Fans, fanfiction and the obsession with yaoi!
First up I hear some of you asking what Yaoi even is. From the Japanese it roughly translates as 'boys love' and it is a genre particularly popular with women, which is why I chose to use it for this piece. Why is yaoi familiar? If you have spent any time on the internet you will be aware of this concept. Yaoi, or 'boys love', is particularly popular on micro-blogging sites like tumblr or pinterest where fans (usually female) create posts out of photos, gifs or imagined conversation text posts that put their two favourite male characters together. These posts range from the innocent flirting between two characters to romantic gestures to full-on hardcore sex! Now, I fully acknowledge that there is a section of fanfiction about imagining yourself with your favourite character, but this blog essay will concentrate on the overtly homosexual version of fanfiction. Another popular form is the aforementioned 'fanfiction' where two people or characters are throw