Two Articles On Yaoi

[Moonlight_Shadow12]

I found an article online about two girls who wonder why girls like yaoi and shounen-ai so much so I though that everyone would like the article so I hope everyone enjoys and let me know what you think I value everyones opinion.

This article talks about why girls like yaoi and boys love and I think that it makes alot of sense let me know what you think I came up with this chat in the other guild. I posted the second article in the chat as well for everyone to enjoy so have fun reading.

Girls & Yaoi
by Val and Amie


I believe it has happened to every fan girl out there who has picked a Shounen Ai or Yaoi doujin and automatically fallen for the sugary-sweet, romantic story, maybe just for the male eye-candy.

One has finally asked oneself "why is it that got me about the idea of two guys falling in love with each other? Why, since I can't be related to them? Is it just the way they look, does it go beyond...?"

Those are repeated questions that have found many answers all along the history of the yaoi genre, and each of them slightly more veritable than the other.

The first, and maybe the most obvious one deals with the fact women enjoy to see cutesy bishounen romancing hunky gorgeous men for the simple fact they don't feel themselves in the position of a rival, primely because their feminity is not being challenged by another girl, but by a cutie they want themselves to hug, kiss and pet.

I'm not saying here girls don't feel substituted by the figure of the bishounen, but that they don't feel themselves menaced by it. In other words, they just accept their substitution by the mere fact of not feeling "jealous" of bishounen. Go ask any teenage fan-girl whom they prefer to see their fave anime stud with, and they'll tell you the name of some random bishounen. In fact, it's kinda complex to explain why females like that improved, new character stereotype we call *bishounen*.

They are the perfect combination of all the virtues of both sexes, have a perfect body that any female would envy and usually get the cutest boyfriends! ^_^;;; Then why girls love them and don't want to nail them down out of envy instead? They just see them as a more appealing and understandable model of feminity. Women are known to be much more envious between each other than men, so they just feel sympathetic towards a cute little guy facing a situation in which they'd rip their rival's face off, happen her to be another girl.

There's where all the theories about bishounen -whom are normally the main characters of every shounen ai story- apply the most: we girls love them to death not only because of their cuteness and delicacy, but also because of the fact they are normally helpless, devoid of love or going through a specifically sad situation (just take a glance at Kamui, Subaru, Chihaya, etc.) so they, with their childish charms and boyish faces, awake our motherly instincts and we want to hug them, take care of them and protect them. That's what normaly happens to the guy that falls in love with the bishounen -always talking about shounen-ai, not yaoi, which as everybody knows, deals more with the sexual issue than with the emotional one- with the radical difference that most seme-tachi act fatherly.

There lies another reason girls, particulary Japanese ones, love shounen-ai: they get to see virile, adult men in such a sweet and tender position towards the bishounen, so they just feel someone's taking care of the business they want to do themselves and furthermore they get to see a male in such a different situation from the stern, almost martial one they assume on everydays' life.

Another possibly answer to the question could be girls would want to see a bishounen caught up in the same emotions that a girl feels to see how he would react to it (the girls that I refer to are mostly Japanese).

The male in Japanese history has always been the dominating partner in a relationship, and Japanese women didn't really understand the figure known as "man", so there has always been a curiosity about him. Therefore, it is interesting to those Japanese girls to see what would happen if he took her place in a relationship.

There's also the fact that shounen ai plots are usually more romantic than any other kind of stories (don't tell me some Earthian and Zetsuai scenes don't put Sailormoon or Fushigi Yuugi's cheesy romanticism to shame), and that Japanese girls, whom are the standard consumers of yaoi stuff, feel terribly attracted to androgynous young males due to the reason the average Japanese male they have for couple is most usually the figure of the super macho man, and so they dream of someone that can understand their feelings, be soft, tender and cute, someone they can almost identify with and at the same time keep that attractive certainty of gender difference. That's another reason why bishounen are so terribly popular.

As for the sexual issue, taboo is a certainly appealing thing to everyone's secret morbid persona, and homosexuality is certainly listed as one of the 20th century most discussed taboos. For those girls who are open minded, even for those that are only driven by curiosity, it helplessly results to be an interesting new experience, specially when it comes to see a boy "suffering" the same assault that is normally determined for girls in any other hentai stories.

So why, in the end do we like male // male relationships so much, either romantic or just sexually oriented? My guess is that the answer must be provided by the shounen ai consumer herself: either if she finds identifying with any of the explanations depicted above, or whether she finds herself into a totally different sort of explanation, one single idea remains as undenayable thruth: Shounen ai and Yaoi are new sub-genres of shoujo manga, and in the last years both have grown to create a world of their own, which day by day is increased by new otakus all around the glove. Nowadays it's rare to find an anime or manga series that lacks even slightest shounen ai strokes, or at least the presence of an adrogynous character (whom, as a side note I'll add are usually the most popular characters).

That, if you ask me, is an evident sign of the fact both Shounen Ai and Yaoi are extremely popular worldwide, and therefore have come to stay  

[Moonlight_Shadow12]

Although shonen-ai manga is not as popular in Japan as it used to be, yaoi, its wickedly sexy successor genre, is alive and kicking here in the States. Americans have adopted both the term yaoi and shonen-ai - which translates as "boy's love" - to describe a different type of shojo (or girl's) manga that focuses on romantic relationships between two men.

Shonen-ai, an older, umbrella term used widely in Japan, refers to stories filled with beautiful boys drawn in the trademark shojo style - fabulous flyaway hair, delicate facial features and slim bodies. Add to that description layered personalities, jealousy and intricate plots and you have a formula for what young women (16-25) apparently want - men falling in love with, well, men.

Despite the homoerotic emphasis, shonen-ai - a term used to describe chaste and innocent boy love - and its more graphically sexual companion, yaoi, are a hit with the ladies. With manga publishers (as well as traditional houses like Del Rey) scrambling to publish more shojo for a suddenly comics-hungry female audience, yaoi and shonen-ai manga are moving up the sales charts.

Most publishers began releasing yaoi last summer. Some of the major yaoi manga players include Tokyopop, whose 2002 shonen-ai release, Fake by Sanami Matoh, continues to be a bestseller. Fake is a seven-volume manga series about two New York City cops whose romantic interest in one another escalates in each book. Manga houses like Digital Manga, Central Park Media and Broccoli Books are releasing yaoi and related titles. And even a family-friendly manga house like Viz is taking a careful look at the genre. said Viz editor Pancha Diaz, "Viz always takes into account what is popular and what type of titles the fans are looking for."

Descendants of Darkness, from Viz, has sold 10,000 copies since its release a few months ago. Digital Manga's popular Only the Ring Finger Knows by Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiriis is in its third printing, with more than 12,000 copies sold. DM titles like Desire (6,000 copies sold since September) and Passion Vol. 1(9,000 copies since November) are selling well, too. New York City-based Central Park Media, which publishes edgier manga, claims to having kicked off the "legitimate" yaoi market in August 2004 with the release of Kizuna by Kazuma Kodaka, which features explicit sexual imagery.

So why would women want to read a story about a romantic relationship between two men? For starters, it's classic shojo fare: fantasy and falling in love. But yaoi takes them both to the next level. "It's a male-male relationship catering to female fantasy," according to Digital Manga yaoi expert and consultant Jody Heard. "The men are always attractive. But there are always questions about the relationship, usually 'Does he love me?' " Heard said the combination of angst and soap-opera drama, combined with a certain amount of intelligence, makes for a complex, unique story line. In Digital Manga's Only the Ring Finger Knows, two high schoolers argue incessantly while a romantic undercurrent feeds their fire. Slightly effeminate, erring on the androgynous side, the teens make angst look good. "It's untouchable love, with some fluff and humor," said Isaac Lew, director of sales and new business development at California-based Digital Manga. "There's a cloud-nine factor," Lew said.

On a more complex level, Tokyopop editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl noted that "yaoi breaks lots of cultural stereotypes about what relationships are supposed to be. Women are expected to play or serve a certain role. A yaoi reader doesn't have to associate with a female character. You choose which one you identify with."

While yaoi is often thought of as homoerotica, most editors acknowledge the shortcomings of yaoi in portraying real gay relationships with any accuracy. Diaz-Przybyl acknowledges that genuine gay themes are often glossed over, since yaoi is written by straight women, while Heard said her gay friends look it over with "polite curiosity." Overall, yaoi is marketed here as manga by women for women, as it is in Japan.

CPM has jumped into the yaoi market with an imprint called Be Beautiful, publishing six books since last August. Despite cutbacks in some of its manga list, the house plans to publish eight to 10 Be Beautiful titles in 2005. The imprint could also be called "Be Bold," so readers should expect mature content. CPM's Kizuna, Selfish Love by Naduki Koujima and Golden Cain by You Asagiri and Ikoi Hiroe, all have Explicit Content warnings and even boilerplate certifying that all fictional characters are over 19.

But not all yaoi is this racy. Yami no Matsuei's Descendants of Darkness is described by Viz editor Diaz as being a tamer strain of yaoi manga. "The relationships are very sweet and loving, caring," she said. Most editors are quick to point out that the focus is not on sex, but on the courtship and developing relationship between two young men. Often, the narrative consists of angst-laden scenarios that repeat themselves, only to culminate in a kiss that consummates the bond. And for most readers and most editors, that's enough.  

[The broken puppet]

heart whee  

[Rainbeau Child]

Also, I think girls like boy's love and yaoi to a certain extent because it's sexually non-threatening to them (or women in general).  

[nallos numba 1 fan]

Hmm, that's very interesting.
n___n

 

[[ Kumagoro ]]

It pretty much explains why a lot of heterosexual females like it so much. ^^;

 

[renaXD]

[ Kumagoro ]

It pretty much explains why a lot of heterosexual females like it so much. ^^;

yeah ^^;  

[lola_tenshi]

Wow, I liked those articles! Tres cool! 3nodding  

[Adri Neru]

Well, my family is very open-minded. I knew about homosexuals and whatnot when I was at least eleven-twelve, mostly because my sister turned out to be a lesbian, but other reasons, too. I can't really say way I like shounen-ai and yaoi, but when I read about a relationship between two men, it makes me feel really good. I'm more attracted to pairings of the same gender for some reason. I'm not saying I don't like my share of heterosexual love scenes in movies and books, because I do, but the thrill and joy I get from reading about/watching two men/two women making love is much greater. I don't think the thrill would be as great if homosexuality was more accepted. I'm excited by it because it's kept quiet, and I haven't had a lot of experience with it. I see a man and a woman kiss all the time. Seeing two men kiss is rather rare.  

[Falling Falling Star]

*fangirl giggle* heart  

[ZIMG]

doesn't explain why i like it being a homosexual female...and I can't stand yuri BTW(it's too much porn designed for adolescent boys and not enough fluffy lovey PLOT like you find in a good amount of yaoi)  

[Doi Hachiro]

All so true... just so true I love Yaoi!

@ nghtwalkercain - Well, I believe because Yuri is more smut and Yaoi/shounen ai tend to go off on the fluffy side.. That is why. I love Shojo-ai if you can find it fluffy like Haruka/Michiru from sailor moon. I love Hard core yaoi or just regular boy love shounen ai flufness  

[ShadowedMoonlight]

3nodding heart whee Some very good points are made in those articles.  

[Hatelijk_en_bloeden]

Cool, thank you for posting these!