Compare and contrast.

[randomness]

Thought for the late night, partly inspired by a face-to-face comment by rmd about gay regency romances mostly being written by and read by women, and partly from a post by digitalemur called Fun with YAOI, or things I come across at work:

Is there any similarity in this kind of man-to-man fiction mostly created and read by women to the girl-on-girl photosets mostly being photographed by and viewed by men?

Note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaoi has a useful overview of the yaoi phenomenon.

Comments

[twilight-tea.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's much similarity, besides the outward appearance. Why do you ask to compare fiction with photosets?

I think one argument is that gay fic is read/written by women who aren't in relationships, or perhaps shy away from things sexual. A lot of women have a problem with watching or reading het porn because they find themselves mentally placing themselves in the female role. With gay fic or porn, they don't have that problem (unless they want to be a guy!). In other words, it's an escapism that they don't necessarily have to project themselves into.

Well that's one theory, among many. I personally don't believe in it, but it kind of makes sense for a lot of women. Another thing I've noticed is that women who have gender issues write gay fic. One of my favorite authors, Poppy Z. Brite, admits to feeling as if she's a gay man stuck in a women's body, and all of her books involve gay men and few women.