This is one of the better vaguely-scholarly articles on the yaoi phenomenon out there. It’s passably well-researched, passably neutral, and keeps the squicked-out attitude to a minimum. A few notes, though, from someone who’s written her own papers on the subject and know enough Japanese to toil away as a scanlator. First of all, the pronunciation of the word yaoi really is closer to “yowee” than “yah-oi”. The entire Japanese language is made up of combinations of about 130 sounds. Each sound has a certain hiragana assigned to it. The hiragana that spell out the word yaoi are “ya”, “o”, and “i”. They are pronounced separately. Yah-oh-ee. Of course, it’s really only American fans who use “yaoi” as an umbrella term for man-on-man manga, so they might as well pronounce it as they wish. “Yaoi” was indeed coined around the late 70s or 80s to describe slash doujinshi, but it wasn’t coined by disapproving critics. It was introduced by one of the founders of the movement, Sakata Yasuko, who is revered as a member of the Post Year 24 Group and as the creator of one of the first doujinshi to be called yaoi. Shonen-ai is another term now exclusively used by the non-Japanese fanbase. It was used in the 1970s and early 80s to describe the new movement of deeply-emotional romances between boys. The term has fallen into disuse due to its association with pederasty. Today, “BL” and “Boys’ Love” are used for all female-oriented man-on-man works regardless of how explicit they are. Read more at www.villagevoice.com