You’re a woman who likes what?!

As a feminist, a guilty pleasure I have is yaoi.  For those of you who don’t know what that is, yaoi is a genre which originated from Japan, the word yaoi is a acronym for yama nashi,  ochi nashi,  imi nashi .  Which means, no climax, no point, no mean. To understand yaoi fully, it’s important to understand aspects of Japanese culture.  Yaoi also deals with male/male relationships, what’s interesting about yaoi is while it is basically two men having sex, their sexual orientation may or may not be an issue.  Another interesting thing about yaoi is that it’s written by heterosexual women and for the most part, the target audience is also heterosexual women.

 As yaoi made its way to the North America, it has developed into a subculture.  There’s even conventions that are dedicated to yaoi, as well as several publishers to translating and publishing yaoi.  Not surprsingly, people have begun to take notice of the yaoi subculture.  In my opnion, part of the reason why is due to the fact that it’s mostly made up straight women and teenage girls.  

Now why would a straight women be interested in two guys having sex?  This question comes up whenever there’s discussion of yaoi, I was even asked this question several times. The thing is, the idea of a woman liking yaoi is very confusing to many. But why is it confusing?  Is it because women aren’t supposed to enjoy guy on guy sex?

As a yaoi fangirl, I have to explain and even defend why I like yaoi.  There has been analysis from academics who are devoted to studying this subculture, who are also trying to understand why it appeals to many women. There are theories of course, some say it’s because women who read yaoi don’t feel "threatened" by the women they read in heteroseuxal romance ( I don’t agree with this theory).  Others say it’s idealism, the men in yaoi are always attractive, and of course, the reason why some women like it, because *gasp* they like idea of two guys having sex.  This reason seems to shock people the most. However, I never seen this much devotion to analyzing why some men enjoy yuri (which is essentially the opposite of yaoi). I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but not to the degree of yaoi.

But I suppose my question is, does enjoying reveal something about women’s sexuality or sexuality in general?  To me, it only reveals that sexuality can be complex.  The characters are portrayed as being, bisexual, gay, or sometimes even straight, yaoi is one of those genres can that show this complexity.  Which is one of the main reasons why I enjoy it.

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

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