Why are women so into Yaoi and BL? A history and analysis of the Yaoi phenomenon

Have you ever wondered to yourself, “why are girls so into Yaoi and BL?“ Well look no further, as I have done far too much research to answer that question. 0:00 - Introduction 0:52 - Background of Japanese literature and defining terms 5:20 - Shoujo Manga, Shounen-Ai and Early Yaoi (1970s-1980s) 12:17 - Emergence of Early Yaoi (1980s) 17:24 - The “Gay Boom” and the Globalization of Yaoi (1990s - Present) 20:58 - Why are Yaoi and BL so popular? 32:54 - Conclusion BGM sources: Primary manga and anime referenced/pictured: Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii Lucky Star Onimai Versailles no Bara (The Rose of Versailles) Toma no Shinzou (Heart of Thomas) Kaze to Ki no Uta ( The Song of the Wind and the Trees) Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs. Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko Also a bunch of manhwa I pulled from Google images that I have no idea the source of. Photos of the yuri section of the New York City Kinokuniya curtesy of @chirality_ Sources and further reading: Angles, Jeffrey. Writing the Love of Boys Origins of bishōnen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. Chou, Dienfang. “Exploring the Meaning of Yaoi in Taiwan for Female Readers: From the Perspective of Gender.” (2010). Galbraith, Patrick W. “Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among ‘Rotten Girls’ in Contemporary Japan.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 37, no. 1 (2011): 211–32. Jiang Chang & Hao Tian (2020): Girl power in boy love: Yaoi, online female counterculture, and digital feminism in China, Feminist Media Studies, DOI: Madill, Anna. “The yaoi/Boys’ Love/danmei audience.“ Encyclopaedia of gender, media and communication. Wiley, Blackwells (2020). Matthew Thorn, “Girls and Women Getting Out of Hand: The Pleasure and Politics of Japan’s Amateur Comics Community,” in Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan, ed. William Kelly (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004) McLelland, Mark. “Why are Japanese girls’ comics full of boys bonking?” (2006). McLelland, Mark J., Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker. Boys Love Manga and beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2015. Mizoguchi, Akiko. “Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of ‘Yaoi’ Fictions.” Women’s Journal, no. 25 (2003): 49–75. Shamoon, Deborah Michelle. Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2012. Simon David Turner (2018): Interdisciplinary approaches to yaoi manga: a review, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: Turner, Simon (2016) Yaoi online : the queer and affective practices of a yaoi manga fan community. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London. Zsila, Ágnes, Dru Pagliassotti, Róbert Urbán, Gábor Orosz, Orsolya Király, and Zsolt Demetrovics. “Loving the Love of Boys: Motives for Consuming Yaoi Media.” PLOS ONE 13, no. 6 (2018).