Is there anything particularly wrong with yaoi?

[1080bitgamer]

I've been subjected to the most hard and soft core yaoi that any guy could possibly find ( Most of my friends are female ), but am having trouble finding the big deal. Yes, it did freak me out when I was 13, but it just surprised me then. What the heck, even the soft core ones are cute in a way. Does anyone have a theory?

 

[delet]

It's just gay porn in manga form. If you're a homophobe, or if you don't like seeing gay sex, you won't like Yaoi. Not too surprising.

 

[CoverYourHead]

Well it's gay porn, some people don't like it. Nothing particularly wrong with it.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

Pretty much what Aby said.

I find it amusing that most yaoi fans are female... I read something somewhere about it being about 'romance that girls don't feel like they have to compete with'. Het romance apparently makes girls insecure.

Is that why guys like girl-on-girl?

 

[Dags90]

Some of the body proportions get a bit ridiculous, though that's true for a lot of animated work. It also tends to be pretty rigidly heteronormative. I find both of these to be fairly inaccurate in portraying what gay people are like.

 

[RatRace123]

It's just gay porn in manga form. If you're a homophobe, or if you don't like seeing gay sex, you won't like Yaoi. Not too surprising.

That's about it.

 

[Hazy]

I see nothing wrong with people indulging themselves with something that's completely legal.

If you like it, no problem.

 

[Worgen]

perverted girls are good girls

 

[1080bitgamer]

Has anyone read "Same Cell Organism", a rather cute softcore yaoi, the only mainstream of which I have found in the states so far

 

[rdiggs]

I'm fine. How are yaoi?

 

[LeonLethality]

I think Aby summed this one right up, It's pretty much worthy of a /thread.

I'm fine. How are yaoi?

Oh yaoi

 

[Johanthemonster666]

I'm a guy and I read yaoi sometimes (only canon stories that have mature plots) which basically means I can only stand 5% of what comes out of the genre (the rest is just pointless smut).

The yaoi phenomina is something that use to be unique only to Japan and it is mostly intended for women (hence why women like it). Manga that's written like a graphic romance novel featuring homoerotic m/m content.


I think it fuels the romantic fantasies that women hold while it is portrayed as two men (not usually a gay romance as it is the women be switched out for another guy).

Thankfully there are good stories out there that are more true to how same-sex relationships really are.

NOTE: IT'S NOT GAY PORN! Anyone that makes that assumption has no idea what they're talking about. That's like saying all Evangelion/Gundam are about wimpy kids piloting giant robots and saying "IT'S THE POWER RANGERS being remade over nad over again". Idiotic comparison intended.. to show you how stupid "It's just gay porn" sounds to me.

Granted I hate 95% of yaoi because it is just female fanatasy gone ary... but that doesn't make it ok to damn the ones I found to be of good quality.

 

[Canton]

. .It also tends to be pretty rigidly heteronormative. I find both of these to be fairly inaccurate in portraying what gay people are like.

Yaoi never really aims to accurately portray a homosexual relationship. If you're looking for that the correct genre would be "bara".

 

[likalaruku]

I'm 27. Been reading shounenai (classic, usually ends badly) BL (romance) & yaoi (pure smut) since I was 15. Bara is yaoi for men.

If you want to get REALLY technical, yaoi is strictly "fan characters" & June is "original characters," so yaoi only pertains to doujinshi & fanfiction. That's how it works in Japan anyway.

Most of them aren't as deep & dark as Zetsuai/Bronze (Two underaged boys who LOOK like they're in their mid 20s. Rape, stalking, fratricide, incest, bisexuality, blackmail, spousal abuse, family history of mental illness, etc.)

Then there's Kusatta Kyoushi no Houteishiki. (Fairly softcore but still yaoi. A very long story about a student who has a crush on one teacher & then falls for the teacher's brother. He starts off as a young uke & quickly matures into a seme, which amplifies the comedy).

 

[Johanthemonster666]

. .It also tends to be pretty rigidly heteronormative. I find both of these to be fairly inaccurate in portraying what gay people are like.

Yaoi never really aims to accurately portray a homosexual relationship. If you're looking for that the correct genre would be "bara".

ugh -__- I hate it when people say Bara is accurate.

Unlike yaoi, Bara is intended to be pornographic...so no, it's not accurate.

I'm not trying to start a fight, but that's like someone telling me to go look at a gay porno simply because I disliked Brokeback Mountain (both of which I dislike).

Note: Bara is for gay men... but it's very "fetish oriented" with the men in being overly muscular, hairy and often overweight to heighten the masculinity; leather is also a big thing lol. This of course does not make it appealing to all gay men, especially not me lol

 

[Dags90]

Yaoi never really aims to accurately portray a homosexual relationship. If you're looking for that the correct genre would be "bara".

I know, but I've met some girls who actually think of real life male/male relationships with the same rigid system as Yaoi has.

 

[Canton]

ugh -__- I hate it when people say Bara is accurate.

Unlike yaoi, Bara is intended to be pornographic...so no, it's not accurate.

I'm not trying to start a fight, but that's like someone telling me to go look at a gay porno simply because I disliked Brokeback Mountain (both of which I dislike).

hehe, yes thinking about it, I see I am quite mistaken with that statement. I guess "accurate" was not really the right word, "grounded" perhaps? At least art and char design wise, relationship portrayal; not so much.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

Yaoi never really aims to accurately portray a homosexual relationship. If you're looking for that the correct genre would be "bara".

I know, but I've met some girls who actually think of real life male/male relationships with the same rigid system as Yaoi has.

Good point, I've met young women like that and they're usually too far removed from reality to actually care if they're mistaken. Thankfully most of my close female friends who do enjoy some BL titles are generally older and have seen plenty of gay men with their boyfriends to know the difference.

Haha, that rigid system is just heteronormative layout in a Japanese sense I guess.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

ugh -__- I hate it when people say Bara is accurate.

Unlike yaoi, Bara is intended to be pornographic...so no, it's not accurate.

I'm not trying to start a fight, but that's like someone telling me to go look at a gay porno simply because I disliked Brokeback Mountain (both of which I dislike).

hehe, yes thinking about it, I see I am quite mistaken with that statement. I guess "accurate" was not really the right word, "grounded" perhaps? At least art and char design wise, relationship portrayal; not so much.

True. Bara IS INTENDED for gay men as I said. So I don't doubt that sexual appeal, just that even in the gay community that sort of erotica isn't always well received

Case in Point- the comedian hard-gay. He's become quite popular based on that stereotyp and many LGBT people in Japan hate him lol