Yaoi (やおい) is a publishing genre which focuses on male/male homosexual relationships and is marketed at females. The genre originated in Japan and encompasses manga, anime, novels and dōjinshi. In Japan, this genre is called Boy's Love or simply "BL" and it is important to note that yaoi as a genre name is mostly used by western fans. Yaoi has spread beyond Japan; yaoi material is available in the United States, as well as other Western and Eastern nations worldwide.

Pronunciation

Strictly speaking, all three vowels should be pronounced in separate morae, yielding a three-mora word, /jaoi/. However, yaoi is frequently heard as only two syllables, where under acceptable pronunciation produces the phoneme /oi/ with the 「お」 and 「い」 syllabic characters.

In the United States, it is commonly pronounced as /jaʊi/ or /jeɪɔɪ/, "YOW-we".

Etymology

The English letters form an acronym of the Japanese phrase 「ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし」 (yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi), often translated into English as, "no climax, no resolution, no meaning," or as the catchphrase, "No peak, no point, no problem." However the term is not always used that way.

The term appears to have been originally used in Japan, perhaps as early as the 1970s, to describe any doujinshi that was a bizarre, playful parody; however, it has come to refer solely to sexually explicit male-male homosexual material. Yaoi is not a common term in Japanese; it is specific to the otaku subculture.

Usage

Yaoi, outside of Japan, is an umbrella term for all male/male comics made for women in Japan; as well as male/male comics made in the west. The actual name of the genre in Japan is called 'BL' or 'Boy's Love'. BL is an extension of shoujo and Lady's categories, but is considered a separate category. Like 'Yaoi' is used in the United States, 'BL' is used in Japan to include: commercial and amateur works, works with no sex, works with sex, doujinshi about adolescents with little or no sex, works in all types of media - manga, anime, novels, games, and drama CDs with male/male content, and characters of all ages in male/male content. Terms such as yaoi, shounen-ai, tanbi, June, and original June, are all referred to in Japan, as 'BL'. However, it does not include gay publications.

Though yaoi is sometimes used to refer to any male homosexual content in film and print media, particularly in works created by females, that is generally considered a misuse of the term. Professional Japanese artists, such as Kodaka Kazuma, are careful to distinguish their works as "yaoi," rather than "gay," when describing them to English-speaking audiences.

Although the genre is marketed at women and girls, western gay and bisexual men also act as both readers and creators of yaoi related fan art and fan fiction. That is not to say that all gay men are fans of the genre as some are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of gay life and instead seek gay manga, written for and by gay men.

Wim Lunsing, however, considers that gay manga are also unrealistic, and that it is a fallacy on the part of yaoi critics to compare women who read yaoi to the perverted old men who read hentai.

Seme and uke

The two participants in a yaoi relationship are often referred to as seme ("attacker") and uke ("receiver"). Although these terms originated in martial arts, they have apparently been used in a sexual context for centuries and do not carry any degrading connotations. Seme derives from the Japanese verb semeru (“to attack”) and uke from the Japanese verb ukeru (“to receive”). Though gay males are often referred to in English as "tops" or "bottoms," seme and uke are more nearly analogous to "pitcher" and "catcher."

The seme is often depicted as the stereotypical male of anime and manga culture: restrained, physically powerful, and/or protective. The seme generally has a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine demeanor than the uke. The seme usually pursues the uke. The uke usually has softer, youthful features with bigger eyes and a smaller build. He is usually less experienced with romance or sex and his interactions with the seme often make for his first homosexual experience. 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 sex whilst still a virgin.

Though these stereotypes are common, not all works adhere to them. For example, some of the anthologies published by Be X Boy feature stories on themes such as "younger seme" or "reversibles." The "height rule," the rule by which the taller character is the seme, is also sometimes broken.

Some writers, both Japanese and Western, and especially in fannish BL/shonen ai/yaoi, are questioning whether the roles of seme and uke are truly an essential part of yaoi as a genre, and are either moving away from or totally abandoning traditional seme/uke roles and tropes. This is most common in yaoi fanfiction for anime or manga series that feature characters that do not fit seme or uke roles (Writing traditional seme or uke roles for these characters is often seen as "out of character" and "weepy uke" are often a source of annoyance.)

Yaoi vs. BL

Contrary to the belief of many English-speaking fans, "yaoi" is not the primary name of this genre in Japan.[citation needed] Originally much of the material was called "june," a name derived from a publication of the same name that published male/male tanbi romances, stories written for and about the worship of beauty using particularly flowery language. Eventually "june" died out in favor of "BL" or "boys love," which remains the most common name.

Though originally a Japanese portmanteau, fans in Japan have only recently started using "yaoi" as a name of the boys love genre, usually in the form of 801. "801" is derived from cell phone text messaging, where the "8" key hosts the kana や (ya), 0 is "o," and 1 is "i." For example, an Internet manga called Tonari no 801-chan, about a guy who wants to date a girl who turns out to be a BL fan, has become quite popular of late.

Yaoi vs. shōnen-ai

Yaoi and shōnen-ai are terms that are sometimes used by western fans to describe the contents of one title in the genre. Here yaoi is used to describe titles which contain sex scenes and other sexually explicit themes. The counterpart, shōnen-ai, is used to describe titles that focus more on romance and don't include explicit sexual content. This definition of yaoi sometimes clashes with the usage of the word to describe the genre as a whole and the subject is often a cause for debate.

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 shoujo subgenre that told stories of prepubescent boys in relationships ranging from the platonic to the romantic. The term is currently used to describe pedophilia. 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.