Alr

For me 9 times out of 10 it’s the art and paneling. I’m an artist myself and I like making comics a lot and I’ve been reading it for so long (10ish years) that’s it’s honestly just become a natural muse for me? Something like that

Guys acting like they be the best shit in the world and can dominate anything but then the real daddy appears and make a mess outta them (๑•ㅂ•)و✧ that change, getting all submissive and looking so femine only cause of their seme having more attitude, intelligence, strength than them ╮(￣▽￣)╭ but ofc that just one of the genres I like out there or type there's various reasons along with it.

I like romance stuff, but when it gets spicy, i dont like seeing a woman body so boy x boy is better. After reading so much i realize im mostly there for the smut because in yaoi, theres just so much bad story writing, mostly the cliché MCs are so annoying that side characters are often more likeable. I’m at a point where i read for smut and the story is just a background to make the smut more enjoyable. There are a few exceptions but most yaois’ story is just crap. Even when a story looks good, it doesnt have enough chapter to get attached to the story, and when theres lots of chapter, its just MCs turning around in circles and stupid drama that make it seems they are toxic couples.

Growing up I found it hard to believe in love because of the way I saw my parents toxic relationship fall apart. But when I found Boys Love, it kinda gave me hope in a way. The fact that they loved another of the same sex even while knowing it is looked down upon (especially in Asian cultures) was reassuring. They go through shit because they are attracted to the same sex, but when they find someone to proudly/happily stand and stay by their side... Bitch.. It simply warms my heart, and makes me believe in love between two people (▰˘◡˘▰)

For me, a lot of it has to do that I don’t have to worry so much about the gender portrayal in the story; I somehow always instinctively wonder what the author may be attempting to say about genders through the storyline and characters... at least in yaoi that’s not one of the problems that may affect the power balance/imbalance of the relationship. That also always makes me feel like there’s more diversity in plotlines, too; there are definitely nuances in every romance plot, F/M or M/M, but because both are guys I feel like most yaoi Mangaka sort of need to give their characters more life and dynamics than most shoujo/smut do. (More superficially, I just really like ikemen lol)

Idk, I just read it for the first time from years ago and then bam! Suddenly I like it

Too often in Shoujo the leading ladies are shallow and have truly little going for them. It takes a lot of digging to find good girl characters in manga. With BL you have higher chances of finding better characters and plot – Plus the smut ain’t too bad.

I'm hetero to the point where the more men the merier xD It's funny but that's how it works for me. Like - for me better than one sexy male are two (or more) sexy males. I don't like seeing women, especially japanese image is so not appealing to me. I'm a strong, dominant woman and have rather different vision of relationship and sex than manga, so it fits me better to watch two men. And yeah, I basically read it for smut. The uke is usually more similar to western standards in bed behavior than manga girls, which typically are embarrased and shy and stuff. I don't understand it and so I like honest, horny man's lust ╮(￣▽￣)╭

I think yaoi/BL has more freedom/leniency in the types of tropes they have. I've read alot of yaoi/BL and even though I have come across some that are similar, there is a good variety of stories for different readers whereas other genres have more restricted tropes.

actually yknow how the normal relationship just has gotten so cliche and kinda edgy and a bit too corny. BL relationship just feels so fresh and beautiful, going out of the norm. Fighting against the world, its just so beautiful, knowing that the kind of love they give is you know, endless and

Eternal. The kind that could never leave u. And it just feels so fulfilling.

Knowing that u fought for that kind of love and gotten

Well fuck my phone it just keeps posting and posting
Well I'm annoyed now and won't continue that anymore

simple. for most romances directed at women, most of what their target audience wanted, was nearly the opposite of what i wanted, so instead of being entertained, the story would just have pissed me off in someway. romances directed at men didnt appeal to me either.
also no gender constructs(how pathetic of a storyteller do u have to be to make it so that a characters simple switch of a gender would completely switch a lot of their character's traits and roles) and plus i really love anime boys, and yaoi has really good porn? its not a big reason, but wow. it has a very good variety in its stories too
not that wlm or anything like that is bad! theres a lot of wlm stories i would absolutely die for, my pref is just mlm or wlw, just not on here the wlw on here arent really anything i like too much

or maybe i havent found the right wlw on here ehhh will search deeper later

I'm asexual so I don't care for sex; my opinion does not come from me projecting onto a character but I found myself not liking a hot guy with a stupid girl. A lot of shojo have gorgeous art where the main male is hot af and the main female is stupid beyond reason. I don't like reading that, I'd rather see two pretty boys ( I also don't care for stupid ukes, but I don't have a knee jerk reaction to them like I do females). Oh and for some reason I cannot fathom, I find two hot guys being intimate really HOT.

I was not a fujoshi when I watched Yuri on Ice and I found it disturbing. I started from reading shounen ai to yaoi and in contrast from my expectation, somehow on the way I came to like it. Probably because of the fact that I somehow found a new perspective from reading yaoi than reading shoujo manga. And I love the plot of some others, they're stories are something you wouldn't find in normal stories and they're just awesome for me (an aspiring writer and artist) (๑•ㅂ•)و✧

I read it firstly because it has males in it, which means I as a lesbian can read it without getting too emotionally connected/without feeling like it hits home a bit too much. Secondly, the art. I especially like 80s and 90s art (but not with those overgrown semes and yaoi hands, I prefer the type were they all look like twinks since I'm not into exaggerated masculinity). Thirdly, sometimes I enjoy seeing men get dominated (but only in manga because that can't turn me on in real life porn, realistic male bodies do nothing for me), but I now find myself enjoying that more in femdom manga/webtoons anyway.

Fourth: it's because this genre can get closest to my ideal of partners being truly equal. Straight manga and webtoons are sometimes sexist or one partner is more dominant than the other. I dislike the seme and uke roles in BL too, but when those disappear, it's great. I love it when there's a good balance between the two. In straight stories there's also the thing that the girl might end up pregnant, and I really don't like pregnancy stories so I avoid those. Then, yuri/GL feels like it's mostly written for men and it often has girls looking like such little kids that I really can't enjoy it. Mature yuri with actual women are awesome though, but they're such a rare find compared to yaoi.
So this leaves me with yaoi and action without romance as my favourite genres.

I also just read it because there are so many.

Read it because of how hot the anime guys are drawn. The art style is pretty cool and the plot. Tbh I think I liked reading yaoi manga more because I hated romance manga. They always have the girl either shy or be all cute and stuff or manly and hitting the guy.