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PaperclipPerfector  21d ago (text post)   32002 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025

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I find myself in the weird position of introducing Yaoi to the Motte. Or, not actually introducing, because a lot of Mottizens are far more acquainted with Japanese pop culture than I.

Yaoi, for those who do not want to click:

The term yaoi (/ˈjaʊi/ YOW-ee; Japanese: やおい [jaꜜo.i]) emerged as a name for the genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of dōjinshi (self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi ("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male-male romance media marketed to women.

I have known some (Japanese) girls in the past who were into this genre. They were without exception very feminine in appearance, often wearing frilly dresses, a good deal of makeup, etc. The one girl I asked about this type manga explained that the love expressed was "pure," whatever that means. I have no further insight.

Edit: I disagree with the Wikipedia pronunciation of this term, as Japanese has no stress on syllables, so it should be something more like YAH OH EE. But then I could be wrong because I don't know if I've ever heard it pronounced.

Edit 2: See also Shojou manga

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