Posing as an academic for a change

[zenkatsuo]

I haven't written a proper rambling entry in a long while. Likely because I've been hung up about homework and bidding on auctions every single night for the past God knows how long. Like all my entries after a while in posting, this one too is about nothing that's actually happened. Nothing much happens to me anyway.

Recently I read this comment

Comments

[chrysa]

I'm aware that yaoi is a term that originated from describing doujinshi, but in the Western BL fandom's conscience, it primarily describes manga (and doujinshi) works produced by mangaka (doujinshika) that run in phonebook mangazines and/or are self-published etc. I can't speak for how fandom thinks of the term "BL" but in my mind, it's a generally encompassing term. So I think of the fanart on Pixiv, the trashy RPS fanfiction I'm reading, and Japanese published "yaoi" all as BL, but yaoi as something more specific. But that's only in my own mind...

What I mean by glorified is that, a lot of women who read shoujo are really against ... shoujo (used in this sense as Yuu Watase-style of shoujo). But yaoi is like... if you're a woman who hates women's shoes, and some company is like, "Yeah, we hate shoes too! We understand everything you dislike about them, and have made shoes to cater to your needs." So it's like, shoes for women who hate women's shoes. But ultimately, they're still shoes for women - just women who hate shoes. Don't I have the best analogies? ♥

In any case, I think yaoi is glorified shoujo because it's a niche genre within shoujo [1] (used as a demographic/encompassing term) whose audience primarily or predominantly dislikes shoujo [2] (used in terms of Yuu Watase/Shoujo Beat sense). Not that yaoi is necessarily better or even particularly different than [2], but a glorified version of it. And with all the [1]/[2] I feel like I'm writing an academic paper now.

I pretty much agree with everything else you said, so I don't really have much more to add. I did read one romance novel once, when I was stuck in China. Except it was more like I read the first 50 pages, got bored and tried to find a sex scene which proved to be also boring, and then died of embarrassment at end. I didn't want to complain about a genre I never read, but since it proved to be just as terrible worse than I thought it would be, I have that right now.

In general, I take yaoi at its crappy face value and deal with it. I guess it just gets on my nerve when people complain about it because they complain about trivial things when ...yeah. But I guess even people living in collapsing houses have the right to complain about the shower water being too cold.

[zenkatsuo]

Well, using yaoi in reference to print media and BL as an umbrella term to refer to mixed media products like games, drama cds, as well as print media certainly feels more logical and less contrived. I think I remember now hearing of it before, so maybe it's not just you. ...Or maybe I'm just remembering the last time we've discussed the subject.

Indeed, your analogies are marvelous. A fact I've noted before. I guess I should look into more about the relationship between shoujo and yaoi, and the relationship yaoi readers have with shoujo. Probably the attitude toward shoujo will be different in the West than in Japan, since the Japanese have access to a wider selection of shoujo and not just the generic shoujo that ends up being licensed in the West.

Isn't it strange though, how the fans of yaoi (the Western fans at least) seem to be motivated by a dislike of shoujo, yet so many of them have complaints about yaoi. So what's the problem with shoujo if yaoi's still better? Girls instead of ukes?