I personally think it's a meme, to some extent. I know plenty of guys who read BL, and plenty of girls who don't read BL. For those who do though, I feel like it becomes a common shared interest that makes it easy to connect with people you're not familiar with. The best example I can give is sort of like being IRL, and you find out the person next to you really likes anime. Naturally, you end up curious about whether you do share interests -- and when you find out it is indeed the case, it's always kind of fun and exciting. With BL being the kind of thing that most people wouldn't be bold enough to talk about IRL (it's more taboo than being an anime geek!), I think finding a community that reads BL is also a form of a social circle of friends as well, which isn't so easy to find in the real world. So to some extent vocally loving BL I think is also a way to find and make likeminded friends. Even if originally you weren't originally the type that reads BL, it's hard not to give it a try and eventually find a BL novel (or manga) that's really really good, especially when the most popular figures in your circle of friends have so much excitement about it. And before you know it, I feel like 75% of the things I read these days are BL. As for my thoughts about BL itself -- there are good ones and bad ones (vanilla ones and super hardcore ones). I like BL, but I wouldn't necessarily say I "love" BL unconditionally -- it's only a genre after all. There are quite a few novels I love a lot though, but I think our tastes can vary!
I'll read it if it has an interesting plot and isn't too focused on romance, I guess? I used to avoid it on principle, but ever since I ended up reading a bl that wasn't too heavy on romance and enjoyed it, I decided to give the ones I find interesting a try.
Nope. Only girls and those from half-lings enjoy those. A true alpha male only reads straight and yuri.
I read gender-bender and light themes of girly-guy on guy... but not the totally guy on guy bl.... well I only read cute stories and I still don't know how heavy bl can get~
Curses! BL has infected me, and I have succumbed to reading some BL novels. (They're pretty good). As long as there's no smut involved, I'm ok with reading some BL novels, but it's a secret of when I'm reading it, so no one knows I'm reading it. I'm definitely not reading BL novels, ok?
While there are some people who do automatic 1-stars just because of tags (not that we can prove it...:c), I wouldn't say BL isn't too liked here...peek in the Danmei Room on NUF
Like it~ I'm reading your kitty K too~ Recently there was a little brother who discovered that I read BL and he was like and "oh, you like 2 man doing that huh" but it isn't like that! Not all have such graphic description! Ex: Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil - it shows a bit less than soap operas! There's the romanticism on it! Very idealized! It's highly MOE! And lately there have been some realy interesting ones! Try it! Be it by Moe or plot! Try it!
It's boyxboy stuff, basically. Sometimes it's explicit and sexual, and sometimes it's just romantic and sweet!
Easy way, Look up most popular BL and see how many have it on the reading list. Not my cup a tea tbh. Need more fancy hard core stuff.