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shounen in a genre NOW. It wasn't always but it has become one. But fine, I will use the OLD definition.....which is just based on the audience and not the story. It hasn't be used popularly as a demographic in years.
That is still the definition now. Granted, each demographic has its selling points which inadvertently 'defines' said demographic making it easy for many people to misunderstand the term. There is no new/old definition.
Exactly. Basically, tell the magazine publishers what your definition of "shounen" is. They decide what they publish in their demographic-oriented magazines, it's not a genre, it has no inherent content. It's used as a genre on this site for organizational purposes, it's still the magazine that determines what demographic it belongs to. Your personal opinion, heck, even this site's opinion on the definition is utterly irrelevant.
edit: The first definition would still make you wrong. It's just "manga targeted at boys that often includes action". Action is not an inherent type of content. That why it has "often" there.
Sorry if it seems that I'm being nosy, but here's how I see it:
Genre - A specific type of category that's aimed towards anyone of any age that has an interest in a specific thing (Ex. Sports games are aimed towards anyone of any age that likes sports, and Shooters are aimed toward anyone of any age that likes to use guns more in games than other weapons.)
Demographic - A specific type of category that's aimed towards people of a certain age group (Ex. Shounen manga of any kind are aimed towards 10-17 year old males, and Seinen manga of any kind are aimed towards 18-30 year old males).
shounen can be both. Definitions change over time....if so many people use shounen as a genre than its definition can change over time, different from its original usage. This has happened to plenty of words. (there is a book about this too, its called Frindle)
And if you look online, you will see hundreds if not thousands of people using shounen as a genre not a demographic anymore. if that's the case, the definition can change, even if they are wrong per se. Now, let's not be overly conservative.