Japanese culture
What does Yaoi mean?
Stories of romance and sex between men, mostly made by women for women. In Japan today's umbrella is BL.
Definition
Yaoi is the name the West still uses for those stories: two men, heat, often with little care for plot. In Japan today the shop sells BL, boys' love. The two labels mix in search; yaoi pulls the more explicit side, BL covers the whole romance, from a kiss to adult.
The word started as a jab. Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi: no climax, no punchline, no meaning. It was dōjin, fans copying anime characters and putting the two in bed. Shōnen-ai stuck, in overseas fandom, for the more romantic cut. Bara is another shelf: gay manga made by and for gay men, different bodies, different readers. In the drawn couple, seme pushes and uke receives; that is a role in the story, not an identity for the reader.
The reader who wears the taste calls herself a fujoshi. The label started as an insult and became a tribe.
Origin
やおい joins the initials of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi. Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu circulate as the ones who stuck the nickname, around 1979–1980, in dōjin. The magazine RAPPORI put out a yaoi special issue in 1979. Before that, 1970s shōjo manga already drew romance between boys, and the magazine June was born in 1978 (Comic Jun, later June).
History
From dōjin the name went into overseas fandom, where yaoi became the wide label. In 1990s Japan the shop needed a commercial umbrella: boys' love, BL. The magazine Image used the term in 1991; Puff spread it in 1994. BL became the shelf name in Asia. In the West plenty of people still search yaoi when they want the explicit cut, and shōnen-ai when they want the romance without the bed.
How it emerged
Male-male sex dōjin needed a nickname that admitted the missing plot. Yama, ochi, imi: the joke became a name. When shops wanted to sell the whole romance, not only the punchless parody, BL took the window and yaoi stayed the rawer cut in the mouth of whoever searches.
Usage examples
She reads yaoi, not bara.
In Japan the shop writes BL.
Translations
- pt yaoi / BL
- en yaoi / BL
- es yaoi / BL
Synonyms
- やおい
- BL
- boys' love
- shōnen-ai