yaoi_page

Yaoi is a term originally coined by female Japanese authors of self-published comics to describe fanworks they created of male characters having romantic and sexual relations with each other. It later extended to include original comics featuring love between men. Although there have been many terms associated with this genre (june, shounen-ai, tanbi, boy's love), recent Japanese scholarship seems to have latched onto the term yaoi as an all encompassing word to describe not only the comics, but also animated works, novels, and video games focusing on male-male romantic/sexual relations.

Most creators and fans of yaoi are female, both in Japan and the West. Although there are some male fans gay, straight and bisexual as well as lesbians, the kinds of male figures portrayed in yaoi are more appealing to a female readership and do not fit into the current ideals of masculinity prevalent in the gay male community either in Japan or abroad. Although it has been popular in other Asian countries like China, Taiwan and Korea for some time as well as in the Western world on the internet, yaoi titles have recently started appearing on bookstore shelves all over America.

For anyone interested in studying about yaoi the [|Yaoi Research Wiki] is a good place to start. It contains bibliographies for both scholarly and popular works on yaoi, slash, and male-male eros in Japanese culture throughout history. I would also recommend[| this article] written by Dr. Masami Toku, which is not listed on the site.