“I kissed a girl and I liked it.” – Katy Perry, and many female fanfic characters.

My recent foray into “My Little Pony” fandom has turned up an awful lot of lesbian romance.*  At first, I thought it was a matter of artistic and writerly bronies who “watch MLP for the plot,” much in the way that yaoi fangirls look to “Axis Powers Hetalia” for it’s “educational content.”  However, there may be more to it than that.

It is commonly accepted that anime is at the mercy of roving swarms of yaoi fangirls.  These creatures will consume anything in their path and leave nothing but awkward male-male pairings in their wake.  Yuri fans are believed to be a bit more subtle and reserved, eschewing paddles while preferring T-shirts depicting clever slogans.  But could it be that yaoi is that much more rampant due to its momentum?  Like any subgroup of fandom, yaoi has a fuel.  Yaoi’s fuel, recognized and prospective bishounen, is in plentiful supply.  But how many decent female characters are out there?

If you look at most series, be they animated or live action, Japanese or western, the casts consist mostly of male characters.  There are female characters, of course, but with the exception of Joss Whedon, most writers don’t bother to give them any assets that don’t fit in a chainmail bikini.  Fictional girls tend to be boring characters, is what I’m saying.  Their personalities are often limited to “ditzy” or “sassy,” and they’re there either as eye candy or to get kidnapped and become the MacGuffin.  Furthermore, when there is a good female character, she often becomes the hero’s wife or girlfriend.  Therefore, when it comes to choosing your favourite pairings, you are going to be hard-pressed to find an eligible female who’d be interesting to write about.  Ergo, fanon includes a lot of yaoi.

Conversely, for a series like “My Little Pony” or “Sailor Moon,” where there are lots of cool female characters and very few males around at all, the fandom will trend towards yuri pairings.

Studies** show that the appeal of yaoi and yuri is that it is a non-threatening version of erotica.  These genres are often preferred by heterosexual fans, and it makes sense as to why.  Firstly, yaoi and yuri aren’t exactly accurate when it comes to depicting gays and lesbians, so I can see why actual gays and lesbians would be offended or laugh instead of finding it attractive.  Furthermore, women like male-male parings and men like female-female pairings because you get twice what you want to see and none of what you don’t.  Also, unlike with hetero pairings, you aren’t seeing another person of your sex who is the ideal (and therefore better looking than you or any real person could possibly be), which removes that threat. 

Finally, the emotional threat is also gone because, since the characters are gay, you can fall in love with them “safely” if you are fully immersed in the story.  The fact that the character is gay is yet another barrier to keep you safe, just like the fact that the character is fictional.  For whatever reason, the “relationship” between you and your chosen character is not going to evolve into something to which you’re not emotionally open.  This last point is quite interesting to me, as it goes against the basis of the Twilight fandom, which uses the empty shell of the Bella character to let the reader insert herself into the story and read it almost like a date-sim.  Hey, if your fantasy life is up for dating, then that might work for you.  If you’d rather keep your distance, then yaoi or yuri is a better choice.

Keep in mind, progeeky creators, that you may build up a fandom that involves romantic and/or sexual attraction to your characters.  If this happens, congratulations, but don’t be surprised if suddenly people pretend your lone warrior is gay (assuming you didn’t make him that way).  If you don’t clearly state the pairings, fans will run with it.  That can be quite helpful, as it encourages fan involvement, but don’t be surprised if your fans come up with pairings you never intended. 

Also, if you have a lot of gay or lesbian pairings in your fandom, that can be a warning that you aren’t balancing your characters out quite right.  Remember, this is NOT a statement about homosexuality or our culture’s view thereof.  This is about how you are stoking your fans imaginations.  If none of your fans want to see a pairing that involves a female, maybe you aren’t making your females very inspiring.***

I tried to think of a series where hetero pairings are the most popular, as opposed to yaoi or yuri.  The only ones I could come up with were “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Firefly,”  and “Teen Titans,” and it does not surprise me that these are series that have an even balance of well-written male and female characters.  So what does that say about fans?  It says that we care more about who a person (or character) is than what sex they are.  We would rather see two interesting guys hook up instead of an interesting guy and a canon Mary Sue.  The point here is that we want our pairings to be interesting to watch.  We like the drama and romance about seeing two cool people evolve together.  It’s not all “Hehehe, dose girlz are making out.”  We really do watch it for the plot.

*If I had a dollar for every time I said that…
**Yes, there have been studies on yaoi fandom.  I was involved in one, actually.
***This assessment makes several assumptions about the male:female ratio in your series and a heteronormative bias.  Your mileage may vary.  If you have an even number of guys and girls, or if your series gets an even balance of yaoi/yuri/straight pairings, then this doesn’t apply.  However, if your fans are killing off The Girl to let the guys make out, then you might need to review your character development.

-Tamara Hecht