Editing Boys' love (section)

===1990s: Mainstream popularity and ''yaoi ronsō''===
[[File:Clamp at Anime Expo 2006 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.85|The manga artist group [[Clamp (manga artists)|Clamp]], whose works were among the first ''yaoi''-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences]]
The growing popularity of ''yaoi'' attracted the attention of manga magazine editors, many of whom recruited ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} authors to their publications;{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=63}} ''[[Zetsuai 1989]]'' (1989–1991) by [[Minami Ozaki]], a ''yaoi'' series published in the ''shōjo'' magazine ''[[Margaret (magazine)|Margaret]]'', was originally a ''Captain Tsubasa'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}} created by Ozaki that she adapted into an original work.{{sfn|Suzuki|1999|p=261}} By 1990, seven Japanese publishers included ''yaoi'' content in their offerings, which kickstarted the commercial publishing market of the genre.<ref name="Bauer p.82"/> Between 1990 and 1995, thirty magazines devoted to ''yaoi'' were established: ''[[Magazine Be × Boy]]'', founded in 1993, became one of the most influential ''yaoi'' manga magazines of this era.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64}} The manga in these magazines were influenced by realist stories like ''Banana Fish'', and moved away from the ''shōnen-ai'' standards of the 1970s and 1980s.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64}}{{sfn|Brient|2008b|p=10}} ''Shōnen-ai'' works that were published during this period were typically comedies rather than melodramas, such as ''[[Gravitation (manga)|Gravitation]]'' (1996–2002) by [[Maki Murakami]].<ref name="Routledge"/> Consequently, ''yaoi'' and "boys' love" (BL) came to be the most popular terms to describe works depicting male-male romance, eclipsing ''shōnen-ai'' and ''June''.{{sfn|Welker|2015|p=64-65}}

An increasing proportion of ''shōjo'' manga in the 1990s began to integrate ''yaoi'' elements into their plots. The manga artist group [[Clamp (manga artists)|Clamp]], which itself began as a group creating ''yaoi'' {{lang|ja-Latn|dōjinshi}},{{sfn|Kimbergt|2008|p=113–115}} published multiple works containing ''yaoi'' elements during this period, such as ''[[RG Veda]]'' (1990–1995), ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' (1991–1994), and ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' (1996–2000).{{sfn|Sylvius|2008|p=20-23}} When these works were released in North America, they were among the first ''yaoi''-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences.{{sfn|Sylvius|2008|p=20-23}} BL gained popularity in [[mainland China]] in the late 1990s; the country subsequently outlawed the publishing and distribution of BL works.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |title=Intersections: Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong |journal=Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific |access-date=8 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128211422/http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue20/liu.htm |archive-date=28 January 2013 |url-status=live |last1=Liu|first1=Ting|issue=20|date=2009}}</ref>

The mid-1990s saw the so-called "''yaoi'' debate" or ''yaoi ronsō'' (や お い 論争), a debate held primarily in a series of essays published in the feminist magazine ''Choisir'' from 1992 to 1997.{{sfn|Hishida|2015|p=214}} In an [[open letter]], Japanese gay writer Masaki Satō criticized the genre as [[homophobic]] for not depicting gay men accurately,<ref name="Mori Mari"/> and called fans of ''yaoi'' "disgusting women" who "have a perverse interest in sexual intercourse between men."{{sfn|Hishida|2015|p=214}} A years-long debate ensued, with ''yaoi'' fans and artists contending that ''yaoi'' is entertainment for women that does not seek to be a realistic depiction of homosexuality, and instead serves as a refuge from the misogyny of Japanese society.<ref name="Mori Mari"/> The scholarly debate that the ''yaoi ronsō'' engendered led to the formation of the field of "BL studies", which focus on the study of BL and the relationship between women and BL.{{sfn|Nagaike|Aoyama|2015|p=121}} It additionally impacted creators of ''yaoi'': author Chiyo Kurihara abandoned ''yaoi'' to focus on heterosexual pornography as a result of the ''yaoi ronsō'', while Hisako Takamatsu took into account the arguments of the genre's critics to create works more accommodating of a gay audience.<ref name="Mori Mari"/>