I'm given to understand that yaoi, or at least the yaoi that gets published and scanlated in the U.S., also tends to mimic gendered power imbalances in specific stylizied ways. Is this not a prevalent or significant strain in all yaoi?
In an article in the Shoujo Manga: Girl Power exhibit catalog, Yoko Nagakubo claims that uke/seme role assignment is actually part of the genre definition. But (paraphrasing) she also says that these role assignments are "comparative" in nature, and based on the two characters' relative femininity/masculinity compared to one another. She claims that it's also necessary that there be at least the potential for one/both to at some point take on the other role, either through involvement with a third character whose femininity/masculinity sort of changes the differential, or by somehow altering their own attributes and tipping the balance.
This does not quite synch with my limited personal knowledge of bl/yaoi - there are a some where the roles seem to be depicted as immutable - but it does pretty accurately describe the kind that I like.
no subject
In an article in the Shoujo Manga: Girl Power exhibit catalog, Yoko Nagakubo claims that uke/seme role assignment is actually part of the genre definition. But (paraphrasing) she also says that these role assignments are "comparative" in nature, and based on the two characters' relative femininity/masculinity compared to one another. She claims that it's also necessary that there be at least the potential for one/both to at some point take on the other role, either through involvement with a third character whose femininity/masculinity sort of changes the differential, or by somehow altering their own attributes and tipping the balance.
This does not quite synch with my limited personal knowledge of bl/yaoi - there are a some where the roles seem to be depicted as immutable - but it does pretty accurately describe the kind that I like.