“Yowie!”: The Stateside appeal of boy-meets-boy YAOI comics

i've never realy taken a look at yaoi before, but seeing how so many of them have boy boy relationships and neither admits to being gay, it sounds... kinda anoying. oh, and the reason for the lack of homophobia in yaoi is because in japanese culture, right up to the westernization of japan, LGBT culture was considered completely normal, and has been considered so for centuries. (in fact, gay love was considered to be pure, and straight love wasn't!)

She loves the stuff, so I've flicked through a couple of them. The only one I finished was FAKE, because it didn't have the whole seme/uke stereotype stuff. As a genre, it has a lot of the same hallmarks as slash fanficion.

I just finished reading the available chapters of Embracing Love and it rocked!  The artwork was excellent and the story was very good.  The labeling of sexuality was all over the place but that is how it is in this genre.  The stroy was hot, romantic and interesting.

to say the least. I personally found it kind of bizarre that the main target audience was initially women in Japan. I would love to know others opinions of why this would be the case. Certainly in Japan there is still a power imbalance between the two sexes, perhaps this is the women's way of psychologically trying to re-balance it? If that is the case, why does one of the men have to have traditional female characteristics?

I did find it a bit disconcerting that the cover illustrations more often than not had a non-Japanese looking male as one of the couple (at least they didn't look Japanese to me). I am not sure what this says about the creator's view of what sells to Japanese women!

Cheers

JBE

Manga characters rarely look like they're actually Japanese. This was a very good article on YAOI, though, and a great introduction to the subject. And trust me, if you think YAOI is a bit odd, wait until you accidentally bump into something like Shota or Guro (do not google these terms unless you have a strong constitution). The Japanese Manga market caters to every concievable sexual interest. That said, we know that YAOI is made for a primarily female audience, but the subject matter is clearly (if not literally) homoerotic. But would something like Pride High, which has a very gay sensibility, appeal to female readers in the same way? I guess what I'm asking is, does it seem like eventually YAOI will convince major American comic book publishers that there is a viable and healthy niche market for homosexual narrative story-telling? Or do women really only buy stuff like this?

Jacob, I am a straight female who enjoys YAOI manga and anime as well as slash fanfiction. I buy comics as well. I have heard of Pride High, but have never read an issue. I might check it out now. I do think it would be very difficult for major comics (Marvel, DC) to have comics with gay/lesbian main characters or strong gay/lesbian storylines. The only one I know of is Midnighter. Part of that is a big chunk of the readership is straight men and there is still a misogynistic streak in mainstream comics.

Jacob, Is your stuff online anywhere? I believe I've only read one or two slash fanfics written by men. You might try other writers, like Gail Simone or perhaps the Pride High creator. He might have good suggestions on the most effective way to reach the big dogs of the comics industry.

Good article, Lyle.
For a while, I wondered whether there were gay characters in non-yaoi manga (apart from the erotic gay stuff, of course). I don't know whether they've been translated in English, but books like Crash  by Erica SAKURASAWA or River's Edge  by Kyoko KYZOKO are very gay-inclusive, and offer portraits of "real" gay characters. I'm sure there are lots of others.

François
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http://gaycomicslist.free.fr

I've been reading Yaoi and Shounen-Ai for years. In fact, I was into it before FAKE was even published in English. I stumbled onto it when searching for gay porn as a young teen and since I was already into anime, the idea of an underground porn movement consisting of anime men doing the nasty made me hot.
And then I stumbled onto Yaoi and Shounen-Ai... and from there I stumbled onto scanlated Yaoi and Shounen-Ai and... paydirt!
I prefer Shounen-Ai to Yaoi because I'm the kind of person who likes his gay porn to have a plot. Yes, I really do (that doesn't mean I won't download movies just for incredibly hot guys, though). And I dislike stereotypically seme/uke relationships.
While a lot of my favourite titles in the genre are kinda stereotypical, most of them are more "One guy is modeled after what a protagonist in a Shoujo manga would be like" vs. "Her/His love interest" (albeit in a slightly less "stereotypically Japanese masculine sense".
For example, in "Menkui", the presumed Uke is a clueless charmer who perceives himself as "normal" but whom everyone around him loves (in a platonic matter). This in turn makes his boyfriend jealous. While the boyfriend was in no way a stereotypical seme, the protagonist was kinda "Uke-ish".
While "Beyond My Touch" features a gay ghost vying for the love of a straight guy, neither are portrayed in any stereotypically seme-ish or uke-ish way.
And unless I remember things wrong, "Only the Ringfinger Knows" doesn't feature stereotypically seme/uke main characters either. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Shounen-Ai is what you should read if you want less Seme/Uke-bovine manure.

Man, I absolutely love Shout Out Loud. My favorite series character and plot wise, with its angsty-ness. XP I must say, DramaQueen puts out very high quality stuff, and for pure smut purposes, I recommend Brother by Yuzuha Ougi.

I went to the first Yaoicon in 2001 and was active in the community since then so the clash between gay men and the women who tend to be the target market where yaoi is aimed towards is no news to me. I see both sides. Yes, it is a travesty that often the writers and mangakas of yaoi often have no interest in gay issues. But a lot of it is because the way the women see it, it's a love story. It's not a gay love story. Often in these stories, it's someone in love with a specific man, not all men. Just because a man sleeps with another man, that doesn't automatically make them gay. It can make them bisexual. Or they can be more interested in the person than in their gender. Yes it's not a realistic way of seeing "boy's love." But isn't it a nice change that the characters involved are not automatically the villain? Or automatically die?

It was great to see Yaoi shown so evenly, not hinting it was idiotic nor refusing to look at it's faults. And I'm really happy to see both perspectives on it. Honestly, I've always seen yaoi as a female domain, like straight porn is for men. In porn, physically, everything is either too big or too small for real life, while in yaoi it's the emotional conflict and drama that is enormous, and the real life issues -coming out and being accepted etc- that are minimised for relaxed viewing. While this is fair enough for straight women, the limited amount of books and manga designed specifically for gay men must be frustrating, and I'd hope that more miht start publications for themselves. But I wouldn't shoot straight at indulgent yaoi fans who write for themselves and those just like them, if a little insensitivly towards others.

I have always thought that Yaoi was mainly written for a female audience, as much of slash fic generally is. The world that I read and write for contains much the same themes, acceptance, tolerance, and often idealised male/male relationships, where it is the emotional part of the relationship that is explored, it is the romance and the idea of a perfect love that attracts, and to be honest, this has a much greater appeal when the imagined couple are attractive males. Maybe it is the straight woman's porn as to me it is much more enjoyable than any other.