Yaoi online : the queer and affective practices of a yaoi manga fan community

This thesis examines the queer and affective aspects of an online yaoi fan community. Yaoi is a genre of Japanese manga focussing on homoerotic/homosexual themes. A key point of interest about yaoi is that it is largely created by and for women. Set within the context of yaoi fan studies, this thesis utilises queer theory to investigate how a diverse group of fans comes together in a fan community on the internet in order to explore alternative identities and develop new relationships with like-minded others. According to David Halperin, queer is “whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant” (cited in Sullivan 2003, p.43). I queer yaoi studies and suggest that its fandom is not a homogenous group of heterosexual female fans as has become customarily thought. Expanding on the work of other scholars, I combine original ethnographic research in AarinFantasy (http://www.aarinfantasy.com), a yaoi manga community to demonstrate how, for many fans, an online community is a place to explore and discuss queer alternatives to heteronormative gender and sexuality. I also discuss how members of AarinFantasy invest into the site through affective connections with other fans. By creating and maintaining valued friendships with others members create not only a queer space but also a space where they feel accepted as yaoi fans. Relationships in the community are formed and maintained through communication that is grounded in the fans’ experiences and the contextual state that yaoi manga has in their lives.