Well this question might be a bit uncouth/lame/weird/whatever but I wanna understand something that I can't figure out about you girls in any sense of the way... I hope you read the small wall of text b4 answering XD
Anyways it's about BL/Yaoi, now every time I try and search with categories, or search within genre and forget to cross out the yaoi/shounen ai in the search and then click on the rating I get like half of the yaoi series in the top 100, and they're all better rated then most shounen/seinen and even shoujo and josei, which kinda pains me a bit, but what I wanna ask is why? Are there that many gay readers in BU, if so I'd get it but then again I know of the jokes about fujoshi in seinen and shounen manga that makes me think otherwise not to mention that when I take a look in any "I'm searching for threads" it's mostly girls that post about yaoi, now I've never really read any and tbh I don't have a clue about BL/Yaoi except what I've heard/read in the wiki description of fujoshi when I googled it for the first time many years ago since I had no clue about the term, but that made me think what is so appealing to women/girls to read that??
Now I know that you can reverse that question and ask what's so appealing to men about two girls getting it on, but for men it's simple lust I guess, idk never really was into yuri, but if it's straight up lesbian movies I guess the lack of the guy getting in the way of our imagination running wild is what is so appealing to us, since guys are much simpler then girls who as far as my knowledge goes (from the josei and shoujo manga and books and novels that I've read, written by women) need a lot of romance, emotional angst, plot twists, drama and all that between the main characters(ofc centered only/mainly on romance) so I doubt it's the same(tho ofc I may be wrong, but that would make me think even more).
So yeah, I'd really would love it if I could understand your appeal towards this kind of manga since I really don't get what is so appealing to women/girls about manga that's mostly romance between men, with complete exclusion of women?? Is it the drama that takes for the main char. to get out of the closet and figure out that they're gay or smt?? If so what's so appealing with that, I know girls like to torture themselves emotionally with heart-wrenching plots but still are the normal manga so depleted with it that you have to search for it in the bl section?
Anyways am also asking this since I like to share the things that I'm interested in with ppl close to me like my gf, and I don't wanna go crazy thinking if she'll get "roped"(LOL) into this genre as well, and if she does why in the world would she even start reading it... So, I really would like to understand your appeal to why are you so attracted to it, just a curiosity before I start making all the wrong conclusions on my own and stereotype you like most ppl do

well a lot of top ratings don't deserve i think some of us yaoi fans are a little too generous with the ratings. as for why i like yaoi i don't really know, its hot, funny, keeps me interested, but i only read one josei manga it was hot gimmick and it annoyed the crap out of me with that stupid, submissive girl, i just find yaoi more enjoyable. but all in all i think for some its the boyXboy and some they like the fact girls are not included so we wont get mad at how we are portrayed xD but im sure everyone has a different reason.

i completely agree. josei gets boring and annoying most of the time. and the idea of two guys loving each other is really hot and beautiful to me. also, i think there comes a time when girls get tired of shoujo and move on to other romance. josei is boring so that leaves yaoi. and once you read on you get addicted. plus, im straight so i think guys are hot, and two of them together is heaven.

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boop.

well, as for me, I have separate lists for shoujo, shounen, yaoi and so and am trying to have the same amount of 10's, 8's 1's and so on. If I wouldn't have separated lists, I don't think I would ever give a 10 to a yaoi. I only had 2 with the rating 9,5 before. So I rate yaoi higher only for practical use. I always had half of my series with the rating 7 somehow. It anoyed me, so I made it this way. But I think it's only me.

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if there is an option between "to do" and "not to do", I will always choose the latter.

"what kind of crazy, twisted conclusion is that...?" - banana bread no puding

this question gets asked again and again and again. just search through the forums because its already been answered multiple times. ex: http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=31367&p age=1#post517375

Yeah, we guys just can't get it.

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To give you my opinion, firstly I agree that sometimes fangirls van be a little generous with the rating, but for me when I vote for a manga I really try to think about the mark and compare it with the other marks I gave other manga's yaoi or 'normal' manga.
And it's kind of hard to explain why I like it but I'll try to explain:
Firstly I like forbidden love, in other genres there is also forbidden love but boyxboy is just less accepted, that's just a fact in society. The struggle with family and envoirnment makes it even better when the boys still end together and loving eachother even more. That is just the naive girls heart which likes that.
Secondly, and I think many girls will agree with me if I say this, It's just sexy and hot. We girls also want something sexy to look at. I mean 1 boy is nice to look at, but two boys is even nicer, that's what I think. And girls also have simpel parts in our mind, we also just want hot sex
And thirdly, and this also has to do with the first thing. It's also a different part of society, a part I personally don't know but I do know it exist. It's also a interest to something unknown? something we can never have, and that also makes it interessting for me.
And the last thing I like is that most of the time it's just funny like hell. For example because there are only a few girls but there always are girly guys, if they are gay or not, there always are, and that just gives funny moments. Also the thoughts of only boys is interssting, it's just different from the female brain and that makes you think differently.
I think all these things together make me like yaoi, but that is only speaking for myself, I don't know how other girls think about it. But this is my opinion
I hope you understand it a little better now XD

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Don't Worry, Be Different

I can't speak for all girls but i can say that i enjoy reading yaoi because of the thought of forbidden love and all the drama that is associated with a maleXmale relationship. Most women are attracted to the idea of forbidden love thats why Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is so popular with women, and yaoi falls under the same lines. The fact that a maleXmale relationship is not accepted by society makes the idea of it interesting to women. Thus the whole yaoi genre is directed to the interest of female audiences. Also, the idea of a man falling for another man is interesting but the best part of that is the struggles that the men have to go through to get together for example, over coming their sexuality, dealing with the views of their family, friends, and society, and all the love triangles that are included in the story. For me, the more drama and surprises in yaoi mangas the better.

I see, so judging from your replies(and what I can gather myself) I can take it that most of you(not all ofc) like yaoi the same way some guys like incest in hentai/heeavy seinen manga bordering on H, not bcoz they wanna see it in real life but bcoz it's hot and the weirdness of it and all the things that they have to go through gives it the extra hot category I guess..... am I getting close trying to explain this through a guys point of view??
But anyways for me the weird part is why the 2 guys thing, since if guys(not all) read about 2 girls having a REAL relationship and with all the strife that the characters have to go through we'd probably go, good for you and couldn't consider smt like that hot.....that I guess is why guys will never understand why girls like bl....I guess it's as a poster said, a naive girls heart

Really? I've heard guys talk about girlxgirl relationships in manga and the majority state they don't read it because of it being hot. They claim they (jokingly of course) find it shameful and perverted to view girlxgirl stories as fap material. They enjoy it because, my guess is, having two feminine characters means a more delicate love story and one much more fluffy. What i've heard from male readers so far is they like girlxgirl stories because, and I quote: "it's moe as fuck" and "I just read it with this shiteating grin" and "oh my they rubbed nose...HNNNNNNNNNGG!!!"

hum i guess some girl likes yuri too, and i don't know why lol
but we have yaoi and men have ecchi stuff so we are even :!! it's a pleasure that's all.

So you're basically asking why we, the female manga readers, like BL?
This question has been asked and answered many times in many ways,
so you can search for it on the forums here.




One of the most common answers is that they like seeing a man at a disadvantage, rather than a woman (sexually, emotionally and so on).
The other reason is it having better plot-lines than most shoujo titles.
And more sex for the smut titles. :3
We chicks like our porn, too. Some of us happen to like it gay.
Then there's the 'forbidden fruit' aspect.

Oh, and just so you know, yaoi and shounen-ai are targeted at the female population.
There's bara, which is like gay men porn, that's targeted at gay men.



Maybe you can't, but you should be aware that there are straight men who read gay shouta hentai.


Since I don't see a reason to have another such thread, I'll lock this one.

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you would be my rainbow in shades of grey.

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