So, to sum up:

* There are much more female artists, so it's obvious that more yaoi than yuri would be created.

* Yuri sex, which is what males will look for in GL is contained in ordinary hentai as well, so there isn't that demand for it.

* Love between females (although I believe you don't mean romantic love) isn't that unusual to females so they find nothing charming in it.

* Yaoi is much more of a "forbidden fruit", which makes it much cooler to create and read

Those are very good points. I'm still going to mourn the fact that there is little GL, but I now see why that happens.

It might be a weird request, but in light of what you said, Arigatomina, I'm very curious about how you(or other females) would view Girl Friends which is my favorite GL manga and one of my favorite stories ever.

Of course, to not make it one sided I'll read a BL manga (though I'm not sure it counts as a "compensation" of any kind). I prefer slow romance and like romance with lots of angst (maybe because I never really experienced love myself, but who knows, from what I see most people don't seem to like it).

Well, just from the description of "Girl Friends" it sounds like your typical shoujo het storyline. My first thought is Fruits Basket - romance featuring a MarySue who everyone likes just because she's so sweetly perfect. In that case, it's not their gender stopping them, it's the old "don't want to ruin the friendship" thing. Even if the story featured two guys, I still wouldn't be interested in reading that. It just screams of het to me.

To be fair, I have that problem with most yaoi manga - they fit too neatly into the het cliches. I've been reading yaoi for so long that the newness of two guys isn't enough to hold my attention. If it's indistinguishable from het, then I might as well just stick with het. For that reason, I don't even read the fluffy BL stuff anymore. It's too shoujo for me, written by shoujo artists for shoujo fans, using all the old shoujo storylines that just don't to appeal to jaded older women. And a lot of the hardcore stuff is aimed at the same girls who used to read the "rape/slavery" romance novels, which I've also outgrown. In either case, the 'uke' could be replaced with a female and the stories wouldn't change any. I don't like reading that stuff in my het, so why would I want it in my yaoi? I prefer djs based on shounen genres, where the guys are guys and only a very creative doujinka could fit them into a het box. When it comes to actual yaoi manga, I look to the older ones like Blood or New York New York, where the entire point is that they're gay males (and not just another het couple with the 'woman' pretending to be male). Unfortunately those types of manga are so gritty that they're a little depressing. As with movies, gay men rarely get a happy ending. It kinda sucks.

So, no, I wouldn't read that GL manga. Even if I didn't know what it was about, the cover would turn me away. They look way too little to be thinking about sex. I know, that's just the art style, but I've seen similar styles in shota and loli, so my first thought is "kiddie pron! run away!" ^^; If other potential fans think the same way, then they'll never give it a chance and won't realize what they're missing.

The cover art/art style often makes it seem so at a glance, but in reality, most people first have sex as under-18 teenagers, as depicted. Obviously, shota/loli situations are rarer in real life and different from yuri, whether it be smutty or not, and softer GL.
I read mainstream het romance as often/fondly as more obscure yuri and GL. I am not into BL, although I am fully supportive of the LGBT community.

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I don't like cutesy little girls in sexual situations, so this book is not for me. I wasn't trying to diss the artist, the style, or people who like them. I have no issue with shota or loli. I'm one of those "it's just fiction, get over it" people. As long as no one is forced to read what they don't like, it's all good.

I was just explaining my gut reaction at first sight of that cover. My point is that other people who share my gut reaction will also avoid the book because of the art style, which is a shame if the book has a good story in there. The more GL books that come out, the wider the variety of styles will be. Then there will be a little something for everyone.

Well considering that girl friends is a seinen, it explains a ton.

Though I disagree with your characterization of Fruits Basket, for your other points I say 'yes,' 'yes,' and 'yes.'

Fluffy BL - I never did read it. So many people recommend, for example, Seven Days, so I read it, and although I don't want to criticize other people's tastes, for me, the story would have been exactly the same if they were a het couple. What's the point?

The hardcore stuff also strikes me as the yaoi equivalent of the old bodice rippers. Okane ga Nai is a good example of what you're talking about. A review on this site by BewareOfMpreg has the insightful comment that it is geared to straight men, which makes sense considering that the author is male.

About doujinshi, quite a mixed bag, some can be very OOC, but like you I prefer the ones where they both act like men. Gintama is my current dj fandom.

Yuri/Shoujo Ai is a vastly different genre than Yaoi/Shounen Ai. There are definitely the "might as well be het" storylines, but it's very rare that you have a girl that is a male analog with boobs (even extreme tomboys are still obviously feminine), unlike BL, where almost every single uke is a "girl with a dick".

More importantly, in Japan, shoujo ai is something extremely common in real life, but is basically written off as a phase in a girl's life where they're just experimenting or practising for a relationship with a male. So in terms of manga, at least 50% (if not more) of Shoujo Ai is essentially two girls trying to confirm that they're feelings are not just a passing phase that they'll eventually get over.

So when you say that softcore yuri is basically just two girls being best friends, that's basically ignoring the entire genre, where more-often-than-not the intent is to explicitly show there is a very large difference between being lesbians and being BFF.

To answer the actual question in the thread: There is a false parallel between yaoi and yuri, because the men's equivalent for yaoi is hentai. It's porn, it works for people on a certain level. The reason women do not find the standard porn interesting because it wasn't written specifically to titillate them. Yaoi is. People write what they enjoy, so yaoi writers being mainly women is effect, not cause.

And while yaoi retains the appeal of being somewhat 'forbidden', slash fanfiction has moved past that stage. The reason that yaoi dominates doujinshi and slash fandom is because mainstream media will never write that story. I hope that will no longer be the case soon.



Why make them both male? Why not? It's is still a love story. Why can't they both be men?

they r in hentai section of baka updates right now

Because I'm a straight woman so naturally I preffer looking at hot menz.
Straight guys already have hentai/ecchi so that leaves Yuri/GL for gay women.

(Yay, my first post )

i think its because of the demographic

this may sound a little sexist and stereotypical but primary audience of romance are girls-
and seeing as most girls are straight- its only natural that they would prefer seeing two guys together as opposed to two girls. and all the straight guys who want yuri are only in it for the girl on girl action and go straight for the hentai so there isnt really a big audience for GL- the exception being lesbians or bicurious girls- or just openminded girls looking who are sick of the same typical boy meets girl scenerios.

im a bisexual male and i like them both equally well- the only reason ive read more yaoi is because thats what theres more of- but there really need to be some more decent ones theres only a handful of good ones ie: the morinaga milk, strawberry milkshake, sasameki koto, husky medly, etc. typical go to names