What's with the hatred toward eye-candy? Also since when did having a guy look girly make a female with that preference a lesbian? This is just a few questions to some remarks I've seen while skimming.

Bishounen is a male character that is supposed to be attractive. That is dependent on an author's style. Bishounen characters are made deliberately to demonstrate how typically irresistible they are in the looks department. Also it serves to make people's mouths water, swoon, or eek. Appearence does little to that character's personality design. Most come off as generic and idealistic to a fault. Already pointed out, it's generally in shoujo that such flat characters arise.

With that being said, it just depends on my mood. No matter what I hate it when the character is perfect and has no faults. Or that their personality issues are overlooked to some shallow fascination. That's why I shy away from tsundere characters.

I like my men androgynous.
I like my women androgynous.

I love the posts made by guys who think the girls who like bishounen should "just go lesbian" because "that's hot." It's painfully obvious why those guys have such a problem with bishounen. It's the trap issue. Yeah, I laughed when Gintama tricked me into thinking that samurai "guy" was hot only to find out he was a she. But put a guy in the same situation and he's going to question his manhood and lash out in rage, just because he can't accept that he's attracted to certain features and not the sex of the character with those features. It's only natural that they find traps frustrating and loathsome. They can't handle being attracted to characters who are "technically male". Poor babies. I wish they were older. Straight guys used to be able to admit that Hisoka from Yami no Matsuei is attractive despite being male. These days they'd sooner bite off their own tongue than consider the possibility that with drawn mediums like manga and anime, "beauty" can transcend gender and attraction isn't all about the plumbing.

I like bishounen in shounen manga. They tend to be stronger than the ugly guys, smoother, smarter, and they often become a villain at least once during the story, making them more interesting because they tread the morality line. Yes, their arrogance can be annoying, but since they often take the villain route they get taught a lesson by the plain/ugly good guy or get killed by him, so that arrogance just lands them in the dirt in the end. As characters, they're set up to be much more interesting than the main characters, who are as often as predictable as they are plain-looking.

Shounen bishies are the cool dark counter to the main character and without them the story wouldn't be the same. You can't hate them for being "pretty" when that's the entire point - that femininity both attracts females (to cause rivalry/jealousy) and counters the blatant masculinity of the main character. Yukimura from Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sasuke from Naruto, Ishida from Bleach, Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho, etc etc. They're the intelligent suave cool ones who aren't afraid to be a little feminine - as opposed to the coarse manly-man boys who tend to be small-minded bulls in a china shop who wouldn't know subtlety if it bit them in the rear.

I also second what some others have said about the definition of bishounen differing from one person to another. In Dragonball Z, Mirai Trunks was an automatic bishounen when he showed up. That's a guy bulging with muscles. But in that series, he has as much bishiness as Seventeen. I think that was intentional and it's no coincidence that most of the female DBZ fans I know showed up at the same time Trunks did. A guy noticeably prettier than the rest, seemingly stronger, mysterious, with pastel hair? Yes, that was blatant fanservice and it worked.

On the other hand, I don't like bishies in shoujo. It's weird for me to have a romance story featuring plain-looking girls paired up with guys who are much prettier than they are. It's pains me even more when the girl is paired with a guy who looks just like her. Compare Kagome to human!Inuyasha. That one squicks me badly because I don't like twincest. I know it's just because the artist draws all faces the same and they just happen to have the same hair styles, so when Inuyasha's hair goes black they look like twins. But...no, it pains me too much. When shoujo artists who can't do unique characters make the guys as pretty as the girls, I just don't see any point calling it het. They might as well just go the Angel Sanctuary route and pair the pretty girl up with her equally pretty brother. Toss in some reincarnation and they can have their yuri without crouching it in the guise of het. Yaoi artists do it all the time.

Hell yea! Especially those with silver long hair <33333333333

I like it how Arigatomina talks about how he/she does not like bishies in shoujo
and goes on talking about Inu Yasha [it is not a shoujo manga] its just as shounen as ranma,urusei yatsura and Rinne
why is it that ppl call it shoujo?
its just weird...is it bcoz Kagome is the main character?

i dont really have a problem with pretty boys
i like looking at pretty boys
often alot more than looking at pretty girls
[this is for some reason usualy just in comic books]

I'd like to remedy my earlier post. I tend to think that what we call Bishounen is generally just what's easier on the eyes. Characters we label as hot just don't come across as such to other characters. I think an actual Bishounen is a character no one can denounce as "sexy" in or out of universe.

I agree with TaoiPaiPai and Arigatomina. Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha are both Shounen no matter what others say. All because it contains romance doesn't make it any less Shounen than Death Note which has created rabid fangirls. And guess what? More yaoi fics and fanart. Also we've seen female leads in works that are bluntly not shoujo even without pointless fanservice.

There's nothing wrong with having a good looking character. Good looking male characters in my opinion are better 100x better (by personality or originality) in Shounen or works targeted toward males. A character should be more than a pretty face. Being good looking also can work in the plot's favor. Like the protagonist in GTO who is notorious for making incredibly ugly faces despite not having a bad face himself. The supporting characters get a bit shallow and if he didn't look at least average his job would've been hell a lot harder.

I like my men androgynous.
I like my women androgynous.

I didn't realize Inuyasha was labeled as a shounen series. Sorry to any male fans who were insulted by my mistake. To me it's more like Fushigi Yugi than Rurouni Kenshin, but I guess the art style isn't flowery enough to tip it onto the shoujo side.

I didn't realize Inuyasha was labeled as a shounen series.

That's a healthy mistake. I think what differs between Shounen and Shoujo is the romance. Shoujo is completely by relationships.

The difference between Fushigi Yugi and Inuyasha in it's demographic isn't obvious. It's mainly the same thing, but with Inuyasha there's notably more bloodshed and tree-slashing psychopaths. It's more obvious watching the animes. When I saw the contrast in the styles, I cringed. 🤣

Both are Bishie city. Didn't care for them in Fushigi Yugi but I loved them in Inuyasha. 😛

I like my men androgynous.
I like my women androgynous.

It seems to me there is a lot of confusion and crossed definitions on the meaning and usage of the word "Bishie".

Some people here are using the classic Japanese definition of asexual, effete, lipsticked and mascara, Takarazuka type characters.
While others here are using the Western Fangirl definition of a lithe, youthful looking, attractive male character appearing in Shoujo and Josei material.

The real "bishies" I find creepy as hell, and yes a girl has to be borderline something at least to find those spider like ghouls remotely attractive.
But as to what most Western Fangirls call "Bishies", they don't bother me at all, why would they?