Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Why I Like YAOI ❯ Why I Like YAOI ( Chapter 1 )

Why I Like YAOI

 

So if you managed to click on the “read” button, in order to get to this story, you may be wondering why I have decided to give it this title. First of all, it is because this is not really a story, of course. I'm sure that not many people will ever read this, but for whomever does, this will possibly, depending on what types of Fanfiction you like or don't like to read or write, give you some kind of comfort and/or understanding…or it may just piss you off…although that is far from my intentions. The main reason why I am writing this “story” is because; over the short period of time that I have been involved in the Fanfiction community, I have noticed a number of attitudes and perspectives, within the community that I believe are unnecessary, negative, intolerant and serve only to hamper the freedom of self-expression for everyone therein. As far as I'm concerned; I do not really care what other people may happen to be into when it comes to fanfiction, Fan art, Slideshow video's, ECT; as long as they don't condemn or downplay what I may be into because they are into something different or just don't understand why I am into something, they're not. But I have also come to realize that some of the reasons why some people may downplay or “hate on” the YAOI genre of fanfiction, for instance, is because they lack understanding. No one, as far as I know, has ever made an attempt to explain to those that despise their particular genre of fanfiction, the reasons for why they prefer to participate in and/or contribute to that particular genre' of Fanfiction versus another, like say, HET fanfiction…hence the reason for this essay. This essay also applies to people who show great disdain for anything associated with YAOI in general. Of course, if the reasons for the disdain happen to be religious: I've found that it is pretty hard to convince anyone of anything, if they are not open to new ideas, for fear of compromising their spiritual beliefs; so this essay may not produce the result of understanding in that case. But I prefer to be optimistic… Before I go on to explaining why I like YAOI, I must also note that all of the reasons for liking YAOI in this essay only serve to elaborate on MY reasons for liking YAOI. There may well be other reasons that other people have for liking YAOI; but they would have to tell you those reasons themselves…on to the explanations.

 

I believe that the main reason why I like YAOI is because the idea of two male characters being together sexually and/or romantically, quite frankly, really turns me on. Inspite of many peoples' possible fears of admitting this, I think that in the end, that is what it boils down to for anyone who is into any types of ROMANTIC Fanfiction. So I guess in the end the next question…the real juicy one that everyone would like to know is… WHY? In other words: Why does the idea of two male characters being together, really turn me on? Well first of all, I believe that in order for me to answer this question properly, it would be a matter of looking into the science of psychology. I believe that different people have different psychological make-ups, based on their life experiences mainly; but also based on their chemical as well as emotional and genetic make-up. These things cause us to experience different responses, physically, emotionally, and physiologically, towards different stimuli in our environment. We have a varying amount of information about ourselves which resides in our conscious…meaning the place in our minds where we are able to be aware of our existence. But then there is another part, our sub-conscious, which accounts for a larger part of our mental processes which holds the information about us that is a lot harder for us to tap into, or for us to even be aware of. Some of these things determine what we are attracted to and what we are not attracted to and these are things we cannot control. It's kind of the equivalent of not being able to control when we have the urge to use the rest room or when we sweat. The mind controls those things subconsciously, meaning without our awareness. We cannot choose what types of people we are attracted to. If we could, it would be easier to avoid falling in love with ass-holes or players. Women wouldn't stay with physically abusive men and men wouldn't stay with nagging, clingy, abusive wives. Falling in love, simply involves a chemical reaction in the brain. We also can't control what turns us on. That is the reason why men wake up with morning wood, and women's vaginas lubricate involuntarily. Over 95% of what the body chooses to do is out of our control. Thoughts are constantly going through our minds without us having to even make them occur. If you don't believe me, read a psychology book. This also holds true for fantasy. Contrary to some religious ideologies, we cannot control what we desire to fantasize about, although we can control whether or not we indulge in the fantasies. However, when we fall asleep, all bets are off. If we dream about having sex with our moms, there's nothing we can do to stop it. If we dream about being with the same gender, there's nothing we can do to stop that either. Are you a “bad” person for having those kinds of thoughts? Well according to some religious thinking, you are, but according to science, you can fantasize about anything you want, and it is perfectly natural. If you are a woman and you fantasize about being raped, and you get turned on by that fantasy…according to science, there is nothing unnatural or abnormal about that…in fact it's a very common fantasy for women to have…as far as I know. The only time where it becomes unnatural, is when you decide to make certain fantasies become reality. Like for instance: If you fantasized about killing someone and then having sex with their corps; no matter how depraved that may seem, there's absolutely nothing unnatural about fantasizing about that. But if you decide to turn that into reality, that would pose a problem, obviously, because it would mean violating another human being, by taking their life. That's actually a moral explanation, but a practical one is that, it goes against the laws of society, and if you are found guilty of such an act, society says that you must be imprisoned, stoned and/ or put on death row, depending on the state and/or country.

 

Everything that I mentioned here basically kills two birds with one stone, because it also explains why I prefer reading and writing about the pairing, Sesshoumaru X Inuyasha which is a male X male incest pairing, as opposed to, Inuyasha X Kagome, which is a canon based heterosexual pairing, in the anime/manga “Inu Yasha.” This essay also answers why: Two anime/manga characters who are brother's being sexually intimate, is appealing to me; why a preteen character being sexually intimate with his older teen brother, is appealing to me; why both the L X Light and Light X L pairings, from DeathNote, are appealing to me; why the Goku X Gohan as a preteen pairing, is appealing to me or the Goku X Vegeta pairing, is appealing to me; or the Sesshoumaru X Jaken pairing is appealing to me (Just kidding heh-heh…although I have nothing against any of those who like that pairing either). The point that I am trying to make, is that it doesn't matter what pairing you are into, because it is all fantasy, it all has to do with animated characters which are not REAL, and we can fantasize about anything we want and it's perfectly natural (according to psychology and scientific understanding) as long as we don't act out certain fantasies in real life.

 

In conclusion; I have a different psychological make-up, I have had different life experiences, I have a different genetic make-up, I have a different way of perceiving the world based on my unique thought patterns and I have a different brain chemistry and that is why…I LIKE YAOI.