I had an interesting question at a launch event today for my Make a Manga competition. A girl, no older than 14, asked me if she could make a Yaio manga for it. For those of you who aren’t aware of Yaio I’ll let wikipedia define it:
Yaoi is a popular term for fictional media that focuses on homosexual male relationships, yet is generally created by and for females.
Now I have no problem with Yaoi, I’m hardly in the target market but I was kind of surprised that a 14 year old girl knew of it and was thinking of doing a Yaoi manga for a public competition. Then I did some checking and found that our collection at Waitakere Libraries has a whole lot of Yaoi. My first thought was cool then I wondered if the general library staff realised what it was. Knowing some of the staff I’m guessing no.
What’s more surprising, to me at least, is that a teen girl wants to enter one for our competition. Speaking as a male I know that if I was 14 years old the last thing I would want to do would be to create something with a gay focus. At best I would have been mercilessly teased and more likely I would have got the bash. Ah the joys and happy memories of high school.
But maybe that was my day. Who knows what it’s like now on the mean concrete courtyards of West Auckland high schools? I’m actually hoping that she goes through with it – as long as she follows the rules of the competition she’s free to submit what she wants. She showed me some of her art and it was pretty good – we’ll see what happens.
Hey, I’m fifteen and I’ve been interested in yaoi since I was twelve, regardless of what anyone has ever thought about it. I’m an out and out bisexual, and everyone knows, and frankly, I don’t care what most people think. I go to an art school, so maybe that’s why everyone is accepting, but frankly, I’ve been to other schools, much, much less accepting of GLBT issues, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in. I’m the kind of person who will get their ass-kicked before bailing out of a fight. But that’s just me.