Its an acronymn meaning manga without plotlines. I always hear people getting sick of the whole ukes and semes division and the men always look girlish.It has to be that way or else it really wouldn't be yaoi, it'd be barazoku (geicomi). I also think these people don'tknow that a majority of yaoi authors are indeed female, there is only a few men who write BL, like Noboru Takatsuki and Haiji Sakura...

I also notice people call yaoi "gay porn" a lot, I mean, it contains sex between men, but the whole genre has nothing to do with actual homosexual men. Its very emotional and the guys' feelings are very feminine. I believe this is why the uke is always so cute.(eyelashes, crying... :3)

And the seme is always what the yaoi authors' dream man is like. Either he be masculine and strong, or gentle and loving, its a female fantasy. I've seen some gay manga before and its nothing like BL/ yaoi at all. But I guess that two could count as yaoi since yaoi is a blanket term for male-male love comics.

Anyone feel this way? 😕

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈.” ― 𝑀𝒶𝓌𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓁-𝒶𝓁-𝒟𝒾𝓃 𝑅𝓊𝓂𝒾.
あたしは腐女子です。少女漫画、たくさん読んでください。

America screwed a lot of terms. I am OK with Western usage since it's become accepted and common. At least we know it' s different from the original meaning. Many words lost original meanings after they entered another culture. It's nothing new.

The majority of yaoi are similar to romance novels and nowhere near the explicitness of gay porn. However, a lot of women find them hot then they have the function of being a certain type of porn? Some may argue that if it is sexually arousing, no matter what form it is, it is porn. 😮

I don't think yaoi HAS to have the cliched seme and uke division, girly uke and whatnot to be yaoi. I don't think women readers HAVE TO accept that. If it's too cliched or stupid, it will not entertain and interest the readers.

Indeed, you have a point. They really try to create the ideal straight relationship with a girly uke and "ideal" seme. It's weird but that has something to do with Japan's gender culture (would be a long story). You may argue that it could even be a fetish otherwise you can't justify the existence of so many pointless and childish plots (maybe a lot of readers in Japan are very young so they like them, I dunno). I personally don't see the appeal of that. Maybe I am not the intended audience. 🙄

Just to start off, I know that most of the yaoi artists are female! ^^; Why do you think 'those people' think that yaoi is mostly drawn by men?

As for America screwing the 'yaoi term', I'm not going to say anything. Because yaoi being "an acronym meaning manga without plotlines", I think it's screwed regardless. It's drilled into my mind that yaoi means there's some kind of sexual bits that will be shown between two men (just because), and that's usually the case.

Yaoi usually has at least some plot, and sometimes a very good one, even though 'yaoi' is 'no point'.

Yaoi = Gay porn? Not at all. I've never once heard something like that. Jeez. 😔

I do consider yaoi to be...shojo-ish...can I even say that? Is that politically correct?

[img]http://i.imgur.com/B400485.jpg[/img]

I don't think most people familiar with manga and know the word yaoi would think they are drawn by men. I mean, if you already know the word yaoi, you are likely to be someone on the "scene". Many people know manga but not yaoi.

Yeah, mewnbrite, a lot of yaoi are shoujo-ish or josei-ish, just played by a male cast.

Agreed. I do like it when the uke and seme switch roles a few times, but I lie my uke characters to be cutesy, or sorta-girly and totally in love with his seme.The seme I don't really care, but he has to be attractive. I like Ashika Sakura's work, her guys are so cute. 🤣

“𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒'𝓈 𝓇𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈.” ― 𝑀𝒶𝓌𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓁𝒶𝓁-𝒶𝓁-𝒟𝒾𝓃 𝑅𝓊𝓂𝒾.
あたしは腐女子です。少女漫画、たくさん読んでください。

So a question if I may...

Would a heterosexual guy actually enjoy Yaoi manga?
Is there a Yaoi manga w/o sexual elements that might throw heterosexual guys off?

Quote from JohnHomos

So a question if I may...

Would a heterosexual guy actually enjoy Yaoi manga?
Is there a Yaoi manga w/o sexual elements that might throw heterosexual guys off?

I think what might throw straight guys off apart from the sexual elements is probably what you don't like in a lot of shoujo or josei manga - e.g. fluff, naivety of characters, girly personalities, unrealistic, flowery and awkward portrayal of relationships, situations and characters, love at first sight, over-dramaticness, etc. Not all yaoi/shounen-ai manga have them or a lot of them though. I myself don't even like them.

Also if looking for interesting female characters is your main purpose of reading manga, you are not likely to find them in yaoi and will lose interest.

It really depends on the series or one shot: Some PWP is really just gay porn on paper...
But true *yaoi *is a story, with defined characters, and at least some sort of plot, in addition to-things that appeal to the female audience. And of course, a heavy dose of smut. I agree: the target audience is females, and therefore, the characters are not realistic, but rather appeal to the audience with fantasies and 'larger than life' characters. And I think any true fangirl knows that.

In the manga world, hentai = porn.

Going by the standards of hentai, even those PWP are not porn at all, with only a couple of exceptions. But those exceptions are still nothing compared with hentai. 🤣

True fangirls - scary. 😔 Now I tend to think most of the time what attracts them is what turns me off.

I don't get why a lot of yaoi authors like to draw overly slender and long faces and bodies? I don't like those styles. That could turn non-yaoi readers off too.

I'm sure americans have somehow misinterpreted it but you're confusing the issue. The confusion comes with what people criticize about yaoi versus what the term means. In the context of criticism, it doesn't matter how they see the term, since the criticism wouldn't change.

Though I think your mistaken in that most people already know that women seem to get the most jolly out of it, as others have also pointed out.

I find it annoying that "Shonen ai" and BL are now redirected to "Yaoi" on Wikipedia...somebody fix that please?

for interested parties, in Genshiken 2 anime episode 05, Ogi makes a yaoi story using people from Genshiken. it was showing what yaoi is very well: high level of idealizain, drama, love and semme and uke.

in the manga, Ogie shows the drawings to Sasahara but we never get to see it. in anime, here's the story. nicely done.

well Shimoku Kio is total otaku 🙂

Trust me, I am an engineer.