AarinNerds

Of course we don't mind a guy's opinion I don't value one over the other, and diversity is the key to any healthy conversation.

Interestingly, your reasons for liking yaoi are remarkably similar to my own. It's important to see a GUY emotiong like that (we have all seen women do it), especially with another guy. The only thing a woman reader might bring to the table is that it gives her pleasure to see one guy being "dominated" (emotionally, physically...?) by another. Usually the scenario is of a woman being dominated by a man (see most contemporary romance films and novels ... think of the kiss at the end of Slumdog Millionaire; such a great movie, but I actually felt slight disgust then and had to look away).

i can see the appeal of seeing a guy dominated when its traditionally his role to be the dominator, although as a bottom myself, its something i live with every day so its not so much a factor with me.

No, it is definitely a woman's unique perspective. Although I do think a man can acknowledge and appreciate the effects that patriarchy has on female yaoi fans.

lol i think they better acknowldege it if they wanna keep their girls a better understanding of what turns our girls on is a bonus for all of us

True

But I'm talking about more than merely what turns a woman on. Women can be turned on by all sorts of things, regardless of their professed sexuality or comfort level.

I think what we all need to acknowledge is that some women (I definitely won't say all) object to the depiction of women (or women characters) as "weaker." Many female readers enjoy women characters who are strong and do not lose a jot of that strength simply for the sake of a man (i.e. Xena: Warrior Princess or Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica ... sadly, I can't think of any anime or manga examples).

In the absence of a strong woman character (since there are so few) many women turn to yaoi/BL, where they receive pleasure (not necessarily or solely sexual) from seeing one man being subordinate to another, or rather, one man needing another to lean on, rescue him, etc.

Sango from Inuyasha and Makoto and Haruka from sailor moon are 3 strong women i can think of

i agree about the role of the feminism in the charm and motivation of BL.
you have good point there, artemis. i think one of the things that (consciously or unconsciously) attracts women to BL is that they see a man in the place of the "woman", although not in the stereotypical sense, and not only in the sense of dominant-subordinate roles.

for one thing, i think that in het material, women are always objectified (especially in sexual material), versus men who are oftentimes the subject. in BL, there's no objectification, in a sense. i think this is liberating, and refreshing, especially for female audience.

of course, there's always the sort-of 'rebellion' to the patriarchy. after all, if we look in context, yaoi was born in Japan, a traditionally (and historically) very patriarchal society; and yaoi was a movement initiated by women.

Since this is the biggest thread I guess I'll start by here. Hi, I'm Lady. I'm a Veterinary Medicine student. xD Concerning the theme of the topic, the most I've studied concerning yaoi is trying to discover if animals can hold homosexual relationships and, if so, if they hold romanticism (well, this for their common mating paterns as well). I also want to discover analogies between our behaviour as females that seek male relationships as "escape" and higher vertebrates. :3

Comments? xD

Hi, Lady

I do know that animals of a same sex will "pair up" and raise young together; for example, the male penguins or geese who so famously stole eggs from other nests and raised them together, and then have remained bonded ever since.

Do they try to copulate together? That I don't know. I felt reasonably sure that some mammals same-sex copulate (I'm thinking hyenas for some reason?) but can't be positive.

I also want to discover analogies between our behaviour as females that seek male relationships as "escape" and higher vertebrates.

I didn't really understand what you meant there

Well, just as we escape into yaoi fandom due to the rest of the art media not being able to satisfy a "gap", do other mammals (as smart as us xD) do it as well? For that I got to discover if they have concepts like art (I already discovered they may have a prototype of theatre) and so on. And if they do so, what are they missing? To make it simple, does a female penguin (penguina? lol) look at two male penguins like a girl looks at a BL animation?

Another question I'm studying is why do animals of the same gender form "pairs", like the examples you gave. Hormones? Something we can't scientifically know yet?

It's a bit silly, but when I think about it there is not really an answer. And I waaant an answer. I got a whole lot more concerning things that humans do and that nobody ever thought if animals could do as well.

Forgot to mention that I intend to take a PhD on Animal Behaviour, that may explain my interest.