Key points
Here are some of the strands intended to form a cumulative holistic argument about the use of yaoi by Western female readers.
- parallels between the appropriation of cultural identity and sexual identity
- scopic aspects of the female gaze, the straight gaze, and the western gaze and their role in "othering" and exoticizing.
- cultural odorlessness of manga and an imputed parallel with the sexual odorlessness of yaoi.
- anxieties straight female readers bring to the text
- tensions between homophobia, internalized misogyny, and the love of "beautiful boys."
- 'transgressive' acts of reading yaoi coupled with a reinscribing of gender roles.
- pairing of romance and pornography
- M. Butterfly as a commentary on sexuality, orientalism, and appropriation.