History Main / YaoiGenre

With its roots in the chinbi (aesthetic) novels of the 1970s and doujinshi culture, commercial Boy's Love has developed drastically in terms of style and content. While some stereotypes and cliches remain, such as [[IfItsYouItsOkay characters denying homosexuality]], or [[IdealizedSex lack of realism with regard to gay culture]], and the prevalence of rape fantasy as a common theme, modern BL often grapples with subjects like homophobia and gay identity, and has gained popularity among gay men as a result. Furthermore, transmasculine fans may relate strongly to men being assigned feminine bodies and female social roles.

* {{Gayngster}} (or rather Gay {{Yakuza}} in this case)

The Chinese equivalent of this genre is ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danmei danmei]]'', which tends to take the form of {{Web Novel}}s and either live-action, ''{{manhua}}'' or ''[[ChineseAnimation donghua]]'' series. Because of China's laws against porn and due to homosexuality still being a taboo in Chinese society despite being decriminalized in 1997, ''danmei'' tends to be less explicit overall than ''yaoi'' in order to get around China's notorious censorship laws.

The Chinese equivalent of this genre is ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danmei danmei]]'', which tends to take the form of {{Web Novel}}s and either live-action, ''{{manhua}}'' or ''{{donghua}}'' series. Because of China's laws against porn and due to homosexuality still being a taboo in Chinese society despite being decriminalized in 1997, ''danmei'' tends to be less explicit overall than ''yaoi'' in order to get around China's notorious censorship laws.

The Chinese equivalent of this genre is ''Danmei'', which tends to take the form of {{Web Novel}}s and either live-action or ''donghua'' series. Because of China's anti-LGBT stance and their very strict censorship laws, ''danmei'' tends to be less explicit overall than ''yaoi''.