Erotica and Sexuality

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey
Male–male sexuality is the central trope of Boys’ Love (BL) manga with stories tending to revolve around a central uke-seme (‘bottom’–‘top’) pair. Although focused on men, BL is produced and consumed primarily by women. This article presents, from an anglophone British perspective, analysis of age-stratified male–male romance – paederasty – as portrayed in BL. My corpus consists of 234 commercially-translated original Japanese BL manga stories, created by 100 different mangaka (author-artists), published commercially in English between 2003 and 2012. A total of 68 (30%) of these stories were identified as involving agestratified relationships, eight of which were selected for detailed analysis. Seven were selected for typicality: Waru (2007) by Yukari Hashida deemed the most typical. Fangs (2008) by Hiroki Kusumoto was also included in analysis as the most atypical age-stratified story in order to test the robustness of identified patterns. I argue that that, from an anglophone perspective, the characteristic themes of age-stratified BL map surprising well onto the eroticised intra-familial dynamics of Freud and the intra- and inter-familial economics of Lévi-Strauss. The patterns identified are evidenced and discussed under the following headings: the mother identified son, the doubly divested man, the castrated father, men on the market and the mother with the phallus. These themes help build and substantiate my argument that age-stratified BL might work, within an anglophone context at least, as a feminist critique of patriarchy through the mechanism of phallic divestiture.

Developed in ninth century Arabia, ilm al-bah (art of coition), is a multidisciplinary literary genre dedicated to erotology (the study of sexual desire and the art of lovemaking), intermingling various religious, philosophical and medical concepts. The Arabic erotology literary genre is made up of four distinct sub-genres: medical themed, sexually arousing themed, philosophy themed and Islamic themed.  Much of the Arab-Muslim erotic writers were religiously-trained scholars, social commentators and sexual therapists of their day, sharing their personal experiences and observations relating to sexual behaviour. The Islamic erotic treatises were pietistic attempts by Muslim writers to educate, and at times entertain, their readers about the Divine blessing of sexuality. This paper presents the history of the Islamic erotic literature tradition, its sources and the reasons for its disappearance in the late nineteenth century.

Extract from a book to be published in the new year by Miryamdevi & Minanath. The authors kindly allowed me to publish this uncorrected extract on a topic not much discussed in this field; that is the Kiss in Neo-Tantric lore. The complete book, "Naked Tantra", will be available early in 2020 in various formats, publisher as yet undecided, provisional slated as "The Morgan Witches" (no relation)

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete):
https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Madill, A. (2011-2013) Understanding Japanese "Boys' Love" manga from a UK perspective. British Academy.

These 234 BL stories in commercial English translation constitute my sample (up to November 2013). I define a 'story' as a narrative focusing on one central uke-seme pair and sometimes that has has to be a judgement call.  All stories have been coded using a large number of content and theoretical codes. I am interested in coding patterns but the main orientation of my analysis is qualitative.""""

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

This article addresses the research question: How do Chinese Yaoi fans read Yaoi stories? Yaoi is a female-oriented genre of Japanese popular culture which describes romantic and erotic relationships between men. We interviewed twenty Chinese nationals who are self-defined fans of Yaoi (mean age=23.5 years). Although men were not excluded, none volunteered. A Yaoi fandom survey was created in Chinese and in English with five sections: demographics, Yaoi materials, feelings about Yaoi, social relationships, and other erotic materials (Chinese N=1085; Anglophone N=1615). Thematic Analysis of the interviews produced five themes suggesting the existence of a heteronormative frame: social and family approval, everlasting romantic relationship, heteronormative couple, dislike reversible relationship, and gay relationships in reality. We then selected questions from the survey for statistical analysis on the rationale that these items might inform this frame and help us interpret and contextualise the qualitative analysis. Our survey results support our thematic analysis that Chinese Yaoi fans tend to read Yaoi through a heteronormative frame and, importantly, that in comparison with Anglophone fans, this is differential to Chinese culture.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

The aim of this study is to compare Sinophone and Anglophone fan fiction consisting of female-oriented male-male romance: danmei and slash, respectively. To increase comparability, we analysed Harry Potter fan fiction in which the characters Harry and Draco are married. Male-male marriage was selected because our online Sinophone and Anglophone BL fandom surveys indicate this to be the most popular story element of the nine options we provided. We analysed five stories originally written in Chinese and five originally written in English which subsequently had been fan-translated into Chinese. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) we found some robust patterns. In contrast to the Anglophone fiction, the Sinophone tended to: stress the importance of family approval for the marriage; incorporate a wedding ceremony; employ clearly gendered roles between partners; utilise extended, as opposed to nuclear, families; and showed the couple to produce children, particularly boys. Hence, the stories mirror the relative social conservatism and social liberalism of their cultures of origin. However, in reading and writing such danmei young Chinese women are still pushing at the boundaries of the traditional family.

This petition argues that erotic comics are an important cultural record of the way in which diverse sexualities are understood and portrayed, and sexual fantasies explored. An Erotic Comics Anglophone Archive (ErotiCAA) will preserve these works for research by scholars in many different disciplines.

One of the biggest problems facing anyone researching pornography/erotica or comics, and therefore doubly so for anyone researching erotic/pornographic comics, is finding and gaining access to primary materials. So we have decided to have a go at establishing an archive in the UK to collect and catalogue English-language porn and erotic comics.

We intend to approach a number of libraries and research institutions to host and/or fund the archive. Persuading them to support us will be a lot easier if we an show that there is a need for this archive, so to help with that we’ve started this petition.

We’ve already got this kick-ass logo designed for us by Alison Lucy Stone and meetings set up with a couple of big libraries. Help us out by signing the petition? And if you’d like to be more involved, please tweet Dr Anna Madill @UKFujoshi or Dr Jude Roberts @tangendentalism - we’d love to hear from you!

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Genre, genealogy, and gender: Reflecting on Boys' Love manga This presentation will focus on a genre of manga known as Boys' Love, BL or 'yaoi'. The central trope of BL is the portrayal of sexual and romantic relationships between, usually young, men. Originating from shojo (girls) manga in early 1970s Japan, BL is now a worldwide phenomenon. This presentation will trace briefly the complex genealogical development of BL (sub)genres. Current findings from the largest – and ongoing survey of the Anglophone BL fandom will be presented (https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey) to provide insights into the fandom demographic with regard to gender and sexual orientation. The meaning of BL as a genre will be interrogated using data from the presenter's coding of 240 original Japanese BLmanga available in commercial English translation and survey data on the erotic material preference of the Anglophone fandom. This will include consideration of questions such as the extent to which BL is a 'parasitic' genre and whether it might be considered to have its own distinct chronotope. Finally, the importance of male-male erotic fantasy for women prior to the development of BL and outside its fandom is explored. In conclusion, the evidence and arguments presented will be drawn together to suggest that BL is possibly one of the most visible modes of working through the 'hysteric's' fundamental questions of being: 'am I a man or a women?' and 'what is a woman?'

The literature on the impact of entertainment media on sex education is typically pathology-focused, unclear regarding the effects of such usage, and void of dialogue between those who actually work in the areas of sexuality education and entertainment. To address this gap, this paper is the product of joint authorship between media figures from varied sexually-focused programming fields and academics who teach and conduct research in the areas of sexuality and relational health. The authors focus on the role that various forms of entertainment media play in educating members of the public and college classrooms in the areas of sex and sexuality. Additionally, examples of the inclusion of entertainment media in educational contexts are discussed.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Abstract: Boys’ Love (BL) is a genre of manga which portrays sexual and romantic relationships between young, often adolescent, men. Perhaps surprisingly, most BL mangaka (artist-authors) are female and most consumers are teenage girls and young women. However, despite a renowned artistic pedigree and global associated youth subculture - consisting of one of the most sexually-benign demographics - BL distributors and audience are vulnerable to prosecution under recent English prohibited images of children legislation (Coroners and Justice Act 2009). English child pornography laws have become increasingly stringent. Legislation was first against production and dealing and then extended also to possession; moved from a narrow, actual-age-based definition of ‘child’ to a wider, impression-of-age-based one; and expanded the type of prohibited image from the photographic to include also free-hand drawings of fantasy encounters which might involve imaginary beings. This paper argues that BL problematises key assumptions of the prohibited images of children legislation in that the law invites a literal, and privileges a singular, reading of such fantasy, erotic, visual texts. The legislation invites a literal reading through implying that given criteria coherent for the assessment of representational texts (e.g., photographs of real children) can be applied also to non-representational texts (i.e., fantasy drawings): specifically, that protagonist age can, within the ordinary everyday parameters of impression, be determined but also that a series of problematic foci (genitals or anal region) and acts can be described void of context and awarded moral status similar to that of the real. Perhaps even more problematic, the legislation invites a singular reading of texts through priming a search for the specified and reified elements by a defined audience (magistrates, District Judge, or jury) under the remit that a certain constellation may warrant prohibition. That is, it alerts hegemonically-empowered or hegemonically-representational groups to a paedophilic reading and disavows other possible readings as irrelevant if these groups can find that reading. Importantly, as an interpretative community, BL fans’ own reading practices and understanding of genre conventions are discounted. Hence, paradoxically, a demographic the legislation is designed to protect (young people) is now, under its auspices, potentially vulnerable to prosecution through their BL fanship.

The paper presents the analysis of the swinging semiotics, understood as transcultural and transhistoric phenomenon, primarily at the level of traditional culture (rite, myth, visual representations), circus performances (trapeze) and sport skills (horizontal bar, rings). Ritual swinging is depicted with examples that mostly belong to Slovene and Balkan traditions (prehistory, the classical period, folklore). There are elaborated various motivations behind this phenomenon: marriage, the stimulus for the harvest of agriculture and live stock, the prosperity of individuals and community, the health of those who are swinging. In the paper there is the analysis of a few semiotic levels of ritual swinging. The vegetative swinging (the growth of plants, live stock, and children) is present through various aspects – marriage-sexual (immediate identification of swinging with sexual-erotic spheres and coitus, based on nerve-sense impulses present during swinging, the aspect of imitative, that is homeopathic magic (as high as we swing, that high the plants will grow), the concept of transposing of fertile powers from the one who is swinging towards nature (air, soil, plants) and vice versa, hierogamy (the union of the sky and the Earth via the swing). Within the lustrative aspect of swinging there are elaborations of the aspects of psychological catharsis, ‘ventilating’ the body, the wind as the sacralised destroyer of negative factors. Within the theme of ‘swinging as mythical paradigm’ the following aspects are considered: the swing as the ‘world axis’, as a ‘ship leading to the sky’, as a ‘dangerous swing’ that hurts, kills and thus takes to ‘that other world’ those who are swinging on it. There is a detailed analysis of solar-celestial aspect of the swing, primarily the swing as the most archaic paradigm of periodical movement of the sun across the sky (ascending and descending), even before the appearance of the concept of cyclical understanding of solar dynamics. In the end, there are presented the semiotic aspects of ritual hanging: hanging as scarifying, as a precondition for advancing, hanging as execution, the hung mythical characters.

Key words: ritual swinging, the swing, gallows, hanging, the hung
person, circus, trapeze, sacrificing, solar myths, cosmic axis, shamanism, ritual eroticism, hyerogamy.

This paper attempts to place Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ’ in a more objective context, by focusing on establishing the real significance of Gibson’s film in the light of Christianity’s theological import and its possible interpretation(s) for a contemporary Western world.  In this regard, the film is evaluated from a number of interrelated perspectives, viz.: Gibson’s avowed intentions, historical accuracy, written gospel accuracy, Catholic sectarian accuracy, contemporary Catholic accuracy and most importantly, the phenomenon of the film itself.

The author concludes that Gibson, who clearly views his faith through the mediation of often violent film imagery, rather than serious theological insights, has pandered to the needs of a cinema-going public that is largely incapable of responding to subtlety because it has become visually punch-drunk by so much celluloid brutality and technological special effects. As a result, this film undermines its own purpose of conversion to Christianity due to its message of hate, violence and bigotry.  In addition, it has the potential to undermine any reconciliation between Jewish and Christian groups.

Con el propósito de obtener evidencia empírica sobre el posible impacto persuasivo de ciertas técnicas empleadas y debatidas en el mundo de la publicidad, se compararon las respuestas de 430 estudiantes universitarios de 5 instituciones quienes fueron expuestos, en un diseño experimental intragrupos, ante pares de piezas publicitarias similares excepto por la presencia o ausencia de estímulos eróticos, con contenido simbólico inconsciente de tipo fálico, vaginal, coital, oral y eyaculatorio, y presentando o no estímulos subliminales. Se encontró que, en términos generales, la presencia de los estímulos eróticos y de los contenidos simbólicos inconscientes sí aumenta la disposición de adquirir los productos anunciados y la preferencia por el anuncio, aunque también produce un mayor rechazo moralista. Lo contrario ocurrió cuando los contenidos eróticos extremos y reconocidos como tales y, sin ser reconocidos, con los estímulos subliminales. Estos resultados confirman los argumentos de algunos críticos de la actividad publicitaria que denuncian estas prácticas, pero también apoyan la justificación de algunos publicistas para el empleo de estas técnicas por su efectividad. De otra parte, los resultados relativizan algunos hallazgos obtenidos en otros estudios llevados a cabo en otros contextos culturales y le brindan soporte a algunos postulados de la teoría psicoanalítica freudiana especialmente en el campo de la posible interpretación inconsciente de símbolos. Igualmente, los resultados aportan nuevas luces al debate sobre los estímulos subliminales al evidenciar nuevamente su captación, pero también la existencia de defensas inconscientes ante ellos.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey
Boys’ Love (BL) is an umbrella term for female-oriented media, predominantly manga, anime, light novels, and games usually of Japanese origin which focus on erotic relationships between men. There is also a tremendous amount of related amateur male-male erotic fan-art, fan-fiction, and manga (known as yaoi dojinshi) on the internet and sold at the massive Japanese comics markets. It is well-known that most BL readers, mangaka (author-artists), and yaoi dojinshi creators are female. The history of BL is the history of its progenitor genres. Shonen-ai – literally ‘boy love’ – is the name given to a genre of male-male romance developed in Japan by a small number of ground-breaking female mangaka during the 1970s. In the 1980s, young Japanese women began to be more irreverent with fictionalised, male-male sexuality, creating amateur parodies of existing, non-erotic works, which became known as ‘yaoi’. Shotacon contains of erotic material which deliberately portrays young, often pre-pubescent, boys and female-oriented, male-male shotacon is sometimes, and controversially, considered a BL sub-genre. Since the mid-1990s, BL/yaoi has become a global phenomenon with products available in commercial translation and numerous fan-created, in-copyright-infringement, scanlation (‘scan-and-translate’) on-line. One of the, possibly particularly, surprising aspects of BL is its, often, risqué sexual content including rape/non-con/dub-con, BDSM, incest, and underage sex. I offer an introduction to BL as both a professional and as an amateur activity and in an Asian as well as in a Western context, where its relationship to male-male slash fiction is considered. Particular emphasis will be given to what is known, or speculated about, the pleasure afforded women through their engagement with BL, and I will present interim results from my on-going on-line survey of the Anglophone BL fandom (current n=998).

Resumen: En la doctrina erótica de Antístenes, el amor del maestro hacia su discípulo está supeditado a la disposición moral de este último y en ello se distingue de la erótica platónica: mientras que en Platón la belleza amada en el individuo es independiente de él, en Antístenes la belleza amada es necesariamente una disposición particular del individuo. Si en el discurso de Diotima el amor debía trascender la belleza de los cuerpos, la personalidad moral y las instituciones, en pos de la Idea de Belleza, en Antístenes el ascenso parece detenerse en las virtudes peculiares del individuo amado.

Antístenes / erotismo / proxenetismo / inversión erótica / método

Abstract: In the erotic doctrine of Antisthenes, the love of the teacher to his disciple is conditioned by his moral disposition, and it’s distinguished from platonic eroticism: while in Plato the beloved beauty in the individual is independent of him, in Antisthenes, beloved beauty is necessarily a particular disposition of the individual. If in Diotima’s discourse love should transcend the beauty of bodies, moral personality and institutions, in pursuit of the Idea of Beauty, in Antisthenes the ascent seems to stop in the peculiar virtues of the beloved individual.

Antisthenes / eroticism / procuring / erotic roles exchange / method

(Abstract) Greek fictional epistolography as a subgenre represents an ideal corpus for any kind of synoptic and comparative study: all we have left are four late-antique collections of erotic letters (written by Alciphron, Aelian, Philostratus and Aristaenetus) and a Byzantine one (by Theophylact). The conventions of the sub-genre prohibited both obscene language and explicit pornography. However, once they chose erotica as the theme of some of their letters, the authors had to include at least some "spicy" descriptions of sexual contacts. The focus of my research is on the overall representation of lovers' sexuality in the collections; the letters of each one will be approached from different aspects and the results will be consequently compared. The areas of my interest are: • male and female means of seduction/ display of sexual interest • male and female initiative concerning the foreplay • descriptions of "side-effects" of physical contact (arousal and erection) and of sexual act itself (sounds, sweat, ejaculation, the (avoidance of) pregnancy, abortion) • variations in marital and extramarital sexual liaisons; asexuality and avoidance of marital duties, adultery, threesome, sex in a public place, voyeurism, masochism, fetishism, (a possible case of) oral sex, objectophilia and same-sex relations. The final goal of the paper is to point to (potential) differences in the representation of (both male and female) sexuality in general throughout the literary subgenre from Alciphron to Theophylact and to answer the question which of the authors offers the most detailed and explicit picture of the lovers' sexual activities (and why). Of course, due to the limited time given for the paper-presentation, only the most interesting and important results of the analyses would be presented, with the emphasis on examples that are a unique feature of one of the authors.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Boys’ Love (BL) is a genre of manga which portrays sexual and romantic relationships between young, often adolescent, men. Perhaps surprisingly, most BL mangaka (artist-authors) are female and most consumers are teenage girls and young women. However, despite a renowned artistic pedigree and global associated youth subculture - consisting of one of the most sexually-benign demographics - BL distributors and audience are vulnerable to prosecution under recent English prohibited images of children legislation (Coroners and Justice Act 2009). English child pornography laws have become increasingly stringent. Legislation was first against production and dealing and then extended also to possession; moved from a narrow, actual-age-based definition of ‘child’ to a wider, impression-of-age-based one; and expanded the type of prohibited image from the photographic to include also free-hand drawings of fantasy encounters which might involve imaginary beings. This paper argues that BL problematises key assumptions of the prohibited images of children legislation in that the law invites a literal, and privileges a singular, reading of such fantasy, erotic, visual texts. The legislation invites a literal reading through implying that given criteria coherent for the assessment of representational texts (e.g., photographs of real children) can be applied also to non-representational texts (i.e., fantasy drawings): specifically, that protagonist age can, within the ordinary everyday parameters of impression, be determined but also that a series of problematic foci (genitals or anal region) and acts can be described void of context and awarded moral status similar to that of the real. Perhaps even more problematic, the legislation invites a singular reading of texts through priming a search for the specified and reified elements by a defined audience (magistrates, District Judge, or jury) under the remit that a certain constellation may warrant prohibition. That is, it alerts hegemonically-empowered or hegemonically-representational groups to a paedophilic reading and disavows other possible readings as irrelevant if these groups can find that reading. Importantly, as an interpretative community, BL fans’ own reading practices and understanding of genre conventions are discounted. Hence, paradoxically, a demographic the legislation is designed to protect (young people) is now, under its auspices, potentially vulnerable to prosecution through their BL fanship.

I Adore Love is so excited to open up its online erotic literature section. While we proudly offer best sex toys on the market, our aim is also to entertain you with a large amount of free erotic novels, quality erotic stories for adults, real stories and sexual fantasies of all kinds, for women, man, couples etc. Read the spicy confessions told directly by the protagonists, exciting adventures of sex, transgression and eros. Let your fantasy and fingers wander while you immerse yourself in a new free lesbian or threesome erotic novel literature. Free BDSM literature, romantic and new porn stories, written by those who are not afraid to live their sexuality to the fullest.

The paper presents the analysis of the swinging semiotics, understood as transcultural and transhistoric phenomenon, primarily at the level of traditional culture (rite, myth, visual representations), circus performances (trapeze) and sport skills (horizontal bar, rings). Ritual swinging is depicted with examples that mostly belong to Slovene and Balkan traditions (prehistory, the classical period, folklore). There are elaborated various motivations behind this phenomenon: marriage, the stimulus for the harvest of agriculture and live stock, the prosperity of individuals and community, the health of those who are swinging. In the paper there is the analysis of a few semiotic levels of ritual swinging. The vegetative swinging (the growth of plants, live stock, and children) is present through various aspects – marriage-sexual (immediate identification of swinging with sexual-erotic spheres and coitus, based on nerve-sense impulses present during swinging, the aspect of imitative, that is homeopathic magic (as high as we swing, that high the plants will grow), the concept of transposing of fertile powers from the one who is swinging towards nature (air, soil, plants) and vice versa, hierogamy (the union of the sky and the Earth via the swing). Within the lustrative aspect of swinging there are elaborations of the aspects of psychological catharsis, ‘ventilating’ the body, the wind as the sacralised destroyer of negative factors. Within the theme of ‘swinging as mythical paradigm’ the following aspects are considered: the swing as the ‘world axis’, as a ‘ship leading to the sky’, as a ‘dangerous swing’ that hurts, kills and thus takes to ‘that other world’ those who are swinging on it. There is a detailed analysis of solar-celestial aspect of the swing, primarily the swing as the most archaic paradigm of periodical movement of the sun across the sky (ascending and descending), even before the appearance of the concept of cyclical understanding of solar dynamics. In the end, there are presented the semiotic aspects of ritual hanging: hanging as scarifying, as a precondition for advancing, hanging as execution, the hung mythical characters.

Key words: ritual swinging, the swing, gallows, hanging, the hung
person, circus, trapeze, sacrificing, solar myths, cosmic axis, shamanism, ritual eroticism, hyerogamy.