Kazusa Takashima: Wild Rock

Siitä miksi naiset lukevat BL:ää on kirjoitettu paljon. Suurta osaa tästä tutkimuksesta kuitenkin värittää se perinteinen epämukavuus, joka länsimaisellä yhteiskunnalla on naisen seksuaalisuutta yleisesti ja miehen asettamista objektin asemaan erityisesti kohtaan – joten hupaisasti usein tullaan siihen johtopäätökseen, että yaoin miehet eivät ole miehiä lainkaan.

Tai kuten Shaenon K. Garrity asian esitti kirjoituksessaan Do we really need to spill this much ink over the question of whether girls like porn?:

Even before reading Boys’ Love, I was more than familiar with all the convoluted arguments explaining how the characters in BL aren’t “really” men, not even fantasy men. Because they look like women. Because they act like women. Because the seme/uke relationship is a coded heterosexual relationship, therefore BL is a coded heterosexual fantasy. Because the seme and uke are both kinda girly, therefore BL is a coded lesbian fantasy. Or a transsexual fantasy. Or an asexual fantasy. Or anything other than girls ogling boys.

Are the guys in BL really “feminine,” anyway, in either appearance or behavior? They’re definitely not macho, musclebound types, not by a long shot—if you’re looking for that, check out some bara manga—but “not a manly man’s man” doesn’t mean “woman” anywhere but in the minds of some men. I wish I could find an old interview I conducted with Donna Barr for PULP magazine, in which I asked her why women liked comics about “feminine” men. She responded that the traits coded as “feminine” in such characters—youthfulness, a slim figure, great hair and skin—are simply attractive traits.