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Semi-rant semi-discushion. Why is it so many slash and BL/Yaoi/whatever- it's supposed-to-be-called-now, fans (slash being non-cannon or not explicity stated cannon couples and the latter being couples and searies that are made to portray gay couples) seem to be attracted to one and only one body type, the near anorexic male teenager? Any male who does not fit into this near-femine, sometimes childish (shota territory), willowy model is deemed unfit to fall in love, much less to another male, and in-depth discushion of a that charater's lovelife is 'gross'.

Does one loose their desireability once they turn 18? If they got more than an ounce of flesh on thier bodies are they automaticly gross? Why can't I have some Bishenien to go with my Bishonen? Why is there no Senien love?

the fact is that yaoi/shonen-ai/slash was designed for girls in the age range where they do like bishonens, stands to reason

hmmmm......i like anime characters drawn pretty. in real life, i dont have a preference. @_@; Although hot japanese dudes are great, i don't look down on other gay couples.

That's not quite true. In the home land of dojin manga the main age grouping for artists/producers/buyers/sellers/collectors of shounen ai and yaoi is actually women in their early to mid thirties. It wasn't until it migrated over to north america that it gained a higher gathering of younger women into the fold with all the anime targeted at their age group in the same time period.

Because of the target age group switch the dojin/anime/manga that sold most was the ones with the willowy boys etc. If you actually do some digging around and especially in older titles like Chi-RAN for instance you can find all kinds of body types and appearances. I rather like anthologies like Chi-RAN because it's not all 'high-school' shounen ai where 'Mr. Only-student-with-braud-shoulders' falls for 'Mr Willowy-waif-ultrafem-shy+quiet' but has men that- well actually look like real men!

Now being a uke myself I wouldn't be looking for someone with less physical strength but also don't see who would want a little wafe of a guy because then how could you do all the fun stuff without worrying that you're going to snap him in half razz

Fact Tid Bit: Most Women in Nippon start their shounen ai/yaoi collection from being passed down their mother's collection.

actually, there tends to be a pretty, near anorexic shota one, and an older, buff, bad-a** one... from the people I talk to its pretty much fifty-fifty. Some really like the younger cute one, and some like the older ones. I personally like it when they're bother older and neither anorexic. I like yuu watase's (even though its not yaoi) style of drawing because her characters "don't" all look anorexic. I can understand that that's probably the trend in Japan, but still...give me meat.

Yeah...what she said... 3nodding

(btw...my best friend is a Pandect maniac too...^^;; )