Boys' Love : En studie av maskuliniteter och maktrelationer i yaoi manga

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My study deals with a genre of Japanese comics called yaoi, or boys’ love. My aim is to study masculinities appearing in this genre and how they interact. In my stories, a younger boy and an older one, or a grown man, fall in love and sometimes come as far as intercourse. The young boy behaves in a way that could be interpreted as him being a girl under cover. Because of that I also discuss if yaoi is a challenge to heteronormativity, or if it actually confirms it.In support of the view that the boy could be read as a girl is the inequality in power between the two lovers, but also the way the young boy is depicted; he is always drawn as smaller, with large eyes, whereas the older part is taller with broad shoulders. The older boy/man may represent one of two kinds of masculinity. Either cruel, brutal and violent, or kind but manly. Both these kinds of personality are very protective, sometimes in a way difficult to separate from controling, and they also harass the younger part with kisses and caresses and sometimes rape. The younger boy represents a masculinity which is more passive and sensitive. The harassment and even the rapes are accepted without further comments as acts of love.As I see it, with the help of Janice Radway, the young boys’ accepting of their lovers scorn and violence, legitimiz...