also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors. Originally referring to a specific type of dōjinshi (self-published works) parody of mainstream anime and manga works, yaoi came to be used as a generic term for female-oriented manga, anime, dating sims, novels and dōjinshi featuring idealized homosexual male relationships. The main characters in yaoi usually conform to the formula of the who pursues the . In Japan, the term has largely been replaced by the rubric , which subsumes both parodies and original works, and commercial as well as dōjinshi works. Although the genre is called Boys' Love (commonly abbreviated as "BL"), the males featured are pubescent or older. Works featuring prepubescent boys are labeled shotacon, and seen as a distinct genre. Yaoi (as it continues to be known among English-speaking fans) has spread beyond Japan: both translated and original yaoi is now available in many countries and languages.

Yaoi began in the dōjinshi markets of Japan in the late 1970s/early 1980s as an outgrowth of (also known as "Juné" or "tanbi"), but whereas shōnen-ai (both commercial and dōjinshi) were original works, yaoi were parodies of popular shōnen anime and manga, such as ''Captain Tsubasa'' and ''Saint Seiya''.

BL creators and fans are careful to distinguish the genre from bara, including "gay manga", which are created by and for gay men. However, some male manga creators have produced BL works. Yuri is a wider blanket term than yaoi, because it refers to comics with lesbian relationships, regardless of the target audience, which may be (presumptively heterosexual) men, heterosexual women, or lesbian women. Yuri made by and for lesbians tends to resemble a distaff counterpart of bara, while men's yuri manga is more like yaoi manga, since both are targeted at the opposite sex and are not about realistic homosexual relationships.

Terminology

Usage

Although different meanings are often ascribed to the terms yaoi and Boy's Love (with yaoi generally said to be more explicit and BL generally said to being less so), there is conflicting information on their usage.

Yaoi is an acronym created in the dōjinshi market of the late 1970s by Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu and popularized in the 1980s standing for . This phrase was first used as a "euphemism for the content" and refers to how yaoi, as opposed to the "difficult to understand" shōnen-ai of the Year 24 Group, focused on "the yummy parts". The phrase also parodies a classical style of plot structure. Kubota Mitsuyoshi says that Osamu Tezuka used ''yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi'' to dismiss poor quality manga, and this was appropriated by the early yaoi authors. As of 1998, the term ''yaoi'' was considered "common knowledge to manga fans". A joking alternative acronym among ''fujoshi'' (female yaoi fans) for yaoi is .

Originally in Japan, much BL material was called , a name derived from ''June'', a magazine that published male/male romances,, considered "the first work of BL ''per se''", used such unusual kanji for her characters' names that she converted to spelling their names in katakana. The word was originally used to describe an author's distinctive style, for example, the styles of Yukio Mishima and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Akiko Mizoguchi describes its application to male-male stories as "misleading", but notes "it was the most commonly used term in the early 1990s."|group="nb"}} Kaoru Kurimoto had also written ''shōnen ai mono'' stories in the late 1970s that have been described as "the precursors of yaoi". The term "bishōnen manga" was used in the 1970s, but became depreciated in the 1990s when the manga featured a broader range of protagonists than adolescent boys. ''June'' magazine was named after the French author Jean Genet, with "june" being a play on the Japanese pronunciation of his name. Eventually the term "june" died out in favour of "BL," which remains the most common name. Mizoguchi suggests that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the ''June'' market coined the term BL to disassociate the genre with the publisher of ''June''.

Another term for yaoi is 801. "801" can be read as "yaoi" in the following form: the "short" reading of the number 8 is "ya", 0 can be read as "o" – a western influence, while the short reading for 1 is "i" (''see Japanese wordplay''). For example, an Internet manga called ''Tonari no 801-chan'', about a male otaku who dates a ''fujoshi'', has been adapted into a serialized shōjo manga and a live-action film. 801-chan, the mascot of a Japanese shopping centre, is used in the manga.

''Yaoi'' has become an umbrella term in the West for women's manga or Japanese-influenced comics with male-male relationships, and it is the term preferentially used by American manga publishers. The actual name of the genre aimed toward women in Japan is called 'BL' or 'Boy's Love'. BL is aimed at the shōjo and josei demographics, but is considered a separate category. Yaoi is used in Japan to include dōjinshi and sex scenes, and does not include gei comi, which is by and for gay men.

The terms ''yaoi'' and ''shōnen-ai'' are sometimes used by western fans to differentiate between the contents of the genre. In this case, ''yaoi'' is used to describe titles that contain largely sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes and ''shōnen-ai'' is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and do not include explicit sexual content, although they may include implicit sexual content. When using the terms in this way, ''Gravitation'' is considered to be ''shōnen-ai'' due to its focus on the characters' careers rather than their love life, while the Gravitation Remix and Megamix dōjinshi by the same author, which emphasize the characters' sexual relationships, would be considered ''yaoi''. Sometimes the word hentai is used as an additional modifier with yaoi – "hentai yaoi" – to denote the most explicit titles. However, ''Kaze to Ki no Uta'' was groundbreaking in its depictions of "openly sexual relationships", spurring the development of the Boys Love genre in shōjo manga, and the development of sexually explicit amateur comics. The use of yaoi to denote those works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with use of the word to describe the genre as a whole. Yaoi can be used by fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction.

While ''shōnen-ai'' literally means ''boy's love'', the two terms are not synonymous. In Japan, shōnen-ai used to refer to a now obsolete subgenre of shōjo manga about prepubescent boys in relationships ranging from the platonic to the romantic and sexual. The term was originally used to describe ephebophilia, and in scholarly contexts still is. Boy's Love, on the other hand, is used as a genre's name and refers to all titles regardless of sexual content or the ages of characters in the story (with the exception of titles featuring prepubescent boys, which are categorized as shotacon, a distinct genre with only peripheral connections to BL).

Gei comi/Bara

Although sometimes conflated with "yaoi" by Anglophone commentators, (also called , ML, in Japan and "bara" in English) caters to a gay male audience rather than a female one and tends to be made primarily by homosexual and bisexual male artists (such as Gengoroh Tagame) and serialized in gay men's magazines. It is an even smaller niche genre in Japan than yaoi manga; none has been licensed in English and not much has been scanlated into English. Considered a subgenre of (men's erotica) for gay males, bara resembles comics for men (seinen) rather than comics for female readers (shōjo/josei).

Recently a subgenre of BL has been introduced in Japan, so-called or "muscley-chubby" BL, which offers more masculine body types and is more likely to have gay male authors and artists. Although still marketed primarily to women, it is also thought to attract a large crossover gay male audience. This material has been referred to as "bara" among English-speaking fans, but it is distinct in publishing terms (and often in content and style), and should not be confused with ''gei comi'' proper.

The yaoi OVA Legend of the Blue Wolves is considered the first OVA for bara fans.

Seme and uke

The two participants in a yaoi relationship (sometimes also in yuri) are often referred to as and . These terms originated in martial arts and ''uke'' is used in Japanese gay slang to mean the receptive partner in anal sex. Aleardo Zanghellini suggests that the martial arts terms have special significance to a Japanese audience, as an "archetype" of male same-sex relationships are those between samurai and their companions. ''Seme'' derives from the ichidan verb and ''uke'' from the verb . ''seme'' and ''uke'' are analogous to "pitcher" and "catcher." The ''seme'' and ''uke'' are often drawn in the bishōnen style and are "highly idealised", blending both masculine and feminine qualities.

Zanghellini suggests that the samurai archetype is responsible for "the 'hierarchical' structure and age difference" of some relationships portrayed in yaoi and BL. The ''seme'' is often depicted as the stereotypical male of anime and manga culture: restrained, physically powerful, and/or protective. The ''seme'' is generally older and taller, with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine, even "macho", demeanour than the ''uke''. The ''seme'' usually pursues the ''uke'', hence the name. The ''uke'' usually has softer, androgynous, feminine features with bigger eyes and a smaller build, and is often physically weaker than the ''seme''. Zanghellini feels that these stereotypes come from shōjo manga conventions of depicting heroines and her female rival, where the heroine would be portrayed as kawaii and her rival would be portrayed as a sophisticated and adult beauty. When the characters were changed from female to male, these characteristics remained in the seme and uke characters. In this view, readers identify with the ''uke''. Readers may identify with the ''seme'', or the ''uke'', or both at the same time, or instead become a voyeur.

Anal sex is a prevalent theme in yaoi, as nearly all stories feature it in some way. The storyline where an ''uke'' is reluctant to have anal sex with a ''seme'' is considered to be similar to the reader's reluctance to have sexual contact with someone for the first time. Zanghellini notes that anal sex is almost always in a position so that the characters face each other, not in the doggy style Zanghelli states is portrayed by gay pornography. Zanghellini also notes that the uke rarely fellates the seme, but instead receives the sexual and romantic attentions of the seme.

One stereotype that is criticized is when the protagonists do not identify as gay, but rather are simply in love with that particular person. This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love, but is also pointed to as avoiding having to address prejudices against people who consider themselves to have been born homosexual. In recent years, newer yaoi stories have characters that identify as gay. Criticism of the stereotypically "girly" behavior of the uke has also been prominent. It has been questioned if yaoi is heteronormative, due to the masculine ''seme'' and feminine ''uke'' stereotypes. Additionally, yaoi stories are often told from the ''uke'''s perspective. When the seme and uke roles are more closely adhered to, the uke character may be said to represent a "'vagina/anus' to be penetrated", but even as he is penetrated, his phallus is not forgotten, for example, as a seme simultaneously fellates and digitally penetrates his partner in ''Play Boy Blues''. This combination of penetration and phallic pleasure reinforces depictions of sex in yaoi as challenging the idea that there is an active, penetrating, male sexuality as opposed to a passive, penetrated, female sexuality.

Though these stereotypes are common, not all works adhere to them. Mark McLelland says that authors are "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the insertive partner and the receptive partner. The possibility of switching roles is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters, which has been said to show that the genre is aware of the "performative nature" of the roles. Sometimes the bottom character will be the aggressor in the relationship, or the pair will switch their sexual roles. ''Riba'', リバ (a contraction of the English word "reversible") is used to describe a couple that yaoi fans think is still plausible when the partners switch their seme/uke roles. In another common mode of characters, the author will forego the stylisations of the ''seme'' and ''uke'', and will portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men". In this case, whichever of the two who is ordinarily in charge will take the "passive role" in the bedroom.

Shōnen-ai

''Shōnen-ai'' originally connoted ephebophilia or pederasty in Japan, but from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga, primarily by the Year 24 Group, about beautiful boys in love. Characteristics of shōnen-ai include that they were exotic, often taking place in Europe, and idealistic. Suzuki describes shōnen-ai as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand", saying that they required "knowledge of classic literature, history and science" and were replete with "philosophical and abstract musings". She says that this challenged the young readers and expanded their minds. Although they could not understand the works at first reading, as they grew older they would come to understand the works more. In the meantime, "the readers' attention became focused on the figure of the male protagonist" and how he navigated his sexual relationships. By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published shōnen-ai was declining, and yaoi dōjinshi was becoming more popular. In recent years, the terms ''yaoi'' and ''shōnen-ai'' have sometimes been used by western fans to differentiate between the contents of the genre. Yaoi has been used to describe titles that contain largely sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes and ''shōnen-ai'' is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and do not include explicit sexual content, although they may include implicit sexual content. For a time, yaoi dōjinshi was known as “Captain Tsubasa”. Dōjinshi has been described by Comiket's co-founder Yoshihiro Yonezawa as being "girls playing with dolls"; yaoi fans may ship any male-male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or creating a story about two men and fitting existing characters into the story.

Matt Thorn notes that unlike in slash fandom, a canonical homoerotic element "takes away the fun" of creating yaoi for that series, for example, ''From Eroica with Love'' is more popular with slash fans than it has been with dōjinshi artists. Kazuko Suzuki outlines the thematic development of the yaoi fandom, from curiosity about sexuality, to taking a parodic revenge against men, to a feminist protest, and lastly, exploring "ideal relationships".

Important characteristics of the early yaoi dōjinshi were that they were amateur publications not controlled by media restrictions, the stories were by teens for other teens and they were based on famous characters who were in their teens or early twenties, the same age as the yaoi fans. The rapid expansion of Comiket during the 1980s (less than 10,000 attendees in 1982-over 100,000 attendees in 1989) permitted many doujinshi authors to sell thousands of copies of their works, earning a fair amount of money. Mizoguchi points out that June paid a small honorarium and only published stories which suited their less-explicit style, leading to some authors of ''yaoi'' choosing not to try to publish in ''June''. During the early 1990s, dōjinshi played a part in popularising yaoi. Yaoi dōjinshi has been compared to the Plot, what Plot? subgenre of fan fiction.

Though collectors often focus on dōjinshi based on particular manga, any male character may become the subject of a yaoi dōjinshi, even characters from non-manga titles such as ''Harry Potter'' or ''The Lord of the Rings'', or video games such as ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Final Fantasy'', real people such as politicians, or personifications such as ''Hetalia: Axis Powers'', or complementary items such as salt and pepper or peanut butter and jelly. Patrick W. Galbraith sums this up by saying "Among fujoshi, there seems no limit to the potential of transgressive intimacy imagined in yaoi relationships in pursuit of moe."

Most dōjinshi are created by amateurs who often work in "circles"; for example, the group CLAMP began as an amateur dōjinshi circle, drawing ''Saint Seiya'' yaoi. However, some professional artists, such as Kodaka Kazuma create dōjinshi as well. Some publishing companies have used dōjinshi published in the 1980s to spot talented amateurs, such as Biblos hiring Youka Nitta.

Convention when labelling stories differs between Japanese fandom and slash-influenced fandoms. In Japan, the labelling is to put the two names of the characters separated by a multiplication sign, with the ''seme'' being first, and the ''uke'' being second.

Global BL

As Japanese yaoi gained popularity in the U.S., a few American artists began creating original English-language manga for female readers featuring beautiful male-male couples, referred to as "American yaoi." The first known original English-language BL comic is ''Sexual Espionage #1'' by Daria McGrain, published in May 2002. Since approximately 2004, what started as a small subculture in North America has become a burgeoning market, as new publishers began producing female-oriented male/male erotic comics and manga from creators outside Japan. Because creators from all parts of the globe are published in these "original English language" works, the term "American Yaoi" fell out of use; terms like 'Original English Language yaoi' shortened to 'Global Yaoi'. The term Global BL was coined by creators and newsgroups that wanted to distinguish the Asian specific content known as 'yaoi', from the original English content, and so the term Global BL was used. "Global BL" was shortened by comics author Tina Anderson in interviews and on her blog to the acronym 'GloBL'.

Current North American publishers of 'Global BL' are Yaoi Press, and publisher DramaQueen, which debuted its 'Global BL' quarterly anthology ''RUSH'' in 2006. RUSH ceased publishing when the company experienced financial issues and were uncommunicative with the creators involved in the project. Dramaqueen began publishing again in 2010, and on their forums, CEO Tran Nguyen indicated RUSH would return in a new format in 2011.

Former publishers include Iris Print.

Prolific GloBL creators include Yayoi Neko, Dany & Dany, Tina Anderson, and Studio Kosen.

The most recent publishing boom in ''GloBL'' is happening in Germany, with a handful of original German titles gaining popularity for being set in Asia. Some publishers of German GloBL are traditional manga publishers like Carlsen Manga, and small press publishers specialising in GloBL like The Wild Side and Fireangels Verlag.

Publishing

Mizoguchi divides BL publication into two eras – the first era from the time of ''June'' to 2004, and a second era from 2004 onwards. The earliest magazine about Boy's Love was ''June'', which began in 1978 as a response to the success of commercially published manga such as the works of Keiko Takemiya, Moto Hagio and Yumiko Ōshima. Other factors was the rising popularity of depictions of ''bishōnen'' in the ''dōjinshi'' market and ambiguous musicians such as David Bowie and Queen. ''June'' was meant to have an underground, "cultish, guerilla-style" feeling – most of its manga artists were new talent. Frederik L. Schodt describes ''June'' as "a kind of 'readers' magazine, created by and for the readers." Essays about the characteristics of the June genre were published with the manga in ''June''. In 1982, ''Shōsetsu June'' ("Novel June"), a sister magazine to ''June'' began publication. Its content is text-only stories with male romance. Nagaike believes that the true "revolution" in BL culture was when it began to be commercially published en masse in the 1990s. As of the mid-1990s, ''Shōsetsu June'' outsold ''June''. As of 2008, June was still running, although the target audience's ages have widened and the style of stories has changed from being "soft love" to more overtly pornographic. The magazine (1980–1984) which was more text-based than ''June'' was influential in cultivating a lesbian culture. The Japanese publisher Biblos was a BL publisher established in 1988 but their bankruptcy due to failure of their parent company caused them to fold in April 2006. Most of their titles were picked up by Libre. A 2006 breakdown of the Japanese commercial BL market estimated it grosses approximately 12 billion yen annually, with novel sales generating 250 million yen per month, manga generating 400 million yen per month, CDs generating 180 million yen per month, and video games generating 160 million yen per month. A 2010 report estimated that the Boys Love market was worth approximately 21.3 billion yen in both 2009 and 2010.

Japanese BL works are sold to English-speaking countries by companies that translate and print them in English; companies such as Digital Manga Publishing with their imprints 801 Media (for explicit BL) and June (for "romantic and sweet" BL), as well as DramaQueen, Kitty Media, Central Park Media's Be Beautiful, Tokyopop under their imprint BLU, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, Aurora Publishing under their imprint Deux Press, and Yaoi Generation. The first publisher of BL in translation may be ComicsOne, which released two volumes of shōnen-ai manga as e-books in January 2000. In 2001, the only BL-type manga available in print in English were the barely-suggestive ''Banana Fish'' and ''X/1999'', and in 2002, commercially translated BL was "not common". According to McLelland, the earliest officially translated BL manga in print appeared in 2003, and as of 2006 there were about 130 English-translated works commercially available. In March 2007, Media Blasters stopped selling shōnen manga and increased their yaoi lines, anticipating to publish one or two titles per month that year. In 2007 following Biblos' bankruptcy, Libre published an open letter on their website which said that English-language publishers had to renegotiate publishing rights for Biblos' former series with Libre, specifically naming CPM's releases as "illegal". Diamond Comic Distributors estimated the U.S. sales of yaoi manga as being approximately $US 6 million in 2007. In English-speaking countries explicit stories are either sold online or displayed in shrink wrap. Mark McLelland surveyed 135 yaoi books published in North America between 2003 and 2006, and found that 14% was rated at 13 years or over, 39% was rated for readers aged 15 years or over, and 47% was rated for readers 18 years or older. BLU reports that although bookshops are becoming more willing to stock BL titles, they are conservative about how the books are labelled, leading to books being shrink wrapped and rated for over 18s which previously would have garnered an over 16 rating, and do not "really follow through on the [adult content] promise."

In 2010, Libre Publishing sent cease and desist letters to English language BL scanlation groups.

Thematic elements

BL has similar themes to heterosexual shōjo manga, several exploring adolescent romance and the "interiority of the characters." Nagaike identifies common narratives as being ''toshishita zeme'', where the younger partner penetrates the older, ''shota mono'' about young adolescents, ''riiman mono'', about salarymen, and ''gakuen mono'', stories set on a campus. Common characters in yaoi are schoolboys and yakuza. Sometimes, schoolboys are depicted in sexual situations, which is controversial when these titles are licensed in countries where underage sexuality and its depiction is taboo.

Female characters

Female characters often have very minor roles in yaoi, or are absent altogether. Suzuki notes that mothers, in particular, are portrayed badly, such as Takuto's mother from ''Zetsuai 1989'', who killed her husband in front of her young son. Suzuki suggests this is because the character and the reader are attempting to replace a mother's lacking "unconditional love" with the "forbidden" all-consuming love presented in yaoi. Nariko Enomoto, a yaoi author, says she feels that when women are shown, "it can't help but become weirdly real". When yaoi fan works are created from a series which originally contained females (such as ''Gundam Wing''), the female's role is either minimised or the character is killed off. Early shōnen-ai and yaoi has been regarded as misogynistic, but Lunsing detects a decrease in misogynistic comments from characters and regards the development of the ''yuri'' genre as reflecting a reduction of internal misogyny. Alternatively, the yaoi fandom is also viewed as a "refuge" from mainstream culture, which in this paradigm is viewed as inherently misogynistic. Fumi Yoshinaga is regarded as a creator who usually includes at least one sympathetic female character in her works. Also, there are many female characters in Yaoi who are Fujoshi themselves.

Gachi muchi

Recently, a subgenre of BL has been introduced in Japan, so-called "muscley-chubby BL" or gachi muchi (from and ) which offers more masculine body types and is more likely to have gay male authors and artists. Although still marketed primarily to women, it is also thought to attract a large crossover gay male audience. Although this type of material has also been referred to as "bara" among English-speaking fans, it is not equivalent to ''gei comi'' proper (although there is considerable overlap, as writers, artists and art styles cross over between the two genres). Prior to the development of ''gachi muchi'', the greatest overlap between yaoi and bara authors has been in BDSM-themed publications such as ''Zettai Reido'', a yaoi anthology magazine which had a number of openly male contributors. Several female yaoi authors who have done BDSM-themed yaoi have been recruited to contribute stories to BDSM-themed bara anthologies or special issues.

Gay rights

Many BL manga have fantastic, historic or futuristic settings, and many fans consider BL to be an "escapist fantasy". Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all, is used as a plot device to "heighten the drama", or to show the purity of the leads’ love. Matt Thorn has suggested that as BL is a romance narrative, having strong political themes may be a "turn off" to the readers. Yaoi narratives show characters "overcoming obstacles, often internal, to be together". The theme of the victory of the protagonists in yaoi has been compared favourably to Western fairy tales, as the latter intends to enforce the status quo, but yaoi is "about desire" and seeks "to explore, not circumscribe, possibilities." Hisako Miyoshi, vice editor-in-chief for Libre Publishing, has said that she feels that boys love manga has become less realist, with more comedic elements or being "simply for entertainment". She thinks that earlier BL focused "more on the homosexual way of life with a realist perspective." Makoto Tateno has said that she feels that BL with a focus on realistic gay issues "won't become a trend, because girls like fiction more than realism." Akiko Mizoguchi feels that while depictions of homosexuality as "shameful" to heighten dramatic tension are still shown, BL is including more coming out stories which portray a gradual acceptance from the wider community. Mizoguchi feels that BL is showing far more gay-friendly depictions of Japanese society, which she regards as activism.

Idealism

Most BL manga have been said to "foster an aesthetic of purity, even when depicting hard-core sex acts." Sandra Buckley felt that the characters have equality in their relationships, which were "free of domination and exploitation". Yaoi stories are often strongly homosocial, which gives the men freedom to bond with each other and to pursue shared goals together, as in dojinshi representations of ''Captain Tsubasa'', or to rival each other, as in ''Haru wo Daiteita''. This spiritual bond and equal partnership shown overcomes the male-female power hierarchy.

Rape

According to Suzuki, sexual intercourse in yaoi is a way of expressing commitment to a partner, and "apparent violence" in sex is a "measure of passion". Suzuki elaborates that when a woman is raped, she is stigmatised by society, but in yaoi narratives, boys who are loved by their rapists are still "imbued with innocence", a theme she attributes to ''Kaze to Ki no Uta''. According to Nagaike, rape scenes in yaoi are rarely presented as crimes with an assaulter and a victim. Nagaike feels that scenes where a seme rapes an uke are not symptomatic of the seme's "disruptive sexual/violent desires", but instead are a signifier of the "uncontrollable love" felt by a seme for an uke. Instead of being depicted as a crime, rape scenes can be a plot device used to make the uke see the seme as more than just a good friend, resulting in the uke falling in love with the seme. Rape fantasy themes have been said to free the protagonist of responsibility in sex, leading to the narrative climax of the story, where "the protagonist takes responsibility for his own sexuality".

Tragedy

June stories with suicide endings were popular, as was "watching men suffer". Matt Thorn theorises that depicting abuse in yaoi is a coping mechanism for some yaoi fans. By the mid 1990s the fashion was for happy endings. When tragic endings are shown, the cause is not infidelity, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world."

Critical attention

Boys' Love manga has received considerable critical attention, especially after translations of BL became commercially available outside of Japan in the 21st century. Different critics and commentators have had very different views of BL. In 1983, Frederik L. Schodt observed that “aesthetically” depicted male-male homosexual relationships had become popular among female readers as an extension of bisexual themes already present in shōjo manga. Japanese critics have seen BL as allowing girls to distance sex from their own bodies, as allowing girls to avoid adult female sexuality while simultaneously creating greater fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality, and as rejecting “socially mandated” gender roles as a “first step toward feminism.” In more elaborate theorizing, Kazuko Suzuki sees BL manga emerging from girls' contempt and dislike for masculine heterosexism and from an effort to define "ideal relationships" among men. Mizoguchi, writing in 2003, feels that BL is a "female-gendered space", as the writers, readers, artists and most of the editors of BL are female. BL has been compared to romance novels by English-speaking librarians. Parallels have also been noted in the popularity of lesbianism in pornography, and yaoi has been called a form of "female fetishism". Mariko Ōhara, a science fiction writer, has said that she wrote yaoi Kirk/Spock fiction as a teen because she could not enjoy "conventional pornography, which had been made for men", and that she had found a "limitless freedom" in yaoi, much like in science fiction.

Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie BL. Shihomi Sakakibara (1998) argued that yaoi fans, including herself, were homosexually oriented female-to-male transsexuals. For Sandra Buckley, ''bishōnen'' narratives champion “the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations" and James Welker described the ''bishōnen'' character as "queer", observing that manga critic Akiko Mizoguchi saw ''shōnen-ai'' as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian. Dru Pagliassotti sees this and the ''yaoi ronsō'' as indicating that for Japanese gay and lesbian readers, BL is not as far removed from reality as heterosexual female readers like to claim. Welker added that ''shōnen-ai'' liberates readers "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity."

Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the ''yaoi ronsō'' or "yaoi debate" of 1992–1997. In May 1992, gay activist Masaki Satō criticized yaoi fans and artists in an open letter to the feminist zine (or ''minikomi'' in Japanese) ''Choisir''. Satō said that yaoi failed to provide accurate information about gay men, promoted a destructive image of gay men as wealthy, handsome, and well-educated, ignored prejudice and discrimination against gay men in society, and co-opted gay men as masturbation fantasies. An extensive debate ensued, with yaoi fans and artists arguing that yaoi is entertainment for women, not education for gay men, and that yaoi characters are not meant to represent "real gay men." As internet resources for gay men developed in the 1990s, the yaoi debate waned but has had later echoes, for example when Mizoguchi in 2003 characterised stereotypes in modern BL as being "unrealistic and homophobic". There has been similar criticism to the Japanese yaoi debate in the English-speaking fandom. In 1993 and 2004, Matt Thorn pointed to the complexity of these phenomena, and suggested that yaoi and slash fiction fans are discontented with “the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a social environment that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent.”

As women have greater economic power, commercial demand for the sexualization of men may correlate. Korean manhwa writer Jin Seok Jeon wrote in a commentary to Vol. 5, Chp 2 of an Arabian Nights themed shōnen-ai work, A Night of a Thousand Dreams, "Men are now marketable. It's also a time where women are big consumers and can buy almost anything they desire. Some men think this is degrading...but the tables have turned, and I like the fact that men are just as commercialized now." He jokes that after researching oil wrestling, which requires extreme physical fitness, he does not feel as marketable, illustrating that yaoi and other pornography exploiting men is subject to traditional criticisms, such as sexual objectification, creating unrealistic expectations and negative body images.

In China, BL became very popular in the late 1990s, attracting media attention, which became negative, focusing on the challenge it posed to "heterosexual hegemony". Publishing and distributing BL is illegal in mainland China. Zanghellini notes that due to the "characteristics of the yaoi/BL genre" of showing characters who are often underage engaging in romantic and sexual situations, child pornography laws in Australia and Canada "may lend themselves to targeting yaoi/BL work". He notes that in the UK, cartoons are exempt from child pornography laws unless they are used for child grooming.

In 2001, a controversy erupted in Thailand regarding homosexual male comics. Television reports labeled the comics as negative influences, while a newspaper falsely stated that most of the comics were not copyrighted as the publishers feared arrest for posting the content; in reality most of the titles were likely illegally published without permission from the original Japanese publishers. The ''shōnen ai'' comics provided profits for the comic shops, which sold between 30 to 50 such comics per day. The moral panic regarding the male homosexual comics subsided. The Thai girls felt too embarrassed to read heterosexual stories, so they read homosexual male-themed josei and shōjo stories, which they saw as "unthreatening."

Youka Nitta has said that "even in Japan, reading boys' love isn't something that parents encourage" and encouraged any parents who had concerns about her works to read them. Although in Japan, concern about manga has been mostly directed to shōnen manga, in 2006, an email campaign was launched against the availability of BL manga in Sakai City's public library. In August 2008, the library decided to stop buying more BL, and to keep its existing BL in a collection restricted to adult readers. That November, the library was contacted by people who protested against the removal, regarding it as "a form of sexual discrimination". The Japanese media ran stories on how much BL was in public libraries, and emphasised that this sexual material had been loaned out to minors. Debate ensued on Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, and eventually the library returned its BL to the public collection. Mark McLelland suggests that BL may become "a major battlefront for proponents and detractors of 'gender free' policies in employment, education and elsewhere."

See also

:Category:Shōnen-ai – a list of shōnen-ai works

:Category:Yaoi – a list of yaoi works

BL game

Glossary of anime and manga

Girlfag and guydyke

List of manga magazines – includes BL magazines

Men who have sex with men

Pornography in Japan

Notes

References

Further reading

Aoyama, Tomoko (1988) "Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers" in ''The Japanese Trajectory: Modernization and Beyond'', Gavan McCormack, Yoshio Sugimoto eds. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-34515-4.

Butcher, Christopher (11 December 2007). "Queer love manga style". ''Xtra!''.

Cooper, Lisa "Laugh it up" Newtype USA, October 2007 (Volume 6 Number 10)

Fujimoto Yukari (2004). "Transgender: Female Hermaphrodites and Male Androgynes". ''U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal'' 27: 76.

van de Goor, Sophie (2010) Slashing Japan: the self-depathology of the female fan

Haggerty, George E. (2000). Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-8153-1880-4.

Kakinuma Eiko, Kurihara Chiyo et al. (eds.), ''Tanbi-Shosetsu, Gay-Bungaku Book Guide,'' 1993. ISBN 4-89367-323-8

KUCI Subversities 18 October 2010

Lees, Sharon (July 2006). "Be Beautiful: Yaoi Publishers Interviews Part 3". ''Akiba Angels''.

Levi, Antonia (1996) ''Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation''

Lewis, Marilyn Jaye (editor), ''Zowie! It's Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys' Love''. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2006. ISBN 1-56025-910-8.

Mautner, Chris (2007) "Introduction to yaoi, part 1"

McCarthy, Helen, Jonathan Clements The Erotic Anime Movie Guide pub Titan (London) 1998 ISBN 1852869461

McHarry, Mark (2011). "Girls Doing Boys Doing Boys: Boys' Love, Masculinity and Sexual Identities." In Perper, Timothy and Martha Cornog (Eds.) Mangatopia: Essays on Anime and Manga in the Modern World. New York: ABC-Clio.

Nishimura Mari (2001) ''Aniparo to Yaoi'' Ohta Publishing ISBN 978-4-87233-643-6

Newtype USA, August 2007 (Volume 6 Number 8) "Why we like it"

Newtype USA, November 2007 (Vol. 6 No. 11) "Favorite authors" p. 109

PiQ, June 2008 (Volume 1 Number 3)

PiQ, July 2008 (Volume 1 Number 4)

Salek, Rebecca (June 2005) More Than Just Mommy and Daddy: "Nontraditional" Families in Comics ''Sequential Tart''

Solomon, Charles (30 June 2004) Young men in love ''Los Angeles Times''

Thompson, Jason (31 July 2006) Boku no Shonen Ai (or "Jason overanalyzes something and takes all the fun out of it") livejournal.com

* Category:Hentai Category:Anime and manga terminology Category:Japanese sex terms Category:LGBT terms Category:LGBT art

ar:ياو ast:Yaoi ca:Yaoi de:Yaoi el:Γιαόι es:Yaoi eo:Jaoi fr:Yaoi ko:야오이 id:Yaoi it:Yaoi he:יאוי hu:Jaoi nl:Yaoi ja:ボーイズラブ no:Yaoi pl:Yaoi pt:Yaoi ro:Yaoi ru:Яой simple:Yaoi sk:Jaoi fi:Yaoi sv:Yaoi th:ยะโอะอิ uk:Яой vi:Yaoi zh:Yaoi

Demetri Martin (born May 25, 1973) is an American comedian, actor, artist, musician, writer and humorist. Martin is best known for his work as a stand-up comedian, contributor on ''The Daily Show'' and for his Comedy Central show ''Important Things with Demetri Martin''.

Early life

Demetri Martin was born to a Greek American family in New York City, New York, and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey. He is the son of Lillian, a nutritionist, and Dean C. Martin, now deceased, a Greek Orthodox priest. Martin graduated from Yale University in 1995. Although he was accepted into Harvard Law School, he went to New York University School of Law after he received a full scholarship.

Career

In 2001, Martin caught his first big break in stand-up comedy when he appeared on Comedy Central's stand-up showcase ''Premium Blend''. At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe he won the Perrier award with his show ''If I...''. The show was turned into a British television special in 2004. From 2003 to 2004, Martin wrote for ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. In 2004, Martin had his own ''Comedy Central Presents'' stand-up special. His special was divided into three parts. In the first, he performed in traditional stand-up comedy fashion. In the second segment, he used humorous drawings as visual aids, which would serve either as the punchline or a background. During the third segment, he played a guitar and put on a pseudo-play where he would strum his guitar while alternating between playing harmonica and talking; some of his comedian friends dressed as fairies and dragons acted according to the story he was telling, detailing the magical land where his jokes came from. Martin's mother and grandmother also appeared.

Since late 2005, he has been credited as a contributor on ''The Daily Show'', on which he has appeared as the named "Senior Youth Correspondent" and on which he hosts a segment called "Trendspotting". He has used this segment to talk about so-called hip trends among youth such as hookahs, wine, guerilla marketing and Xbox 360. A piece about social networking featured his profile on MySpace. On March 22, 2007, Demetri made another appearance on ''The Daily Show'', talking about the Viacom lawsuit against Google and YouTube.

He has recorded a comedy CD/DVD titled ''These Are Jokes'', which was released on September 26, 2006. This album also features ''Saturday Night Live'' member Will Forte and stand-up comedian Leo Allen.

Martin returned to ''The Daily Show'' on March 22, 2006, as the new Youth Correspondent, calling his segment "Professional Important News with Demetri Martin". In 2007, he starred in a Fountains of Wayne music video for "Someone to Love" as Seth Shapiro, a character in the song. He also starred in the video for the new Travis single "Selfish Jean", in which he wears multiple t-shirts with lyrics written on them.

On September 2, 2007, Martin appeared on the season finale of the HBO series ''Flight of the Conchords''. He appeared as a keytar player named Demetri.

He also had a part in the movie ''The Rocker'' (2008) starring Rainn Wilson. Martin played the part of the videographer when the band in the movie was making their first music video.

In 2009, he hosted and starred in his own television show called Important Things With Demetri Martin on Comedy Central. Later in June, it was announced his show had been renewed for a second season. The second season premiered, again on Comedy Central, on February 4, 2010. Martin has stated that ''Important Things'' will not return for a third season.

Prior to completing work on his second season, Martin starred in the comedy-drama film ''Taking Woodstock'' (2009), directed by Ang Lee, which premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In the film Martin plays Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay artist who has given up his ambitions in the city to move upstate and help his old-world Jewish family run their Catskill Mountains motel. The film is based on the book written by Tiber.

On April 25, 2011, Martin released his first book, titled ''This Is a Book by Demetri Martin''.

Martin was slated to portray Paul DePodesta as Oakland Athletics assistant GM to Billy Beane in the 2011 movie Moneyball (film), however was dropped and Jonah Hill took his place in the movie.

Future plans

Martin sold his movie concept ''Will'' to DreamWorks; he is expected to play a key supporting role. He will play the lead in the film ''Moon People'', a pitch that he sold to Columbia Pictures.

Martin also signed a blind script deal with CBS in October 2010 to produce, write, and star in his own television series.

After CBS was shown the pilot for the series, they decided not to air it.

On August 11, 2011, Fox ordered a presentation of a new animated show they might air.

''If I''

''If I'' is a Perrier Comedy Award-winning comedy one-man show written and performed by Demetri Martin at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was also aired on British television as a special. The show is an autobiographical examination of Martin's life, as seen through various definitions of the word "if."

The title of the special comes from a lengthy palindromic poem that Martin wrote; the words "if I" are at the center of the poem.

Comedic style

Martin is known for being an unconventional stand-up comic. He uses one-liners and drawings on a "large pad", as well as accompanying his jokes with music on either guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, glockenspiel, toy bells, ukulele, or tambourine, sometimes all at once. He has cited comedian Steven Wright as an important influence (both use deadpan one-liners in their acts) and he is also a fan of Bill Cosby.

Personal life

According to a July 2011 interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Demetri had a short-lived marriage to a girl he knew from high school. They began dating after high school and got married when he was in NYU Law School and she was attending NYU Medical School. He was aged 25 and in the end of his marriage when his stand-up career began.

He is extremely allergic to nuts and peanuts.

Martin moved to Santa Monica, California in 2009.

Discography

''Invite Them Up'' (2005)

''These Are Jokes'' (2006)

''Demetri Martin. Person.'' (2007)

Filmography and television work

''If I'' ''12:21'' ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' "''Someone to Love (Fountains of Wayne song) ''Flight of the Conchords (TV series) ''The Rocker (film) ''Paper Heart'' ''Post Grad'' ''Taking Woodstock'' ''Important Things with Demetri Martin'' ''Take Me Home Tonight (film) ''Contagion (film) ''Conan_(TV_series)

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
2002	''Analyze That''	Personal Assistant
2003	|	Himself	British television special, also writer
2004	|	Himself	short film, also writer
2004	|	Himself	1 episode, series writer
2007	Someone to Love''" ||	Seth Shapiro	''Fountains of Wayne'' music video
2007	Flight of the Conchords'' ||	Demetri	Season 1, Episode 12
2008	The Rocker'' ||	Kip (a music video producer)
2009	|	Himself
2009	|	Ad Exec
2009	|	Elliot Tiber
2009–2010	|	Himself / Various	writer, series creator, executive producer, and composer
2011	Take Me Home Tonight'' ||	Carlos
2011	Contagion'' ||	Dr. David Eisenberg
2011	Conan'' ||	Himself	guest

Written works

''This Is a Book'', April 2011, .

Awards and nominations

AwardPerrier Comedy AwardEmmy Awards Shared with Mike Sweeney (writer)Writers Guild of America Award Shared with Mike Sweeney (writer)Barry Award (for comedy)

Year	|	For	Category	Result	Other notes
2003	|	''If I''		Won	At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2004	|	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program	Nominated	Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg
2005	|	''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''	Comedy/Variety (Including Talk) - Series	Won	Mike Sweeney (head writer), Chris Albers, Jose Arroyo, Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Daniel J. Goor, Michael Gordon, Brian Kiley, Michael Koman, Brian McCann, Guy Nicolucci, Conan O'Brien, Allison Silverman, Robert Smigel, Brian Stack, Andrew Weinberg
2006	Barry Award ||	''Dr. Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin''		Won	Award for best show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

References

External links

Interview from November, 2006, in Onion AV Club

Interview from October 2006, in The DePaulia

Article, in ''The Scotsman''

Article, in ''Gelf Magazine''

Interview by Brian M. Palmer

MP3 Audio Interview on ''The Sound of Young America'' public radio show and podcast

Interview Believer Mag

New Jersey Monthly Magazine

Fresh Air, NPR.org

Category:1973 births Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:Actors from New York City Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American comedy writers Category:American film actors Category:American humorists Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:Living people Category:New York University alumni Category:Writers from New Jersey Category:Writers from New York City Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners Category:Yale University alumni Category:The Daily Show correspondents and contributors

cs:Demetri Martin da:Demetri Martin de:Demetri Martin fr:Demetri Martin gl:Demetri Martin it:Demetri Martin ru:Мартин, Деметри simple:Demitri Martin fi:Demetri Martin sv:Demetri Martin