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[–] 62 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Top Gun is probably the single gayest thing that the human race has ever created and straight men just think it's the bee's knees.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    See also: Commando. And Red Heat. Honestly, straight men spent a lot of the 80s and 90s lusting after Arnold Schwarzenegger's rippling muscles.

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  • [–] 31 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (11 children)

    “Gay men yaoi” as shown is known as “bara”.

    Still a very accurate graphic.

    Edited for clarity.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago* (10 children)

    It's not a contradiction, although I also thought that for a bit. I think with《"a [b]" c》, "a [b]" is describing the artists' sexual orientation, not the subject of the drawing.

    So that's gay men's depiction/conception of yaoi.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Yaoi is generally by women. That’s part of the definition.

    When it looks like that second panel, it isn’t yaoi, it’s bara (at least in English).

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Is it? I've always heard that it's ヤマなしオチなし意味なし, "no climax, punch, or meaning", which I think is just based on early criticism about it mostly being flagrant homosexual sex, rather than having much plot to it?

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    This isn’t a hill I’m willing to die on, but here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_(genre): Bara is distinct from yaoi, a genre of Japanese media focusing on homoerotic relationships between male characters that historically has been created by and for women.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys%27_love: The term yaoi (/ˈjaʊi/ ⓘ YAH-oi; Japanese: やおい [jaꜜo.i]) emerged as a name for the genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of dōjinshi (self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male–male romance media marketed to women.

    So it depends on where you look.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I should've quoted, I was mostly wondering about the "part of the definition" as I've only heard of it being, well the portmanteau. To be fair I've mostly ever heard if called BL in a modern context so that makes sense to me.

    Thank you, though! :)

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    Who says women can’t be gay men? Like Anne Rice, yaoi queen!

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Afaik, Anne Rice was not trans. Many women identify with gay men in my experience. Her writing was very typical of women writing men.

    Her writing doesn’t represent the bara-type content shown in the second panel of the post, and to that point, your counterpoint is to the graphic in the post rather than to me.

    The picture in “gay mens yaoi” is characteristic of bara, for which there is already a term. I was just pointing that out. I wasn’t picking a fight.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I was just joking around :)

    Her writing definitely falls under the “straight woman” yaoi stereotype in my opinion. I just think she’s neat and very silly.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Why do you find Anne Rice so neat and silly?

    I read some of her vampire books when I was young teenager and getting into gothy stuff and every single one that I picked up had multiple and extensively detailed csa scenes with children who adored their abusers.

    I gave up trying to read her books when I realised this was a recurring theme.

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  • [–] 31 points 10 months ago

    Lesbian yaoi is the best ngl, not even a lesbian, it just is.

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago* (7 children)

    Okay, hang on, lesbian yaoi sounds like an oxymoron.

    Is it common for lesbians to like yaoi? I guess if you’re not sex repulsed by men and enjoy romance in general then you’re probably fine reading stories about mlm romance, but to seek out mlm stories specifically when you’re interested in women seems curious to me.

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  • [–] 47 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Who I want to fuck doesn’t necessarily overlap with who I want to read stories about. I’m happy to read about or even watch sex acts I’d never want to actually participate in.

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  • [–] 27 points 10 months ago*

    As someone who Identifies as aro/ace and pan (i.e. not interested in having sex or intimate relationships, but still attracted to folk), I cannot upvote this enough.

    Getting off to something is very, very different from actually wanting to participate in it irl.

    Team footballers and maybe the bear, here.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Fascinating, I’m fine reading or watching stories with characters/romance that don't align with my sexual preferences, but I guess I typically don’t like watching sex-scenes in general even if it is with people I’d be attracted to.

    Definitely related to me being on the asexuality spectrum, but im not a fan of sex scenes in shows because I’m not watching the show for porn I wanted a story lol

    Anyway, you sound like you might be in the former group I mentioned where you don’t feel sex repulsed by individuals you aren’t sexually attracted to, and you just enjoy the romance/story in general.

    Do you have a preference specifically for stories about those you aren’t attracted to? And if so, do you think that preference is related to the kind of sexual relationship directly, or more to the dynamics of the relationships typically portrayed in yaoi vs yuri vs hetero media being different and you prefer a kind of relationship dynamic more common in yaoi than the others?

    Honestly the real solution to my curiosity would probably be for me to read a bunch of yaoi and compare, but idk if I’m invested enough for that lol. Plus how am I to know if the yaoi is straight-woman yaoi or gay-man yaoi or lesbian yaoi? (If the meme is accurate I get the feeling I’d dislike straight-women yaoi just for the art style alone, and that would greatly bias my data towards the gay kinds of yaoi lol)

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    I’m also not watching or reading for porn, I’m there for the story. It’s just that sometimes, sex IS the story. Not just romance, but horror, drama, comedy. A well written story can have sex scenes that are about developing love, character growth, interpersonal conflict, trauma, etc. It doesn’t have to be sexy to be a good sex scene. I think that’s actually a lot of the appeal of lesbian yaoi - those sex scenes are more likely to be about WHY the characters are using their dicks than HOW they’re using them.

    Not to discount how good lesbian yaoi sex scenes are, thank you ladies for your tireless efforts in making the boys kiss.

    How do you know if it’s lesbian yaoi? If a lesbian gives you yaoi, that’s how you know I guess. She will say, “please look at this drawing of Jesus making out with Judas and let me and my girlfriend know what you think” or something like that.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    I'm aroace, and I get that, I'm not a big fan of having to see any sex scenes either. Not a big issue, but the more graphic ones do make me a bit uncomfortable. Sex scenes in stories aren't normally meant for porn though, just for the story, so ir's normally fine.

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    [–] 14 points 10 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Why does lesbian yaoi look like Death Note?

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Yaoi is so unpopular compared to yuri, so i guess its fine if yaoi now has women. At least there will be more yaoi.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Did I fucking miss something‽

    Why is everyone just casually using this and other words I have never heard before? I feel like I'm having a stroke or developed a strange, new, and exotic aphasia!

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Yaoi has been in semi common use for about 20 years I want to say, mostly in japan enthusiast circles.

    You noticing it everywhere is pretty common for words you only just learned, it's called the frequency illusion.

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