Yaoi Zine

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Zine
Title: Yaoi Zine
Publisher: tshirt zines
Editor(s): tshirt
Date(s): Feb 2023-present
Frequency: Biannual
Medium: Print, Online
Size: 5.5 x 8-8.5 inches; page count varies
Fandom: Multifandom
Language: English
External Links: Yaoi Zine website on Neocities
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Yaoi Zine is a biannual, multifandom non-fiction zine compiled and published by tshirt. It's about yaoi, but in a loose, tongue-in-cheek sense of the word:

as a yaoi zine, our definition of yaoi follows our definition of zine: maximally inclusive, diy, and weird. i was less interested in the modern multimillion dollar industry than the random shit that set us all down our respective freak paths.

[1]

Each individual contributor is encouraged to define "yaoi" for themselves, and pieces arguing that non-m/m ships can or should be considered yaoi are welcome. Contributions have included meta essays, fanart, comics, poetry, and other fanworks.

Print copies of each issue are sold at cost, and PDF copies are made available for free on the zine's webpage on Neocities. Contributors also receive complimentary print copies.

History

tshirt's motivation to create a "yaoi zine" for themself and their friends is explained in their editor's note in Volume 1:

i was inspired by a 2000 interview between kunihiko ikuhara and mari kotani on the history and context surrounding the sexuality that informed revolutionary girl utena. over its course, ikuhara and kotani become preoccupied with what the translator calls deviance, or escape from the system. kotani argues that in many girls’ stories, the system is often represented by bdsm and school settings, and many of these stories reverse the dominance relations we see in our everyday lives. and ikuhara later describes the relationship between women in his work as “yaoi,” because their relationships are so sexual and vivid. he ultimately concludes that the essence of yaoi, to him, is that reversal kotani describes earlier. he believes it generates the eroticism and underpins the genre.

so that’s the theoretical justification for my working definition of yaoi. but practically speaking, i wanted to celebrate offbeat eroticism, childhood escapes, and most of all, our ordinary reversals of our worlds. i wanted yaoi to become a way of saying “queer,” for people for whom saying queer became gay. what is yaoi, then? it’s transgression, it’s perversion, and most of all, it’s the friends we made along the way.

[1]

Issues

Volume 1

Zine cover featuring a collage of characters from various anime and JRPGs, with the text "Yaoi" and "What changed your life?"
Volume 1 cover

The first issue of Yaoi Zine was published in February 2023[2] in a single 96-page volume. It contains contributors' responses to the question, "What was the yaoi that changed your life?" Additional art by tshirt and Cyan is also included, along with a reprint of the cartoon "La puissance ou la jouissance?" by Copi (1971).

Contents

Fanworks published in Volume 1 include:[note 1]

Volume 2: The Analysis Issue

Text formatted like an academic article from JSTOR with the publication as Yaoi Magazine, the title as The Analysis Issue, the publisher as "tshirt et al" and the authors as "me and my friends"
Volume 2 cover

The second issue of Yaoi Zine was published on July 15, 2023. At 180 pages, it is nearly double the size of the first volume; print copies were perfectbound like a book. The cover of the zine is a parody of an academic article hosted on JSTOR, a reference to the issue's theme: for volume 2, contributors were asked to provide their "finest anal/ysis" of yaoi. As the editor's note puts it, this issue is about "reclaimed dark academia":

i wrote once, “i think we should reclaim the term dark academia from people who like plaid skirts and cambridge and it should be only for people who post yaoi freud essays on tumblr.” and i actually was serious. to me, dark academia means creating your most vibrant, fulfilling, and expressive work outside of school, rather than in it. it means saying no to norms of rigor and exclusivity and saying yes to yaoi and fun. so that was the idea.

[3]

It contains additional illustrations by tshirt and simkjrs.

Contents

Personal Essays
Poetry/Shorts
Other Essays

Volume 3: Yuri Zine

Illustrated cover art featuring lilies, birds, and a person's lips, with the text Yuri Zine
Volume 3 cover with art by CEL@taichichasers

Yaoi Zine volume 3, which was titled Yuri Zine, was published in January 2024 in a single volume of 160 black-and-white pages.[4] It features yuri-focused "essays, art, fiction, poetry, collage, rec lists, playlists, and more" contributed by 29 authors.[5] The cover art was drawn by CEL@taichichasers and additional art was provided by Suedeuxnim, shrimpchipsss, Alexis TheSwordWizard, simkjrs, and tshirt.[4]

The editor's note for volume 3 reads:

what do we mean when we say yuri? do we refer to the historical continuity, the collection of tropes, any media that’s f/f, a specific subjectivity, or something else entirely? this zine was an attempt at celebrating that yuri has enough room for all those things. yuri is romance, yuri is friendship, yuri is loving women, yuri is genderqueer, yuri is abstract theory, yuri is nasty onscreen sex, yuri is about seeing yourself in a canon that never spared you a single thought, yuri is about lifting up and supporting lgbt creatives, yuri is the relationship between you and me, yuri is the relationship between me and these words.

it’s a lot of things. i wanted this zine to approach yuri in the same way we approach yaoi: in a simultaneous spirit of irreverent play and utmost seriousness. we are deeply committed to our silly things here. i think too often with yuri we fall into the trap of seriousness alone. we hold our yuri to a higher standard than our yaoi. it must be beautiful, it must be true, and it must do right by women. yaoi is often none of the above with respect to masculinity. and yet it is dear to us. i’m not suggesting that we need to make yuri that is ugly, lying, and detrimental to women per se, but i am saying that this volume is about being unafraid that our yuri is any of those things. yuri is expansive enough for us all.

 [6]

Contents

Volume 4

Volume 4 cover with art by iplid1

Volume 4, which was themed "actual yaoi", enforced a narrower definition of yaoi and only featured works related to Japanese BL:

i jokingly nicknamed this issue the gatekept yaoi zine. in my call for submissions, i specified that entries must literally be about yaoi—that is, japanese bl. my lovely contributors rose to the challenge, of course. but why was there a challenge at all?

some reasons: i thought it would be funny. also i do like yaoi and i wanted to honor the genre that gave our zine its name. i also wanted its constraints and conventions to teach us something. and most of all i wanted to see more english language scholarship on not just bl fan communities but the objects of our adoration. like, what is it about yaoi that keeps us coming back? together we tried to plumb some of the depths of this excessive, melodramatic, lovesick genre.

 [7]

The cover art was drawn by iplid1.[8]

Contents

Notes

  1. ^ Most contributions were untitled. All contributors are named according to how they were credited in the zine.

References

  1. ^ a b tshirt, "What Is Yaoi? A Note from the Editor", Yaoi Zine, Volume 1.
  2. ^ @tshirt3000 (Feb 20, 2023). great news everybody! its here its here!... (Tweet) Accessed Oct 21, 2023.
  3. ^ tshirt, "What Is Analysis? A Note from the Editor", Yaoi Zine Volume 2: The Analysis Issue.
  4. ^ a b @bao3bei4 (Jan 9, 2024). YAOI ZINE VOLUME 3 IS HERE! AND ITS YURI! Tumblr post. Accessed January 9, 2024. (archive link)
  5. ^ Yuri Zine order page on Tshirt Zines storefront. Big Cartel. Accessed January 9, 2024. (archive link)
  6. ^ tshirt, "What Is Yuri? A Note from the Editor", Yaoi Zine Volume 3: Yuri Zine.
  7. ^ tshirt, "What Is Yaoi? A Note from the Editor, Part 2", Yaoi Zine Volume 4.
  8. ^ Yaoi Zine 4 PDF (2024). Via longposter on Neocities. Archived from the original on Nov 3, 2024.
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