Menu Close

Tag: uke

Why do the Men in Yaoi not Want Sex?

Christie Gordon 6 Comments

Sakai Ichi Hatsukoi - World's Greatest First Love - YaoiI’m watching this yaoi anime on Crunchyroll (finally, Yaoi on Crunchyroll!), Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi – World’s Greatest First Love, and I realized that in so many Yaoi anime and manga, the guys don’t seem to actually want to have sex, at least the ukes don’t. Why is that? Don’t all men want to have sex all the time? If so, shouldn’t it hold true that in our gay male stories, there’s lots of man sex and they’re loving it?

So, I was putting dishes away, because God knows I have nothing better to do on a Sunday morning;) and I’m thinking to myself about why we as straight women like this sort of thing. I mean, we must, right? Or why would the Yaoi powers that be put this stuff out? And why would we watch it so religiously?

In the typical Yaoi manga or anime, you have these two dudes that are attracted to each other, maybe even confess their love for each other, but invariably one chases after the other for sex (usually the seme), while the other runs from it (usually the uke). Then when the seme actually gets the uke, the uke does the, “Oh, stop… please stop”, thing while at the same time obviously getting off on what the seme’s doing.

My question is – could this be a hold over from the traditional romance story days when the heroine in our romance books loved, but hated, but didn’t want to tarnish her reputation by having sex, but got really hot and bothered by the hero? As women, we’re supposed to make guys chase us, guys we like, but we can’t show them we like them or we won’t get chased. Whew, what a wild game, huh? And what a mess… And this does resemble the typical Yaoi story arc, does it not? Hmmm…

Maybe in these stories, since they’re written largely for a straight female audience, this dynamic exists in order to give some sort of semblance of a traditional male/female role that women recognize immediately. And we eat it up, don’t we? It’s that whole forbidden thing. The “I want you, but I shouldn’t, can’t” thing. The whole reason why we love our Yaoi and M/M Romance – forbidden love.

And so the poor uke has to go on wanting sex with his seme, but pretending like he doesn’t. I wonder, what would happen if we made stories that were more true to gay male life? Would we still devour them so hungrily? What do you like?

And now, the trailer:

 

Read more →

Uke Versus Seme – Who’s Really on Top?

Christie Gordon 3 Comments
Okay, so we all know in the world of gay men there are the tops and the bottoms, the pitchers and the catchers, the hot dogs and the buns (?)…You get it, I’ll stop there:) In Yaoi or Boys Love anime and manga, it’s referred to as the uke (botton) and the seme(top). Let’s have a little discussion about this, shall we?

The seme is typically what you’d find in your standard romance novel, the confident alpha male who may be famous, runs a business empire, is some type of royalty or otherwise has lots of money and/or high social status. The uke is the shy, nerdy guy who’s usually a college student or just a kid (can you say shota? But this is a topic for another blog). I suppose if you draw lines to tradional romance novels you’d see the uke acting in the traditional woman’s role – girl meets dashing, wealthy asshole who just so happens to have a thing for her, but won’t admit it until well into the story, maybe even the end. But what’s different and maybe so alluring about the uke in a Yaoi story is that because this character is a male, he may be catching in the bedroom, but he surely isn’t always catching outside of it.

How many times have we seen a Yaoi plot where the seme is falling all over the uke, bending to his every whim, just to get him in the bedroom? And how many times do we see the uke manipulating the seme in and out of the bedroom to get what he wants? What about the uke’s pretending not to like sex? Not like sex? A guy? Really??? And so I ask the question, who’s really on top? And more over, why can’t they be switch hitters? *drool*

So in the quest to figure out who’s really on top, I asked Roy Mustang and Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist fame (because I know them best):

Me: So, Edward, would you consider yourself a bottom or a top?
Ed: What?!
Roy: He’s a bottom.
Ed: Shut up, Mustang. Don’t pretend you know what that is.
Roy: Please, just be a good boy and drink your milk.
Ed: *sputters* This isn’t milk, it’s egg nog!
Me: Oh, but there’s milk in it. Sorry…
Ed: *spits all over the table* What the fuck?
Me: Here, let me get some paper towels *gets paper towels and comes back*
Ed: *glares at me and wipes up mess*
Roy: Ahem…the question was top or bottom, right?
Me: Uh, yeah. *watching Ed and keeping far away*
Roy: I’d definitely say that Ed is the bottom and I’m the top. I mean, really…I’m the older one, the bigger one, the one with–
Ed: The one who likes it up the ass!
Roy: *turns red*
Ed: Yeah, I said it. He likes it in the ass. *snickers* that makes him a bottom, right?
Me: I, I guess so…
And so there you have it. Seme or Uke, it’s all good and we love it!
Regards,
Christie
Read more →

Max and Iago – Love Story

Christie Gordon 0 Comments
So I’m watching the Max and Iago Love Story shows on YouTube (thanks so much to Evama1977 for making them) and I’m thinking to myself, I’ll be damned if this isn’t just like a typical Yaoi story! Iago is the perfect seme – gorgeous, confident and of course, the bad boy. Max is the perfect Uke – smart, sweet and looking for a loving relationship. Also, they both have these terrible pasts, but Iago’s seems like it was worse (hence turning into the bad boy he is). And of course, they’re both pretty boys with lean bodies and long hair!

Like in your typical Yoai, at first they’re at odds with each other and tell anyone who’ll listen how much they hate the other one. Then of course there is the hot kiss followed by lots of angst and you know the rest;) I’m really not trying to spoil it for anyone.

So my question is, what is it about the bad boy seme and the cute little uke that we (I’m talking about women here, but gay men can speak up, too) love so much about this pair? How is it that it seems so universal? This show was made in Spain, I think – please someone help me here, and Yoai started in Japan, so the concept does seem to cross cultural borders. Are we, as women, putting ourselves in the place of the sweet little uke? Which means, all us Yaoi and M/M Romance loving females can’t get enough of the bad boys? I know I prefer them, LOL. Yep, the longer the hair, the more piercings and tattoos, the better. But I digress…

Just someone answer the question – why do you love this pairing?

You can watch it on YouTube here: Max and Iago – Love Story

Regards,

Christie

Read more →