When you step into the manga counter in a bookstore in Japan, you will be the image of big eyed girls with “giant” breasts lying in an inviting posture. Not to mention the content of the story, it can be implied that these characters, born from a sexually free society are all for the purpose of serving the needs of men. Romantic feelings for girls are pictures of young and beautiful boys with lips touching each other. It could be manga, hentai manga, or anime hentai, including movies or video games, among which there is a genre known as “boys’ love” (BL) or Yaoi – love stories. Male-male sympathies, but not for gay readers.
Yaoi for women
According to 2015 data from ManyComic Research Institute, less than 5% of the Japanese population consider themselves fans of the genre, and its market accounts for only about 1% of all domestic manga. Although not large, the BL community is quite strong.
In general, most BL authors and readers are women. Japanese BL is similar to the boys love genre in the West. BL Comics are mostly composed by amateur writers, inspired by the works they admire. BL story community is mainly heterosexual, but BL also has gay, bisexual or heterosexual individuals. About 60% of these people are aged 15-29.
In Japan, “boys’ love” is transcribed in katakana as boizu rabu (ボ ー イ ズ ラ ブ) or abbreviated BL (ビ ー ・ エ ル – Bī ・ eru). Westerners are more familiar with the old name yaoi. Yaoi is the name of the insider joking, derived from the first sound of the phrases: “yamanashi ochinashi iminashi,” (山 な し 、 落 ち な し 、 意味 な し), roughly translated: “no climax, no purpose, no intention meaning “- meaning useless, bland stories.
The Japanese community clearly distinguishes between two concepts: BL focuses on romantic and gentle feelings, while yaoi has detailed sex scenes.
Porch between the men’s world
The term “boys’ love” emerged in the early 1990s, but the BL story has been around since the 70s, when women started writing for women instead of men. The genre “shonen ai” (love between boys) with sweet, artistic male-male relationships is born. Following in the footsteps are fan-made amateurs inspired by free manga online, shonen anime (boys), pairing and sexizing male-male character pairs.
Manga author Keiko Takemiya is a monument to BL. Her work “In the Sunroom” (1970) is considered the first female manga to have a kiss scene between men and men.
Why read BL?
According to Ms Dragon, a Japanese female blogger who is passionate about BL, the attraction of BL is to create a new world, bringing experiences and emotions that can never exist in real life.
Ancha started reading BL Webtoon at about 11 years old and was very fond of BL series about Naruto. According to her, women love to follow the storyline from the perspective of the “peacock” character – the role opposite to the stereotypes of women in real life. She also feels comfortable when BL sets lack the female lead – a character that sometimes does not sympathize with female readers due to the invisible pressure on personality and appearance imposed on them. This also helps to ease the gender burden on the male leads BL.
Go beyond prejudices
BL is the dissatisfaction of a professional artist when he cannot enter the manga industry, and is a burning demand from fans. They create a world without barriers, without gender prejudice, without “respect for men and for women”. Their characters, although physically male, hide the woman’s heart, and have very feminine desires and sensibilities. The people who identify themselves as boys love fans in real life also accept the difference, refusing to let others dominate their personalities.
There is a section in the BL webtoon genre that is being criticized a lot when it comes to male-to-male relationships between adults and under-18s. Gay rights activists criticized BL for its misrepresentations of sexual orientation. Authors and fans explained that these are fictional characters and a harmless way of evading reality.
General objective
BL webtoon is where women express themselves. Freedom to express yourself is an important step towards feminism. BL characters often pursue common goals with equal rights in the relationship, breaking the rules of the patriarchy. The LGBTQ community also strongly supports BL’s cognitive flexibility in gender and gender, as well as its willingness to go against old heterosexual notions.
In a sense, BL is similar to the two #MeToo movements for gender equality and the very popular LGBTQ rights movement today. But it is unlikely that BL has received such a great response from society, because BL is just a sub-culture separate from reality and should only be read in secret places.
At the very least, if the harsh real world discourages you, try reading BL to find some belief in the ideal of equality, mutual respect, freedom and individual ego. Sometimes what we need is not a good book but a little “secret” book.
Here are the top 10+ websites you can read bl and yaoi for free in 2020
1 – Naver Webtoon
2 – Comico Comics
3 – Manycomic Entertainment
4 – Boyslove.me
6 – Yaoi.mobi
7 – Manhwahentai.me
8 – Mangahentai.me
9 – Yaoihentai.me
10 – Freecomiconline.me
11- Manytoon Comics
12- Freewebtooncoins.com
13- Webtoon.uk
