For fans of Japanese animation and manga (comics), Yaoi is one of the most popular taboo words. My introduction sounds oxymoronic to say the least. Still and all, Yaoi is not as widely accepted as other animé and manga genres although it has a remarkable female fan-base all over the world. To those who are completely ignorant and unaware of Yaoi, I took some passages from Wiki to educate you about it:
... known as Boys' Love, [Yaoi] is a popular Japanese term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors.
From the passage above, you can already surmise that Yaoi is a sensational depiction of male to male relationships - according to a woman's point of view. As to whether or not these imagined homo love affairs reflect a parcel of truth ... only the homos (and their closest buddies and consanguinities) can tell. In my opinion, however, it does not matter even if the imagination of female mangakas like Yamano Ayane, Shimizu Yuki, Nitta Youka or Makoto Tateno go overboard, to the point that even anal sex appears so heavenly and exciting to readers. So who cares about explicit S&M between men? Who cares about older yakuza leaders preying upon beautiful young boys or two porn actors falling in love with each other? Moreover, what's the big deal about an alpha male drug snatcher who eventually gives in to the advances of his gay partner? All these extraordinary events have entertained me ever since I started reading Yaoi mangas. But that's beside the point.
The point is: WHO ARE WE TO SAY WHAT LOVE IS? Just because two people have the same anatomical structures; just because same sex unions do not support procreation; just because moral laws say so; just because we fear divine wrath and the sentence of hell; just because we have habitually adhered to the traditional customs of male-female marriages; just because anal sex does not seem natural and sanitary; just because that was what our elders taught us; just because we only believe what we thought to be "common sense"; just because we fear ostracism and social scorn; just because we fear change; just because we are cowards and afraid to expose our own peculiarity. JUST BECAUSE.
So many excuses.
What I've learned throughout those months of reading Yaoi manga is that we do not have the right to set the parameters on love. I am sure that God, however we perceive Him to be, does not put shackles on human emotions. It us who limit ourselves for reasons I know not what. I find it kind of hypocritical how religions always proclaim "God is love," when they are always the first ones to condemn homosexuals and oppose same-sex marriages. Well, condemnation is bad enough, but condemning a person to die just because he or she is gay seems downright ridiculous. What sheer hypocrisy to confine God's love to the concepts of biology. A loving God is not so cruel as to deprive His children of the capacity to love whenever, however, or with whomever they want to.
If you take out the genitals and reproductive organs out of the picture, what you see is not a man or a woman: YOU SEE A HUMAN BEING.
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| Dante and Virgil in Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1850) Who says homosexuality isn't a thing of the past? |
"Think out of the box," that's what they all say. I say there isn't any box to begin with. Homosexuality is just one of the gazillion boxes people conjured up in their heads to justify their own self-righteousness and to purify the gray areas of life. Our ancestors must have had a freakin' hard time inventing language and naming all the nameless objects, places and natural forces around for the sake of identifying them. So, if trees, plants, boys, girls, and people are merely invented English names, then why not the terms 'homosexuality,' 'gay,' 'lesbian,' and 'bisexual'? It is so exciting to think that had no one invented the terms, none of us would be called 'man,' 'woman,' 'homosexual.' WE ARE SIMPLY HUMAN BEINGS, devoid of the boundaries and boxes that bind our bodies, minds, hearts, souls.
It's all simple. I do not need Feminist theories, much less Michel Foucault's complex explanation on the history of human sexuality. For me, it is understandable point blank what a socially constructed world this is - a world born out of the imagination of its inhabitants. Why should I limit myself to the musings of the majority? Homosexuals are there because they just are. Simple as that.
So, if you don't mind, I would like to go back and read a few other Yaoi's. XP
