Wow you can really easily tell if a BL is by a woman or a homosexual guy usually. General ...

Don’t get mad at me
But you can be homosexual, do all these things and be a jerk
Being homosexual or straight, doesn’t change your personality

I’m a female
And i’ve written ridiculous stories about straight couple when I was younger which in no aspects are realistic

It's not about being a jerk, it's about having a different psychologically ingrained sense of what romance is. Yes, you can do these things if you're straight or not. You can wear make up whether you're a woman or a man. Identity is never a solid indicator, but culture dictates what norms certain groups are trying to pick up. The things I've identified are LGBT+ norms that most straight people have no interest in.

Gays in particular can find it irritating when you have the "I'm straight but only have eyes for you trope," which seems far more appealing to women, since they have no interest in the representation of gay guys anyway.

Being gay or straight DOES change your personality, just not in linear ways.

That part about " I'll be gay only for you" kind of thing is seriously just a huge face palm... And that's also true bout the coming out thing you said.

Yes, very true. The last point- you nailed it (Y). I'd punch a guy who says that to me. And for gays, as long as you get attracted to even one guy, you are not straight.

Oh and I'd like to add in that although it's very common in some mangas, self-lubricating ass is seriously not a thing... and you don't just stick your finger inside without preparation...

It's also a bit frustrating because these are things anyone could know regardless of gender or orientation if only they did even 10 minutes of research lol

So true cause as a female I am currently only reading mostly "straight seme" bl and I totally love the idea of being straight but only gay for you. While my boyfriend and other male friends seriously disagree with that title cause they think that if you are a man and you have any feelings towards another man you are not straight even if it's 1 particular man they class you as gay. Which is true but idk the whole straight seme bit is my shizz

I think these are more of a "Yaoi/Manga" thing rather than a"written by a woman vs written by a gay man" thing, tbh. Like, none of the things you've described as common in female-written BL show up in, say, gay romance novels or gay fanfiction. The one time I came across something like what you described in a novel, I could tell that the author got all of her "gAY kNoWLeDgE" from yaoi manga based on the novel and cover, and she straight up admitted in in her author's bio, lol! So, not that there ISN'T a difference when a woman vs a gay man writes something (they're coming from very different life experiences, makes sense that they'd be different) but on the whole I think a lot of the logical/practical flaws you see in BL manga is because it's...manga. Including the "gay for you" trope, it does show up in novels occasionally, but it mostly seems to be a manga thing (￣∇￣"). Long story short, please don't think that all women don't do research before writing things--I promise we're not all that dumb ╮(￣▽￣)╭

I don't really think you contradicted anything I said. You just said "yeah the experiences of a writer have an effect, but i also think their market is important" which is really what I believe anyway. At the end of the day, these writers need to get paid so it doesn't matter how much research they do. They need to write stuff that reaches audiences, and the female audience for yaoi simply has more strength in numbers than the gay audience. As Stalkergurl18 said, she really likes that trope, whereas it makes me roll my eyes into the back of my head. It's about selling to an audience, and the mostly female yaoi audience likes certain tropes that I hate. It's just how it is.

Haha, fair enough! TBH all the things you pointed out are things I tend to have an issue with in the yaoi genre, and why I typically stick with novels and fanfiction vs manga
(￣∇￣"). Like, I'm technically in the "target market" of "straight female," but a lot of yaoi tropes and habits kinda bother me or just aren't my cup of tea. There are exceptions tho, or sometimes I just want something mindless to read, so I'll still sometimes read yaoi and shounen-ai ╮(￣▽￣)╭. Probably my biggest pet peeve besides all the ones you mentioned is the absolute, strict adherence to the "uke" and "seme" roles. Like, I know that there are plenty of gay men who prefer one sexual position over another and don’t switch (and this is if they even like anal at all), but occasional switching is fairly common from what I hear online and from my gay friends. So, the fact that there’s next to no representation of that phenomenon and the fact that a character who wants to “try switching” is often made into a joke/running gag…bothers me -_-
Anyway, sorry for the rant, and thank you for being polite/respectful in your response, I really appreciate it :)

And actually, I think what I was originally failing to express is that I agree with your thoughts on the target market and the common tropes, but it frustrates me that the "target market" is so misinformed and it galls me that I'm technically a part of that group when I don't feel like I identify with them at all and I don't want to get "lumped in with them" (￣∇￣"). Probably immature, but I think that's where I was coming from...

I saw you guys bring out some interesting points. I'd like to share as someone who is gay and comes from a mental health background. Like JPEG, I also get frustrated because the BL genre in manga CAN become more diverse and include realistic scenarios to represent the actual gay community. Misinformation can have serious negative consequences and even reinforces prejudice. For instance, I've heard some of my female friends/colleagues saying "I don't mind him being gay if he is the cutesy type like manga" or "you are too pretty to top". From this discussion thread itself, I can see that many female audiences have different tastes and they are becoming frustrated about the overused misinformed tropes. So it's oversimplistic to say they are providing for the market demand. The market has actually changed from the time it started and readers are waiting for changes. As someone who works with female victims of abuse, it can't be a coincidence that they tend to be biased towards story tropes where the passive uke waits for the prince charming seme. So this extreme masculine vs feminine polarization of manga really bothers me. It frustrates me more when people say it's just a story, you read it only if you like, no one is forcing you blah blah. Do they actually believe the younger generation will stick to classics just because there is an age limit? I actually reinforce older teenagers to explore different genres and it's amazing how they criticize the unrealistic nature and overuse of certain themes and tropes. All I am saying is, you can have yaois for a diverse group.

Thank you for this! I feel like my thoughts and feelings have been so muddled in this conversation thread, and your acknowledgement that the "target market" has made changes but a lot of the material hasn't changed to reflect that and it's made many readers frustrated is like a balm to my disgruntled heart (￣∇￣"). Becasue I never disagreed that the points JPEG pointed out are prevalent and annoying, but I felt like as a straight woman I was being lumped in as a "misinformed fetishist" and that kind of upset me. I don't think that was JPEG's intention, but that's a feeling I got out of it and I felt a bit frustrated ╮(￣▽￣)╭
Anyhoo! Yay diversity, and I really hope the Japanese industry catches onto the changing demographic and thoughts of their target market and that we see more diverse and informed materials down the line :)

Thank you for your positive feedback :) I can really relate to not wanting to be lumped under a certain label just because you belong to a certain group like female manga readers. I do hope that the entire industry catches onto the changes soon. Have a nice day!