I just wrote a rather long reply to bellzooks about that, so I apologize for keeping this brief since I don't feel like reposting everything I just said:
1. When yaoi was first introduced, it WAS intended as a feminist outlet. It was written by women for women because they were unhappy about the poor representation of women in manga. And it's unfortunate that they had to play into the male-dominant standard to do this, but they did what they had to do to get their stories and voices heard.
2. Yaoi, like many things, has shifted in relevance and meaning over the years tangentially to the changes in societal views. For the last 10-15 years, yaoi HAS been more about bringing awareness/celebrating gays rather than women expressing themselves through men. The same shift in meaning can also be applied to the seme/uke relationships. At the beginning, seme and uke was only used to help define the hidden female character in the story. Now, it's been twisted to mean the woman or submissive partner, which wasn't always the case in classic yaoi.
And I agree with you that being part of the slash fandom doesn't make you an advocate for gay rights. While there IS a certain element of it that is being used to help spread awareness and potentially change closed-minded perceptions of gays and lesbians, a lot of the slash fandom objectifies gay relationships by women-- much like lesbian relationships are objectified by men. So no, it's not by any means a perfect medium for getting the message through. But there are those who DO try and use it for positive results.
no subject
1. When yaoi was first introduced, it WAS intended as a feminist outlet. It was written by women for women because they were unhappy about the poor representation of women in manga. And it's unfortunate that they had to play into the male-dominant standard to do this, but they did what they had to do to get their stories and voices heard.
2. Yaoi, like many things, has shifted in relevance and meaning over the years tangentially to the changes in societal views. For the last 10-15 years, yaoi HAS been more about bringing awareness/celebrating gays rather than women expressing themselves through men. The same shift in meaning can also be applied to the seme/uke relationships. At the beginning, seme and uke was only used to help define the hidden female character in the story. Now, it's been twisted to mean the woman or submissive partner, which wasn't always the case in classic yaoi.
And I agree with you that being part of the slash fandom doesn't make you an advocate for gay rights. While there IS a certain element of it that is being used to help spread awareness and potentially change closed-minded perceptions of gays and lesbians, a lot of the slash fandom objectifies gay relationships by women-- much like lesbian relationships are objectified by men. So no, it's not by any means a perfect medium for getting the message through. But there are those who DO try and use it for positive results.