An interesting article about yaoi.

I came across an interesting article about yaoi.

SB Day: Girls who like boys who do like boys.

She brings up some interesting points about the history of yaoi in the states and I urge you to read this.

She also mentions a question that’s asked of me a lot.

Why Yaoi appeals more to a female readership has never been fully explained to me, nor do I think that I have the psychological background and interview pool to really understand. It would make for an excellent grad school paper. What I have heard is that boy’s love comics tap into different parts of female psyche, letting women enjoy a sexualized story with no guilt (hey, it’s two boys, not a boy and girl) while allowing them to indulge the fantasy of a threesome in their minds. I heard the same argument used to explain why the television show Queer as Folk had such a large female following. I really don’t know if I buy into this at all. It’s too simplistic and seems to be a feminization of the explanation of why men fantasize about two women together. It also completely disregards any focus on the building of an emotionally stable relationship.

Why do women love yaoi? I don’t think it has anything to do with guilt or fantasy. I think it has to do with equality. Yaoi was started in Japan. Although women’s rights and social status has come a long way in Japan, you have to remember that this is a culture that still has “office flowers”; at one time, men were expected to have a mistress; women weren’t allowed to eat at the table when men had business associates over; cradle to grave positions were only open to men; and, those are just a few examples.

Women started yaoi, I think, as a means of getting some kind of relationship in their world that carried equality. As a western girl, I can look at yaoi and point to all sorts of forms of inequality. That’s as a western girl. My understanding of equality and a Japanese woman’s understanding of equality (at the time yaoi started) are two totally different things.

As a western girl, I latch onto yaoi because of that. And, who doesn’t want sexy pretty men? As a writer, I celebrate yaoi. I can write any kind of storyline I want without someone rolling their eyes and saying, “Oh look, another subservient female.” Or “Oh look, another dominant she-bitch.” I can have a cute shy uke all I want. I can have a strong willed uke too! No one bats an eye because it’s yaoi.

I don’t have to adhere to gender roles or anything like that. Yaoi is freedom for a writer. Complete and total freedom. Yes, yes, yaoi has rules, but if you break the rules while keeping the spirit of the rule alive—you’re fine.

The article goes on and touches on one of my pet-peeves.

As Yaoi’s popularity continues to grow and become more accepted in the United States, it will be interesting to see how this affects other venues of entertainment. Will we see more boys’ love TV shows on the air to fill the void of Queer as Folk and more movies in the vein of Brokeback Mountain or will this interest be mis-shelved once again, mis-marketed and ignored by people who don’t realize they are missing their target audience?

Brokeback Mountain is not yaoi. Repeat after me. It is not yaoi. It doesn’t hold to the conventions of yaoi. It’s doesn’t have painfully beautiful men. There’s not a single bishie in that movie. They might be sexy, but damn it, they’re not bishie. (I can’t speak on Queer as Folk.)

Just because something is m/m and appeals to women does NOT make it yaoi.

Yaoi requires a specific tone and style. There are elements that must be part of any yaoi story and from what I’ve seen Brokeback Mountain does not have it—even with as good as it is.

I’m all for Brokeback Mountian’s success and I hope it has a long flourishing life in DVD, but it’s not yaoi.

For those of us who are rabid yaoi fangirls, the distinction between “m/m popular among/targeted toward women” and “yaoi” is a no brainer and we expect there to be confusion among those who don’t understand yaoi. However, I’m getting tired of people perpetuating the myth that if it’s m/m and popular with women it’s yaoi.

Yes, there are non-yaoi titles that are popular with the yaoi crowd. Cross-over is a beautiful thing, but crossing over doesn’t make it yaoi.

She goes on to this…

…it makes me wonder how many other niche markets are being ignored by mainstream stores. What are they? Are they just being mis-marketed or mis-shelved or are they just not available at all?

Yes, there is a huge problem with this with the e-book industry. Yaoi e-books are not getting the right covers or catalog listings by many publishers and that’s killing the title. Yaoi fans look for certain things to let them know a title is yaoi and not “gay erotica.” A cover is the best and sometimes only way to show a browsing yaoi reader that a particular title is for them. Some yaoi fans have turned their back on the publishing world, because their titles aren't reaching them. Thankfully, publishers are beginning to recognize this and are on the look out for yaoi artists. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough talented yaoi artists out there.