Pose of the fanz manga online

Most BL fans are either teenage girls or young women. The female readership in Thailand is estimated at 80%, and the membership of , a in , is 85% female. It is usually assumed that all female fans are heterosexual, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors and lesbian, bisexual, other or female readers. Recent online surveys of English-speaking readers of BL indicate that 50-60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual. It has been suggested that Western fans may be more diverse in their than Japanese fans and that Western fans are “more likely to link” BL (“Boy’s Love”) to supporting . Much like the BL readership base, the majority of BL fanfiction writers are also believed to be heterosexual women. The reasoning behind this trend is sometimes attributed to patriarchy- that women who write BL fanfiction are in fact acting out heterosexual fantasies through these male figures.

Although the genre is marketed at women and girls, , , and even heterosexual men also form part of the readership. In one library-based survey of U.S. yaoi fans, about one quarter of respondents were male; online surveys of Anglophone readers place this percentage at about 10%. Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese who are offended by gay men’s magazines’ “pornographic” content may prefer to read yaoi instead. That is not to say that the majority of homosexual men are fans of the genre, as some are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of homosexual life and instead seek “” (Gay comics), manga written by and for homosexual men, as gei comi is perceived to be more realistic. Lunsing notes that some of the narrative annoyances that homosexual men express about yaoi manga, such as rape, misogyny, and an absence of a Western-style gay identity, are also present in gei comi. Some male manga artists have produced yaoi works, using their successes in yaoi to then go on to publish gei comi.