Yeah, I also think it's become a big cliche in manga
It's not a cliche, it's a fetish. Yaoi is pornography and pornography contains fetish content. A fetish is ANYTHING that causes a person to have a more intense sexual arousal or sexual experience. This includes, but is not limited to, body parts, personality types, age, clothing, environments, scenarios, sights, tastes, textures, smells, and activities as a short list of examples. Being caught, or catching someone, masturbating is a scenario/activity type of fetish. Ergo, yaoi contains these scenarios/activities as fetish content.
A cliche would be more along the lines of, "All females in the genre are chattering, meddlesome harpies.", "All parents force omiai on their children." or "All the parents of high school students are oblivious or stupid." They are situations that arise consistently in a genre, but have little impact on the reader's sexual tension. Working for a large company would be a cliche, where having sex in the office during work would be a fetish. One creates sexual tension where the other does not. Even things like wearing glasses, wearing a uniform, being pushed down or against a wall and smoking are also all fetish content.
TL;DR: Repeating scenarios are common in both pornography and literature. If it is written to get an arousal response, it's fetish content. If it is not written to get an arousal response, it's cliche.
Pornorgraphy- aimed at eroticism than aesthetic or emotional response. Based on this, Yaoi can be porn, but not ALL yaoi are porn.
Fetish- is decided on the "form" of desire, not merely the "degree" of arousal. Plus, the persistent and the repetitive dependence on the object/ body part for arousal. That's why you will not be diagnosed with a fetish disorder just coz you cross dress or you find the neck to be more sexy than the six packs ;) But yeah, all your examples are correct.
Cliche- 1. predictable/ unoriginal thing/persona/situation
2. or something that's been overused.
3. Broadly, any stereotype.
Fetish content= if a character is portrayed to have a Fetish. Eg. I read one about a guy who can only get sexually aroused if the other person is a virgin. OR
Content fetish= the reader who reads particular types (specific content) yaoi manga for a his/her sexual arousal- it's his/her particular masterbating fantasy/preference. However, if the condition is such that the reader can ONLT get aroused by such content, then yeah, it's a fetish.
As far as I can remember, the guy didn't intentionally masterbate to be found out- or that would have been exhibitionsim, not fetish. The objective of the mangaka can be to cause sexual arousal in the reader who prefers that type of content. BUT, it doesn't mean it's NOT a cliche. Repetitively writing the same scenario qualify it for- OVERUSE & UNORIGINAL THOUGHT= cliche.
If you are interested in fetishism and it's influence in literature- can read Marxist/psychoanalytic discourse. (Y)
Your definitions are lovely, but they are being applied incorrectly. Yaoi, in the publishing field, is pornography. Just as "hentai" has several definitions, yaoi is the same. Yaoi, among publishers, applies to any manga or magazine that depicts explicit sexual content dealing with male homosexual relationships and is considered, by law, to be pornography and thus is restricted for sale to those over the age of 18. Your dictionary definition of pornography exemplifies precisely the purpose for yaoi. It is meant to create arousal in it's readers. You may read it for the art or the story, but it's purpose is not yours to decide. That is on the mangaka and the publisher. The "non sexual" yaoi you mention, is called Shounen ai. There is a distinct line between the two within publishing because of the laws in Japan, and many other countries, regarding the sale of pornographic material to minors.
You are, again, mistaking "fetish" for "fetish disorder". Most, if not all, humans have a particular "thing" that triggers an intense sexual arousal, more so than normal for them. This does not hamper their lives in any way. They do not have an obsession, commit acts out of character, or have any mental stressors associated with their fetish. They simply get more turned on with their fetish. Those with a fetish disorder obsess over their fetish and find no arousal at all without it. They will act out of character in order to obtain or live out their fetish. They will, also, become manic in their thoughts to fulfill their fetish and depressed when the fetish can not be fulfilled.
As much as I appreciate your attempt to correct me, I'm afraid it is you who is in need of more study and research regarding the psychology of sex.
I see there is no point having a rational conversation with someone who sees the world in balck and white.
1. There is NO clear line distinguishing yaoi from shounen ai. Check THIS site for example, some magas are labeled as both yaoi and sounen ai.
2. sexual content is not the only thing that determines a content to be 18+ (Dah!) To create law, like science, you need to have an operative definition. Depending on the countrie's stance towards sexuality and homosexuality, they can change their definition of pornography. For example, the word "Fijoshi"- try telling it aloud in Japan and see people's reaction. And try telling it in an anime con :D It also proves another point- though the origins of a word and concept may have one function, time changes it's meaning and usage. Cultures make it even more grey .When analyzing literature, you cannot restrict your definition on one country's legal definition. You need to have a border perspective.
3. I agreed that yaoi can be pornography, but not ALL are porn. If I follow your logic, all movies with sex scenes are porn :P I feel sorry for the authors who try so hard to come up with interesting and creative stories for their yaoi mangas as you are so quick to dump them under porn.
4. I KNOW fetish and fetish disorder exists in a continumn (there is never "either" "or"/ "you have it", "you don't have it". I went on explaining about the fetish disorder because I wanted to tell you that, if you talk only interms of arousal, there is no way of saying "what" degree of arousal determines a person has a fetish or not.
My purpose wasn't to correct you, but to tell your where my comment came from. Nice copy pasting some facts about fetish disorder. They are correct by theory. But it's not always clear as you suggest. Human beings are very complex, and they don't always display behavior as the research/ DSM V suggests.
I honestly thought you are interested in the topic (That's why I recommend those authors), because your definitions and examples were correct, only the application was narrowed. Maybe it's determined by the field of your study?!
PS: you studies psychology as a subject right?
Arya- I agree with you. As a Japanese person who works in the editing and translating department, I cannot agree with the statement "yaoi meant to create arousal in it's readers". I know in the west the word "yaoi" is more of an umbrella term. However, even here in Japan 801 (yaoi ;)) is not intended to be published as porn. It started as fanfiction, progressed as what you call shounen ai today under the name Joon ne, and because of the negative connotation came under the umbrella term BL. Though most Japanese use it to refer to dojinshi, and has explicit sexual content, more and more authors focus on the stories and the aesthetic sense (as you said) for the expanding market in the east and the west.
I don't know much about fetish and fetish disorder. But I think "someone walking on while you masterbate" scene is becoming more and more common lol. So I guess you can call it cliche?! I also thought if you get aroused when someone walk in- it's exhibitionism. But I don't think, in this context, the man gaga intended the character to have that preference.
Finally, sorry if I have many grammar and spelling errors. I'm still learning :)
sorry "study"
Wow, do you translate some manga from Japanese to English? If yes, thank you so much. I really really appreciate all the handwork the translators do. Without you guys, I won't be bale to enjoy all these amazing manga <3
I think your English is good, but yeah let's keep learning.... (Y)
Do you work in publishing? Because I currently work as a proofreader for a digital licensing firm that handles translated literature from all over the world. I don't usually mention where I work because I don't want to be seen as an enemy or spy. I'm a low level, independent contractor at a small firm, but the information I relayed previously, regarding categorization of genres and laws regarding pornography, is something even I need to know to do my job. The firm I do my work for is based in the US, but because what we handle is digital licensing, we have to consider and obey laws that govern the other countries to which we distribute our products online. For this reason, every work we license has to, individually, comply with a broad blanket of laws. To know if the works comply, we must know those laws. In order to be employed in my current position, I had to attend and pass a five week course covering everything I needed to know to do my job correctly.
I also have a degree in nursing. Two years passed after I obtained my degree, I realized how little I liked people and I chose to step out of the field in which I'd invested four years and nearly a quarter of a million dollars. I did study psychology, as a prerequisite for my nursing degree, as a pre-med student at Tulane University from 1989 to 1991.
There are lots of people online who like to regurgitate nonsense they accumulate from their forays into Google. I don't make a habit of being one of them. If I have not experienced something, I don't speak on it or voice an opinion. The view of an outsider, on any topic, has the same value as the view of an idiot. So, in answer to your question, yes, my definitions are VERY narrow because the subject we are discussing is narrow.
"The view of an outsider, on any topic, has the same value as the view of an idiot. "- I totally disagree and I'll stop here. Thanks for sharing about yourself. I hope you get to like people more in future. Good luck!
i don't think all yaoi is porn per say, but they do portray a lot of sex. However, if you tihnk of hentai which is pure porn and no progression, many yaoi manages do have good plot and character development too.
i think blood bank, my fav, shows a lot fo character maturity and progress. There are loads of male-female romance manga with sex in it and no one calls it porn. Hentia is porn and that's different--for me.
people only see what they want to see and it's also a repression. porn is considered wrong and dirty and by equalling yaoi to porn , that person is degrading it to the simplest of thinks.it's like saying pole dancing is the same as rythmic gymnastic coz people wear skin thight clothes and dance in public. if yaoi was porn, the stroy would be over the guys cum.
This is the first time me hearing the mangaka's aim was to elicit sexual arousal. It can be a selling point I agree, but not the purpose..
Thank you for saying yaoi is not just porn. For the last decade or so, there are such great works of yaoi out there, with such high quality of art, plot and characterisation. To me yaoi is more erotica than porn. There is a difference, although the distinction is not clear-cut, for sure. I have often noticed, in my 40+ yrs of otaku life, that the American categorisation of movies and books are more specific and narrow than Japan or France where categorisations are often more nuanced.
Obviously man! Obviously, whenever one's maturbates of course they would be caught doing it. #－.－)