men sharing real affection for one another...ah, fantasy. I am a smitten kitten.