there is a research paper on BL readers

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8888501/

alright, now, I know all of you have the attention spans of like 5 year olds (probably worse ngl) so I'll summarize the fun bits into words that you guys can actually understand... Some of these will make you think 'that's obvious though' - remember these guys are researchers.

this article is discussing sexual deviancy - so there is a lot of mentions of cp, rape, etc etc, but that's basically the average diet of the average mangago reader so you all are probably fine. but if you aren't stop reading...? to be clear: THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT RAPE, CP, BDSM, ANIMAL ON ANIMAL, BEASTIALITY, ETC ETC. if you don't like it... stop reading.

this research paper compared Chinese and English speaking peoples, so it's going in that order if you are wondering why I split them up like that.

since this is a summary, obviously, it's not going to be like 100% word for word accurate, but it's 60% what they said 40% me joking at how funny this is lolol. so don't take this too seriously-

For BOTH Chinese AND English speaking people (and some that aren't together because this article honestly isn't that organized in its discussion)
1. BDSM is really popular. Ok basically, they made a bunch of surveys right? they had people like answer them right? they had these ummm complicated algorithms and ummm statistical tricks (sorry mangago users, it's too much for you guys rn ik) and basically grouped people based on... frequency. let's just say frequency and they found that the group with the greatest amount of "fans" is BDSM. If you want to know the other categories include animal/mecha, underage, and other.

2. If you like BDSM, you probably also like explicit content. Very simple.

3. Animal sex is really popular - did they define animal sex clearly? No. So yes, all your catboys count, ahahaha those cute cat ears you know?

4. BL does mecha sex better than the sex doll market which is used to propel men's objectification of people... not just women people - we will get to that later. They use it to research into the human nature of mecha, are robots people? do robots have rights? etc etc, actually I can think of some rn which are about this...

5. BL fans are undecided on underage BL. There is some degree of conflict between Chinese and English people - we will get to that later.

6. Chinese people find deviancy within deviancy to be genuine deviancy. Basically, when it comes to the OTHER category of weird kinks in BL, they tend to genuinely mean the OTHER. English tended towards having mecha and tentacle sex as being 'other'. basically Chinese fans are more unhinged. Which all of you should know.

7. Catboys are adorable (no really, zoophiliac is considered cute THEY said it...)

Chinese Only
Rape: They found out that China isn't all that focused on male rape, so it's not considered as big as a deviancy as it is here. So if you are ever wondering why there are so much Korean rape stories... this is what these researchers considered why.

Mecha: Christianity screwed us over as to why English people aren't as interested in mecha/animal (catboy) sex. Like it's their fault guys. They made a very big difference between catboys/robots and humans (they are just like us come on! where are my robot rights activists lololol) with their bible, so like, we're more averse to mecha sex. Whereas for China and Japan, animals and by extension mecha, are considered to have more of a soul... so it's not considered that weird. This actually isn't that insane because it's just saying that Japan and China have more myths where animals are intelligent and can take on human traits, which makes them closer to humans. English people have the bible, which ruins their immersion cause sadly our sheep can only go baa and our catboys can only moan nyaa~ You can fuck your catboys in China and that's just an extension of the human soul. Fucking catboys in English parts because of Christianity will have you tortured and hanged by the revived Spanish Inquisition. (aww I totally... miss... that aspect of BL- fucking catboys that is)

Tentacles: it's the same argument as above. I don't know why they separated it. maybe the writers like it. the only interesting thing is that tentacle sex is considered part of BDSM in China, but it's strictly considered OTHER for english speaking people.

SubGroups
1. I didn't find the first part of this all that interesting. It's just saying that there are wilder kinks than the entirety of everything that can be shoved into BDSM. That and the fact that most Chinese fans are heterosexual and have less gender diversity - but that has more to do with that they are from China.

2. Underage sex, my favourite topic... Chinese males like reading underage sex. It also might be because they relate to the mentor culture in China (historical mentor culture). If you are girl in China who likes underage sex, ummm well you are just a really complicated nongendered person looking for ideal nongendered self. Basically. But we all know the truth, you all are creepy as hell. That's it.

3. Legality. NONE OF US CARE LOLOLOL. Chinese people care slightly more but it's because it's China.

Ok that's it... this was funny

tldr: And they did NOT get paid for this