I’ll admit that a lot of the problems you had with the con are why I usually end up spending time with friends in my hotel room, or hanging out at Cafe Verfurhen (the women-run cafe) when I’m not running panels. While I will disagree with your interpretation of certain events, your conclusion is rock solid, and because of that, many of the responses you’ve received are upsetting.

Almost a year later, I join the party.

I love 07-Ghost! I was so happy that it got licensed. I’ve been anxiously waiting for volume four. The anime ended in Japan this week and from what I hear, it wasn’t that good an ending (at least that was the crappy translation I got from Google from a Tweeter “friend” of mine).

I work in a high school’s library so I was tickled pink when my boss ordered After School Nightmare. It was highly recommended by the ALA so she bought the series.

I want to read Noodle Shop Affair and Take Me to Heaven but there’s always something else on the shelves that gets my attention. I really should buy them online. ^^;; I already have Delivery Cupid and Pet on Duty. They’re funny and cute.

Now Yaoi Con. That is one scary convention. I love to read yaoi. In the quiet and solitude of my room and not just because some of it is good for fapping but because I get to fangirl by myself with nobody else’s opinions which I don’t really care for (which is the main reason I don’t read reviews).

I agree with you 1000% (not a typo). Each and every single time I’ve gone to YC, I want to run in the opposite direction. I go to my local anime con and the impulse to run is not as strong and this con is maybe three times as big as YC.

I refuse to be called a fujoshi. I hate the term because it implies the rabidness that women exhibit during the convention. I would rather *beep* to rusted barbed wire than behave like that. It’s just not me.

Why do I even bother to go? Because of the mangaka. My chances to ever going to Japan during Comiket season to meet Kazuma Kodaka are so small. When do I get a chance to meet her, slightly fangirl in front of her w/o passing out or melting into a pool of goo, and getting her autograph? At Yaoi Con, of course!

That’s how I met her and Takanaga Hinako (that year I got on the same elevator and she and her entourage got on! I was a happy fan) and so many of my favorite authors. This year I’m going ’cause more of my favorite authors are going.

The other reason is to meet up with my one friend in San Francisco. She’s the light of my life and I haven’t seen her in almost two years. *waves to Buchou*

I hate the bingo, the auction, the dance, the blatant objectification of both male and female. I don’t go to many of the panels and avoid people in general. If not for my friend and the mangaka, I wouldn’t even bother going. It’s an embarrassment. Then the fujoshi have the balls to demand to be taken seriously. I can’t. Not when they’re spanking another human being. Or paying money to “spend time” with them. Did you know their “reason” for the auction is to sponsor the con the next year? Well…I’d very much like to see how they spend all that money. It’s been going on for years.

But it’s okay. This is just my opinion, what I think and feel and none of that matters to any of them. I like it that way. I do know I always stir trouble wherever I go. And so this year I’ll probably be just roaming around or watching TV in my hotel room. It works perfectly for me.

I think part of the “problem” is that people persist in saying that a certain thing or area is “this” (one thing or interpretation) and cannot contain ideas or infiltration from other areas or disciplines.

Hence the continual excuse (or proclamation or judgment or whatever) that sex isn’t “about” love or that it’s “ONLY” about using and objectification. That’s too easy, dammit! (and aside from that that statement only represents one person perspective or opinion) Things are seldom “just” about ANY one thing… it’s like the term “NSA” – … as far as I can see it there are ALWAYS “strings attached”. Whether you can SEE them or are willing or capable of acknowledging them or not.

That being said, I’m not the sort to find those events bad in and of themselves. I put them on the same level as strip joints and clubs and restaurants that emphasize sexual attire in their waitresses/waiters. As long as everything is consensual and everyone involved knows what to expect (a woman shouldn’t start working for Hooters, for example, if she doesn’t want guys talking to your tits or staring at your ass — by contrast, the same woman shouldn’t be expected to put up with physical contact that isn’t part of the job), than it’s all good.

And there is no doubt in my mind that most of the guys getting involved in the Bishounen Auction really, really love the attention. A couple of my guy friends wanted to get involved and I’m pretty sure it was for the chance to have hordes of women fighting over them. I gotta say, I have no sympathy for them in terms of being objectified.

But those events shouldn’t be taking place at Yaoi Con. There is no correlation between “enjoying pretty drawn boys that are in love with each other” and “enjoying real life guys doing the bump and grind”. It’s like going to the video room and finding real life gay porn playing instead of a BL anime. It doesn’t add up.

There is an East Coast yaoi convention set to begin in 2010, if I remember right. It’s a different group of people and I only hope it’ll end up with a different atmosphere and a stronger focus on BL/yaoi itself.

I have to put in that real people play acting a role can be fantasy, too. And I should know, I work in a strip club. My “customers” aren’t objectifying *me*, but the role I’m playing on stage.

I’ve been attending YaoiCon since 2002, and have attended the bishounen auction a number of times over the years. I, personally, am not really into the auctions and other-such events (being a lesbian). But I think it’s fine and dandy for the hetero, bi, and lesbian women who do. The men who participate are all volunteers, know full well what they are getting into and enjoy the heaps of attention they get. I’ve got a couple of straight guy friends who volunteered this year, even.

The entire con is a fanatsy for those attending. It’s a step out of their day-to-day real world, where they can all say, do, and feel whatever they want to. And for some of them, objectifying men (and *getting* objectified by women!) is on the agenda for the weekend. They can allow themselves to be sexual beings and “let it all hang out”.

I have to admit, I do think that some of the events stray a little too far from the Yaoi subject matter, but the events themselves are all involving consenting adults who are ALL enjoying themselves.

If you don’t like that, you are completely free to do so, but please just ignore them, just like I do. But please don’t judge them. Just let them have their fun in the safe environment of the con.

To clarify: I am in no way condoning unconditional objectification – I still hate getting honked at while walking down the street – but people playing a role and agreeing to be objectified is a-ok!

Last year, there was a report on Canada’s Anime North which touched on similar issues (although apparently the atmosphere at Anime North was not toxic, but a lesbian had encountered issues elsewhere.)

A gay friend inducted me into slash and yaoi – he found the pictures hot. So do I, but when it became evident that I was getting something more from the stories than he was, we stopped talking about yaoi together. We’re still friends, we just don’t talk about yaoi any more. His boyfriend takes up his thoughts now…

Many of us in RUSH are doing ok. Lara Yokoshima has a manga pilot at Tokyo Pop [Regatta], Lynsley Brito and I have an original German BL manga coming out in June [Games With Me], and Akira Atsushi and Akito are working on finding a publisher for Night and Day.