Do you ever regret it?

[retice]

This is more directed towards the straight girls in this genre, but I guess anyone could answer.
In the Rant and Rave subforum someone posted a thread about finding a forum where a group of boys posted horrible comments about girls who like yaoi. One boy in particular said:

Quote:

Oh god, you want bad, my "first" (if ya know what I mean kekekekeke) was a yaoi fangirl. Scary thing was that she seemed totally normal. Met her after class, was banging her 45 minutes later. So, we start going out, and a few days after meeting, we're near Barnes&Noble and decide to go in. Imagine my shock when she heads straight for the manga section, and starts grabbing yaoi volumes!

That was a real facepalm there...

Do you ever feel guilty or weird about liking yaoi? Do you ever regret getting into it?
I've been looking through the other threads and I noticed that a few of the titles say things like "Are we perverts?" or "Have you ever been caught?" or "Were you ever against yaoi?"
Before I got into the fandom I thought yaoi was scary, like porn or talking to a stranger in IM. It felt like something you would hide, never let anyone know you were reading/watching, because it was embarassing and weird. Good little girls don't look at perverted things.
And then I did get into it and I was ashamed. I hid it and felt embarassed over it and lied about it. And that's stupid. It's just an interest. Why freak out?
The first time I told anyone, it was my best friend, and she looked at me like I had just told her I was a cannibal. My sister has noticed a few times, and she calls me weird and scrunches up her nose whenever she sees me reading anything now. I went to see Brokeback with my mom and when we got home, I said in an offhandish way the guys in the movie were cute together, and my dad yelled at me and told me never to say anything like that again.
Even now it makes me sick to my stomach sometimes, just thinking about how I've given everyone a reason to discriminate against me... and I'm not even gay. I can't imagine what it must be like to be really homosexual. Reading about it doesn't make you understand, truely. We can never understand.
So, do you ever regret it? Or does it give you the opposite feeling -- pride, knowing you're this much more open minded than the people who knock it? surprised  

[Syntria]

In some vauge ways I regret it because I feel it put me off of relationships when I was younger, mostly because I was to busy fangirling over Gay Boys than Straight Boys (whom a straight girl is far more likely to go out with).

But I'm awfully fine with the way I am now. I've been a yaoi fan for nearly 10 years now, one of the first of a core group of fans even on the internet, when they're were only 20 yaoi websites, and they all linked to each other and everyone knew each other. Oh those were the good old days....  

[[Romiette]]

I'm not ashamed of liking yaoi. Granted, I don't go around flaunting my interests in public but I've always been very accepting and open-minded about other lifestyles.  

[Lenre Li]

<.<; I don't regret it... when my mum found my YELLOW vol. 1 I just nonchalantly told her it was 2 guys, and they seemed okay with it, everyone else I tell are either a yaoi fangirl/fanboy themselves, are people who I trust with everything, or I just it for shock value...

Hmm, I don't really regret, it keeps me in this world, on the borderline of dead... so why should I regret when I could be six feet under by my own doings?

Err... sweatdrop  

[Soul of Deflection]

I don't regret it, I don't care what other people says. It is their opinion and it won't change mine. Though I am very open minded, I have my opinion. If they don't accept the fact that you like something they dislike, just let it go. (Although it is hard, just don't let them affect you)

razz My friend doesn't like it but I still go for it.  

[retice]

MistressPaco

In some vauge ways I regret it because I feel it put me off of relationships when I was younger, mostly because I was to busy fangirling over Gay Boys than Straight Boys (whom a straight girl is far more likely to go out with).

That too sweatdrop

It occured to me that I never even answered my own question. XD
I don't regret it anymore. I did in the beginning, and whenever someone makes fun of me for it (even when they don't realize they're doing it), I feel terrible those times, but for the most part I'm okay.
Otherwise I wouldn't still be here.  

[Fetal_Mind]

I am never ashamed of it. If people say I am stupid for liking it, I don't care. I just think a BoyxBoy relationship is better than a straight pairing could.  

[neko-jordy]

well....... my friend is a crazy yaoi fan...
but she didnt really understand gay coupling until
she got into it. same way with yuri for her...
i remember we were talking one night and she told me,
"i would look up to someone who came out to their friends
and family so much because it would be the scariest thing."
and it is. im bi, and when i told my friends... i started to cry...
it was scary for me... i still havnt told my mom because she
calls all gay relationships "disgusting" when i think its all so beautiful!
i only hide my yoai/yuri love from my family... mainly my mom and grandparents... but as for my friends, they love me...
they wouldnt be very good friends if they didnt accept me now would they?

 

[User_2629207]

No, I don't ever regret it. It's the best thing. Whenever I'm angry or sad, a dose of yaoi always cheers me up. Unless I'm interrupted. I do feel a teeny tiny bit guilty. I mean, I'm still underage, and I LOOK very innocent... and people around me think I'm sucha goody two-shoes... but I'm not. I said to my mom today "I am NOT going to heaven"
"Oh, but youre such a good girl... of course you are!"
"..No... I'm not that Good..."
"But I know you!"
"Eheh... not everything..."
^^;;
I'll never stop though.
NEVER!  

[LadyNox]

There is nothing to regret. I've never hidden that I like yaoi from anyone. If I’m with people who don’t like yaoi/slash, the majority of our conversations will not be about it. I only mention yaoi/slash to people that like it too. It's not because of shame either. It‘s out of respect. If you don't like it, I'm fine with that. We'll talk about something else. There are a million topics in the world. Just don't harp on me about my hobby or I‘m going to start describing to you the latest fanfic I read about your favorite characters banging in graphic detail.

If people treat me negatively because of my hobbies, I think less of them. It's all about respect really. If people can't be respectful when something as insignificant as a hobby comes up, how will they act when something important comes up?  

[For-Chan Cookie]

I've never regretted my yaoi and slash hobby. I have made some of the most awesome friends through it. Hell, I just moved across the damn country to live with friends I made in the yaoi fandom! Without it, I'd have a lot less friends, let me tell you!

I'm pretty quiet about my interest except with people who either enjoy it or at least know what it is. I love squeeing with friends. I visited Lady Nox and she just stands around on the subway talking about buttsex xd I am not even kidding, she is not embarrassed at all. Other people blush and move away.

Anyway, I didn't bother telling my family, but eventually they found out through various ways and it was completely not a big deal for them, which is cool. I didn't have any drama about it and I can talk about it with my brother or my cousin, though neither of them cares for the genre, they're cool with some fangirling on my part sweatdrop

So yes, I have gotten too much fun and awesome benefits from my involvement in the yaoi fandom to ever be ashamed of it. Not to mention that I'm older than most of the people who are like "Ew yaoi is yucky!" So their opinions don't phase me at all. Honestly, older, more mature folks don't deal with it that way. If someone has a problem with it, that's their problem, not mine. I'm not going to let anybody make me feel bad about something I love. So there! twisted  

[Yoshikazu]

If you ladies wanna feel better
than look at all the straight guys who watches lesbian
and complain to them  

[Sheard]

Yoshikazu

If you ladies wanna feel better
than look at all the straight guys who watches lesbian
and complain to them

Funny thing is that a lot of straight guys I have known over the years are like that. They act like they can watch actual porn with two women going at each other and it's okay because they're hot lesbians.... but at the same time act there's something wrong with females reading BL/yaoi manga as drawings of two guys kissing will somehow turn you into a lesbian. >.> I honestly think it's just paranoia on their part, but it's still an idiotic double-standard.


I don't regret reading the genre, but I'm not a squeeling fangirl. The manga is just there on the bookshelf with the other manga, right alongside Death Note (which I have told my mom about) as if it was more of that type of stuff.

I'm actually more worried about then finding out that I do read some amount of manga in the seinen genre just because my current favorite gets very graphic at times - both gore and nudity... but it's still a great story and the art completely blows away a lot of other series I've read... but I could just imagine my mom screaming that it's porn if she found it.  

[Hamu-kun]

Yeah. I regret it.
I feel like someone of my standards shouldn't be into something like boy love.
I mean, I'm a good student, in fact a very good one, and a good child.
But, it's just like you were saying, "Good little girls don't look at perverted things."
At least, they aren't supposed to.

It bothers me. If anyone knew I liked boy love, they'd look at me as a completely different person.
[ Obviously I'm just talking about the majority of people, some people might be fine with it. ]
It's like telling someone I don't go to church.
Automatically they see me in a completely different light, forgetting the fact that they know me as a person that has very strong morals of her own.
The only thing that keeps me okay with the fact, is that I view porn and Yaoi/Boys Love as two very different things.
To me porn is just that - porn. But, boy love has more depth.
It's art, it has a story, it has feelings.

 

[MooMooJuice]

No, I don't.
Although I'd never go and publicly announce it to everyone, I'm too shy. Not to mention I sometimes find it disgusting when I see other people showing off their love for yaoi a little too openly. >>
Not to point any fingers...

But, as far as affecting relationships... I think my parents are aware.. maybe. I think my sister knows, and so do a couple of my friends, so I'm not very closed about it. And if I ever find a boyfriend, I told myself if I planned on getting in a serious relationship with him that one of the things I'd tell him is that I 'support' ( I can't think of the correct word ) homosexuality. So if he has a problem with it, he can leave before it becomes a problem.