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The Structure of Yuri: the Shift from Female to Male Audiences
Yuri, shoujo-ai, girl’s love, cute anime girls getting it on with each other – no matter what you want to call it, these names refer to entertainment that contains romantic and/or sexual relationships between women. Yuri first developed as a genre mainly targeted towards women, much in the same way that lesbian literature in other societies began growing as homosexuality became an issue in developed nations. However, it seems that a large volume of yuri being produced is now marketed towards male audiences rather than ones composed of females. Why is this?
At first, the answer may seem quite simple. Perhaps men simply enjoy entertainment with themes involving female same-sex couplings; after all, plenty of guys have been interested in “Sapphic erotica” (girl on girl pornography), so to say. But there’s an interesting fact about the consumers of lesbian-themed anime, manga, or novels that one should note: namely, that while pornography is purely sexual, non-erotic yuri still seems to draw customers, particularly male ones.
