User:SykoSilver/Bara (manga)

Bara (薔薇) is a popular term for homoerotic male-oriented fictional media that focus on male relationships, usually created by homosexual men. Although sometimes also called "yaoi" by Anglophone commentators, bara is considered a subgenre of seijin (men's erotica) for gay males and resembles comics for men (seinen) rather than comics for female readers (shoujo/josei). Bara is also known as Gei Comi (ゲイ　コミ) and "Mens' Love" or ML.

While there are exceptions, characters in bara tend to be masculine and are often analogous to bears in gay culture, muscular and/or chubby men usually with an abundance of body hair. Most bara features adult content including explicit sex scenes.

Terminology
The term bara in relation to homosexual material for men started in the 1960s and was reinforced by the early and influential gay men's magazine Barazoku (薔薇族), founded in 1971 and the first gay magazine in Asia to be sold at mainstream bookshops. Bara-eiga ("rose film") has been used since the 1980s to describe gay cinema.

Influential Creators of Bara
Gengoroh Tagame has been called the most influential creator of gay manga in Japan to date. Most of his work first appeared in gay magazines and usually feature sexual abuse. Tagame's depiction of men as muscular and hairy has been cited as a catalyst for a shift in fashion amongst gay men in 1995, away from the clean-shaven and slender stereotypes of Yaoi and towards a tendency for masculinity and chubbiness Tagame's work has been criticised by notable gay manga writer Susumu Hirosegawa for its lack of complex storylines. Susumu Hirosegawa's early works were yaoi, but later Hirosegawa moved into gay manga. Hirosegawa's works sometimes contain no sex at all, with greater focus on plot, but when sex is present it is often in the form of sadomasochism or rape, in which the victim learns to enjoy the experience.

Bara versus Yaoi
Yaoi (やおい) is another Japanese genre incorporating homosexual romance themes across various media. The genre emerged in the 1970s in a branch of manga aimed at girls. Yaoi has spread beyond Japan: both translated and original yaoi are now available in many countries and languages. The characters in yaoi manga do not tend to self-identify as homosexual or bisexual.

Yaoi has been criticised for stereotypical and homophobic portrayals of its characters, and for failing to address gay issues. Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all, is often used as a plot device to "heighten the drama", or to show the purity of the leads’ love. Matt Thorn has suggested that as yaoi is a romance narrative, strong political themes may be a "turn off" to the readers. Critics state that the genre challenges heteronormativity via the "queer" bishōnen ("beautiful boys"), and Andrew Grossman has written that the Japanese are more comfortable with writing about LGBT themes in a manga setting, in which gender is often blurred, even in "straight" manga.

BL creators and fans are careful to distinguish the genre from bara, which is created by and for gay men. It is an even smaller niche genre in Japan than yaoi manga, and not much has been scanlated into English, although Kuso Miso Technique, a 1987 one-shot manga published in Barazoku, has become an Internet meme. The 1990s saw increased media focus on LGBT people in Japan, and a large increase in the production of works written by gay men. Gay manga often have more realistic and autobiographical themes compared to yaoi. Bara is more true to actual homosexual male relationships, and not the heterosexual-esque relationships between the masculine seme and feminine uke types that are most common in romantic fantasy in women's yaoi manga. Although some gay men's manga contains less idealized and more realistic depictions of the actual life of gay men (gay pride parades, gay marriage issues, "coming out", realistically played out sex etc.), McLelland and others note that frequently "there is more emphasis upon sex than there is on building an enduring relationship". Gay men's manga usually has muscular men as the lead gay characters, but this is not always true; characters may vary in body type. In comparison to yaoi, gay men's manga is unlikely to contain scenes of "uncontrollable weeping or long introspective pauses", and more likely to show characters who are "hairy, very muscular, or have a few excess pounds". Lunsing notes that some of the narrative annoyances that homosexual men express about yaoi manga, such as rape, misogyny, and an absence of a Western-style gay identity, are also present in gei comi. Both McLelland and Lunsing indicate that themes of BDSM and violent or exploitative sex are common and intended to be erotic.

Recently a subgenre of BL has been introduced in Japan, so-called "Muscle-man BL" or "Gachi Muchi" (which has been referred to as "bara" among English-speaking fans, although in Japan this term only refers to gei comi), which offers more masculine body types and is more likely to have gay male authors and artists. Although still marketed primarily to women, it is also thought to attract a large crossover gay male audience. This type of BL should not be confused with gei comi proper.