My notes are a bit fuzzy here, so bear with me. (No, not because I was drunk either, get that dirty thought out of your head).

Okay...sigh... This panel completely dissapointed me. I'm sorry, I came to hear about the above mentioned subjects in an enlightened, intelligent manner, but instead, I got insulted (a few times, actually) and learned nothing new at all. When one of the panelists called Cosplayers freaks, I was horrified (basically, because I was in costume at the time, and so were several others in the packed room). Yaoi was basically shunted to the side while Yuri was discussed in detail, making the panel very biased. I began to feel that since I wasn't a lesbian, perhaps my presence wasn't wanted there. I think that was even stated several times during the panel, as a matter of fact. So, being a straight woman who is enthusiastic about Yaoi, I was pretty insulted by the attitude. Seeing as the panel was thrown together, I'm not sure who was running it at all. Since another panel was supposed to begin, I left early. Somehow, I doubt I missed much. But, I digress, I'm trying to write a report. Since you know how I felt about the panel from hell, I'll share my notes with you now.

Here are some definations for those that are new to the world of Yaoi/Yuri:

Shounen-ai=love between two male characters, usually romantic, rarely graphic.

Shoujo-ai=love between two female characters, usually romantic, rarely graphic.

Yaoi=love and sexuality between two male characters, varying levels of graphic sex between the two.

Yuri=love and sexuality between two female characters, varying levels of graphic sex between the two.

This terminology began in the late eighties. Within Japan, Yaoi is mostly considered to be shoujo (girls and women's anime and manga). Yuri has a mostly male audience. In the United States, the audiences are not so easily defined.

A few questions asked during the panel, including "What has changed to the Yaoi/Yuri fandom since its beginning?"
There's a lot of Harry Potter Doujinshi (doujinshi are fan-made comic books/manga published in Japan) out now.
The amount of actual fans of Yaoi/Yuri have increased. 5 years ago, people (hehe, like me) were embarrassed about it, but now it's become far more widespread and available to fans.
The level of industry acceptance has increased, now that they have realized there is a market for Yaoi/Yuri.
"What is the difference between Slash and Yaoi?"
Slash is when shows like Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter are slashed when fans create homoerotic situations between the characters. It's mostly an American/western world fan tradition. The word slash is because of the slash between characters during a sexual situation. The first known slash story (got this info from somewhere else, by the way, hehe) is a Spock/Kirk story from Star Trek.
Yaoi is the Japanese equivalent, dealing mostly with games, anime and manga characters. It's yaoi whether its created by a western fan, or by someone Japanese.
The lines between these two genres of fan-made homoerotic stories and such are getting blurred by the large amount of crossovers between Western and Japanese material. The one bright spot of the panel happened when an audience member piped up and asked "When two women, cosplaying as men, start making out, is it Yaoi or Yuri?" and one of the panelists answered "Send them to my room."

Please note that these contents are my own notes and observations from attending this panel, so please do not steal them for your own site. You don't want me to get mad, do you? Of course NOT! Thank you for not stealing!

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