What's the appeal of BL?

For me, ig it's hard finding mlm in normal fiction sometimes so going to a genre dedicated to it scratches that itch.

Also if it's soft BL, it makes me soft and I get into that

There were multiple hot men . . . that's it

i have watched the untamed ( i have liked cus of the plot mostly, and plus ofc Xiao Zhan and Yibo are some fine man)

also watched Together series (there's nothing much like plot and its meh overall as series, but WinBright )

i wouldn't say myself BL fan but i am interested recently usually cus I am tired of straight drama tropes its always the same and boring

I haven't watched many BL shows but those I did, I enjoyed rather more than most het romances. Probably because many het romance shows feature female leads that are written in a way that I personally find incredibly offputting. Like they only exist to be in love with the male lead and that relationship then ends up becoming their whole identity.

In BL, however unrealistic it may otherwise be, the characters seem more likely to be equals and tend to both be skilled at something. You can see them going their own separate ways if things don't work out between them. They have goals, values, likes and dislikes and usually genuine friends to who they talk about not just their relationship woes.

With female leads however, I'm often left wondering who they are, what they'd do if they fail to get the male lead, because most shows fail to establish clear goals for them.

Some are given a career, but more often than not there's no substance to it. It's just where she goes when she's not on screen. The female lead often feels like a point of view character. She's sold to us as the lead but in truth she's merely the character through whose eyes we get to see the male lead. And I don't like that. It makes it difficult to empathise with her because she feels like a cardboard cutout.

On of the many factors is that most relationships between men are inherently equal, whereas a relationship between a man and a woman has a certain degree of inequality that you cannot escape from.

It's nice to see how a relationship between two equal partners develops.

All I really know is my brain melts at the sight of dudes kissing eachother idk anything more idc about character development I just wanna watch

An example :

the gay stuff duhh

...butt lift?

I like reading romance novels. When I was a young teen I used to read harlequin novels but when I grew up I realised how messed up and extremely problematic and misogynistic they are, I can no longer stand them. BL, when written well, actually overcomes the problem I have with het romance novels which is usually power unbalance and mutual respect. I find relationship dynamics in bl novels to be much more relatable and desirable than those in het romance novels.