 Derek & Blue from Katrina Strauss' Blue Ruin Illustrated by PL Nunn |
What the heck is yaoi?
Yaoi is a special brand of erotic male/male romance with roots in Japanese manga (comics). Pronounced ya-oh-ee in Japanese, it is often misheard by the Western ear as yow-ee, rendering the latter an accepted or disputed pronunciation depending on who you ask. Originally written and illustrated by women for women, yaoi is characterized by impossibly beautiful men cast in highly fantastical situations. The sex is often explicit but blended with romance, usually of the angst-ridden variety albeit with a happy ending. Yaoi pairings are further defined by the presence of the "seme" and "uke", with the seme (attacker) taking the role of "top" while the uke (receiver) acts as the bottom. The seme and uke are often assigned certain physical and personality traits based on traditional Japanese archetypes, e.g. the seme is taller and more experienced, while the uke is shorter and more naive. Though many Western yaoi authors pay homage to the seme/uke dynamic, the lines between each partner are more blurred (in some stories flatout erased) based on differing cultural and social perspectives. Asian or Western, ya-oh-ee or yow-ee, the genre is a growing phenomenon throughout the world and embraced by a broad spectrum of readers that transcends age, gender, sexual orientation, and culture. Though a growing selection of Western yaoi is presented in prose-only novel format, it is due to its roots in the visual medium of manga that series like Katrina Strauss' Blue Ruin are graced with comic-style covers. For additional details regarding yaoi, please read Ms. Strauss' blog post at: http://katrina-strauss.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-heck-is-yaoi.html |