In an interview with Publishers Weekly, manga author Tina Anderson discusses yaoi’s appeal and its future.
Tina Anderson is an ordinary American soccer mom who takes her kids to practice, empties the dishwasher from time to time for her husband—and writes boys’ love comics. Yaoi, also known as boys’ love or BL, are manga works aimed at female readers that depict love and often explicit sex between men.
PW Comics Week: What was your introduction to boys’ love?
Tina Anderson: My first time seeing it was in 1988—I was in a Jewish private school. My friend’s father had a store in New York City where he sold magazines, Asian magazines—imports as well, candies, gifts. He went on buying trips so she always brought backcool stuff. She brought back a BL doujinshi of Tsubasa—from Azaki—and it blew my mind. It really awakened something in me. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I’d never seen anything like it. Men and men and sex that didn’t compromise my gender awareness in any way. Some erotica is going to have you thinking second thoughts. If you can look at something that arouses you and you don’t have to identify with anyone—if you take the female out of the equation—it makes it more enjoyable. At least for me. Some women don’t like male-male erotica.
Link to the Publishers Weekly interview