Warning: Continuation of yesterday's blog; contains many, many references to homosexuality. You have been warned.
If there's one thing that yaoi fangirls love, it's to speculate about the possibilities inherent in their favorite anime/manga/RPG/whatever. Exactly what they prefer, allow, and like differs wildly. Almost every anime, manga, or video game that exists is probably also the source of constant speculation. There are 'canon' couples (yaoi pairings that seem so obvious or so attractive that it's damn near official) and people who enjoy stranger couplings. (Double entendre entirely meant, thank you.) Once you've become familiar with the concepts inherent in yaoi, it's really easy to pick out the couples for yourself. Some characters just scream 'uke', and that's all there is to it.
So, what are popular 'canon' couplings? Listed in seme x uke order:
1). The main villain x the plucky young hero that vanquishes him.
Examples: Sephiroth x Cloud, Treize x Wufei.
2). Slightly older/more knowing hero x innocent and/or prettier hero.
Examples: Irvine x Zell, Xelloss x Zelgadiss, Trowa x Quatre
3). Boss x flunky.
Examples: Rufus x Reno, Treize x Zechs, Sydney x Hardin
4). Reversible couples.
Example: Both Heero x Duo and Duo x Heero are common. Reasonably enough, most reversible couples are also the closest to 'equal' couples, with the least emphasis on seme/uke.
So, are you screaming in outrage yet? So are a lot of yaoi fangirls, believe it or not. To clear up another common misunderstanding: yaoi fangirls all have different tastes. Sometimes radically different.
To put it simply: say that you know a mid-twenties guy who collects nude b&w pinups of mid-twenties black women. If you show him a full-color picture of an nude eighty-year-old white woman with multiple piercings, he ain't gonna like it.
Similarly, if you show a conservative yaoi fangirl (like me) an incestuous coupling, she's not gonna like it either.
There are plenty of other division lines in the yaoi community, as well, based on taste. Basically, every kink that exists in normal porn (normal pornography - what a phrase!) exists in yaoi, even the sick, evil, and generally gross ones. But if yaoi is an acquired taste (and it is), then hardcore extreme yaoi is an even harder taste to acquire, and many fangirls loathe the more extreme forms. We're not ALL sickos, see.
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Half the fun of enjoying yaoi is arguing about it with other yaoi fans. It's quite possible to see passionate arguments over such things as: whether Quatre is better suited to being a seme or an uke, whether Sydney is better paired with Ashley or with Hardin, and whether Viktor and Flik are actually in a long-term relationship or not. (My answers: uke from hell, Hardin, and yes, eventually; by the beginning of Suikoden II they bicker just like an old married couple.)
Even common canon couples can come under fire from certain elements of yaoi fandom. You see, some yaoi fangirls adamantly insist that the couplings be totally possible within the confines of the anime's plot, and some run rampant over facts to create 'pretty' couples. And, of course, there's always derivations to annoy you further: far-future/far-past plotlines, cheating on obvious mates, one-night stands, et cetera. Basically, if a fangirl WANTS two guys to sleep together, it can be engineered. So get over it. No matter how much sexual tension exists between Heero and Relena, there are still plenty of ways to get Heero together with Duo. (And I like Duo better in any case, thank you.)
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Okay, so if you've read this far and you're NOT a yaoi fangirl, you're a trooper. And I bet you're wondering what all this has to do with you. Well, basically, I'd like to plead with you. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T LOOK AT IT.
If you don't like yaoi, that's perfectly okay, and I can't blame you at all. Yaoi is an acquired taste, like escargot, and it's most definitely not for everyone. But, please, please, if you don't like yaoi, leave it alone.
Please don't look at yaoi if you don't specifically want to see it. Only the most irresponsible of webmasters will fail to warn you about possible yaoi content, and webmasters like that should be reprimanded and whipped. Er, reprimanded. If a webmaster takes steps to warn you about yaoi/shounen ai content, and you still look at it, you have no right to be outraged/write flames/take action.
Please don't write to the webmasters to proclaim that 'such-and-so is not gay' or 'yaoi is gross, why do you have it on your site'. Those are your opinions. The webmaster also has opinions, and it's her site. Guess who wins?
Personally, I'm disgusted by most of the cheap porn that litters Geocities, but I acknowledge its right to exist, and I don't attack the webmasters.
And, for crying out loud, if you're underage, don't look at yaoi. I don't care how much you want to. Yaoi fans really CARE about their hobby and their websites, and losing your site to an outraged parent is a horrible, horrible experience.
If you're underage and you just HAVE to look at yaoi, then at least be CAREFUL, okay? Your parents aren't just going to punish YOU.
Respect yaoi and its right to exist. In turn, I wish that yaoi fangirls would respect your dislike and keep discussions of the topic away from you. Many of them don't, and I'm not particularly happy about that. Yaoi, just like anything else that exists, can be overdone/abused, and it's those rabid obsessed fangirls that give the rest of us a bad name. We're not all the same, and we're not all crazy/immature/obsessed, either.
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QUICK GLOSSARY:
DOUJINSHI: (abbr. dj): a fan-made or amateur manga. Huge, huge cottage industry in Japan, with their own convention; a fair percentage of these djs are yaoi/yuri/shounen ai/shoujo ai, often featuring popular characters in 'fangirl's-dream-come-true' stories. There seems to be no tendency to sue over these doujinshi, and large companies often recruit new talent from dj writers/artists.
SEME: the dominant partner in a yaoi pairing. I have no idea if there's a comparable term in yuri.
UKE: the submissive partner in a yaoi pairing.
x or /: the shortcut to designate the yaoi couple in question. Always listed seme first, uke second. If there's more than two people, there will generally be some sort of 'pecking order' (meant that double entendre too). Some poor guy will always be the uber-uke: Sephiroth x Zack x Cloud, Iori x Kyo x Shingo.
The 'x' is generally preferred and more 'Japanese' in tone. Reserve '/' for slash pairings (see below).
SLASH: Yaoi, but concerning real human beings instead of fictional characters. Most slash deeply, deeply disturbs me. It seems libelous, and real human beings just aren't as attractive as fictional ones. Which is probably why most slash is written, instead of drawn.
SHOTACON: Yaoi involving pre-pubescent males. Reasonably popular in Japan. Makes my skin crawl.
LOLICON: Like shotacon but involving pre-pubescent females. Makes my skin crawl more.
HENTAI: This one is surprisingly difficult to classify. Generally covers everything from pin-up pictures to hardcore heterosexual sex pictures. Basically, as long as it is sexually suggestive, it is hentai. Yaoi and yuri are, technically, subdivisions of hentai, although this definition seems to be losing popularity.
ECCHI: 'Ecchi' is how the Japanese pronounce the letter 'H'. Technically, this is just a shorthand term for hentai (H), but gradually it's come to mean lighter softcore hentai: nude pinups, suggestive pictures, semi-nude shots, and so on.
LEMON: An American term. Used to designate a fanfic/story with explicit sexual scenes. I personally hate this designation; it's a very coy term for a very explicit genre.
LIME: Also an American term. Used to designate a fanfic/story with sexual overtones/implied sex, but containing nothing explicit.
PWP: 'Plot? What plot?' Coy Americanism for yaoi at its most abstract. A story/picture that exists solely for the sex.
YAOI: a genre of Japanese anime/manga that involves two men having sex with each other. Generally there is very little plot, just lots of nudity and fluids.
YURI: like yaoi, but it involves two women, instead of two men.
SHOUNEN AI or SHONEN AI: two men or two boys being romantic towards each other, but there's no sex involved. Mostly kissing, cuddling, and minute examination of their emotions and feelings. Shounen ai is much more likely to contain a plot.
SHOUJO AI or SHOJO AI: like shounen ai but involves two women or two girls.
Granted, these are all just my takes on things, and many diehard yaoi fans would argue that I got some of these wrong. And I did, in many cases. There are subdivisions of yaoi that I glossed over or lumped together for the sake of simplicity. I didn't even go into the differences between yaoi and june, for example, or talk about the concepts of 'bishounen' and 'biseinen'. It's only a blog, for crying out loud. Furthermore, except when talking to diehard, humorless yaoi obsessees, the terms above will carry you through just fine.
For a much more in-depth look at the terms, go to aestheticism.net and look in their 'References' section. Their glossary is invaluable and fascinating, and you won't be forced to look at anything explicit. Astheticism is an excellent source for yaoi in all its forms, and very helpful to the newbie or the curious.
Thanks for listening to my rant. I'll try and write about something that doesn't involve sex soon.
Replies: add your comment: currently 7 comments
Mooncalf doth verily love her yaoi.....just as long as it doesn't involve Citan (or is that especially if it involves Citan? I can't remember which, but I think it's the former). If it is indeed the latter, I think we can all guess what occupies aboot 2 gigs of Moonie's hard drive.(kidding!)
Posted by DarkMoon @ 05/29/2001 10:59 PM EST
Wouldn't you like to know, dearie.
Let's just say that there are indeed many, many pictures of Citan on my hard drive, and leave it at that...
Posted by Mooncalf @ 05/29/2001 11:08 PM EST
Just a few comments:
"...some yaoi fangirls adamantly insist that the couplings be totally possible within the confines of the anime's plot..."
Yep. I'm anal that way, too (no pun intended, really). Personally, I just like to know that what I'm looking at is within the realm of possibility and not a cheesecake yaoi couple body-slammed together to satisfy a drooling yaoi fangirl.
"Basically, if a fangirl WANTS two guys to sleep together, it can be engineered. So get over it."
But hey what I just stated was a personal preference. Whatever snaps your whip.
My own take with yaoi is that I have nothing against yaoi, but I'm not particularly fond of the yaoi fan community in general. I don't like the professions towards diversity, acceptance, and tolerance, etc. when the yaoi community barely even acknowledges yuri and shoujo-ai. And I don't like the "if you're not part of the solution, you're a part of the problem" mindset, although for the yaoi community, that should probably be paraphrased as "if you're not madly into yaoi, you're homophobic."
My own two cents. Great post.
Posted by Jess @ 05/30/2001 12:53 AM EST
Being somewhat of an outsider of the anime community in general, yaoi in particular, I'd just like to note that "slash" is also a term used for homosexual-content-having fanfictions of american TV shows... (i.e. X-Files fanfiction where Mulder and Skinner are a couple.) Slash is not always used for real-life people (though I, too, find that disturbing)...
Because when my friends and I talk about being rabid slashers, we're not stalkers... whee. Just fans of the subtext.. or, as is the case in just about any pairing-off-type fan activity, pretty pictures for the head that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with actual canon character interactions... heeh. Hooray for sexuality.
You have a really cool blog too, by the way : )
Posted by Steph @ 05/30/2001 01:13 AM EST
Heh, thank you both. Not only do you raise excellent points, but you prove my point: people who enjoy yaoi/june/slash do disagree on lots of stuff.
Personally, I'm lucky enough to hang out with yaoi fangirls who are calm and cheerful about the genre's possibilities without being defensive about its opponents; there are definitely far too many of the other kind, though.
And yeah, I forgot about that particular definition of 'slash'. I'm a bad cow.
Posted by Mooncalf @ 05/30/2001 02:32 AM EST
Another thing on this subject is that Yaoi usually involves 2 visable people. Certain hentai involves a nude girl, with a 'mysterious object' shoving into her 'area'. This 'object' is suposed to be a penis, but has no body. (This I find gross.)
Posted by Donut @ 05/30/2001 11:35 AM EST
...don't forget the hentacle.
*runs*
Posted by Ed @ 05/30/2001 02:26 PM EST
