Quote from bstgirl08
I've voted Yaoi. Oh! how i HATE it! I'm not going to sit here say it's my least fav. I seriously don't like it. I accidentally read one and almost threw up.
Way to base your view of an entire genre on one manga.
Quote from calstine
Actually, that's a common misconception: while the target audience for BL is most definitely heterosexual and bisexual women, I doubt most straight or bi women read yaoi / shounen-ai: why should they when there's so much het romance with better plots / art / characterisation?
Comparing shounen ai with het romance is reasonable, but yaoi is completely different. Yaoi is pretty much porn, but tailored to female tastes. There are very few scanlated het manga that can be compared to yaoi. In Japan, there's an entire genre for such "women's hentai", but it's unfortunately ignored by scanlators for some reason.
Quote from calstine
Only a small potion of heterosexual and bisexual women like BL, all heterosexual men dislike it, and imo quite a few homosexual and bisexual men must have voted against it too, since BL is likely too flowery and female-oriented and romanticised for their tastes.
I know quite a few heterosexual guys who like yaoi. Interestingly, most of them aren't from America...Maybe "gay" is used as such a common insult in America that guys try to stay away from anything that would make them appear "un-manly"?