alt title(s): Les Yay
"That young man fills me with hope...plus some other emotions that are weird and deeply confusing me..."
Homoeroticism, Yay!
As introduced by jengod on
Television Without Pity's
Angel forum, any same-gender relationship that appears to be more than "
just good friends." Primarily used for male/male relationships, partly because male intimate friendships tend to be more tabooed in homophobic cultures and partly because
it's more attractive to the kind of people who write fanfic. The less common female/female equivalent is often referred to as
Les Yay.
Alternately, those moments of plot, dialogue, acting, etc., that draw attention to possible homoerotic
Subtext in that relationship. Thank you,
Dr. Freud.
The closest equivalent in
anime and other Asian pop culture is
Yaoi Guys (and
Schoolgirl Lesbians, of course).
In the related trope called
Foe Yay, even
rivals or
mortal enemies can get this treatment by fans and writers alike, especially if they have
a more friendly past together, or one is
inordinately obsessed with the other. In
Fan Fic, this is the direct cause of many a
Slash Fic.
In another sub-trope called Bro Yay,
even brothers can get the HoYay treatment. Popular pairings include Sam/Dean (
Supernatural) and Peter/Nathan (
Heroes). Hell, even
Frasier/Niles have their own fanbase. A sub-trope of this is
Twincest.
A great deal of Ho Yay may be
just wishful thinking. It is essentially a truism of fandom that any homosocial behavior, from
Air Hugging on up, frees the characters who did it to
be slashed together by someone in some corner of the Internet. This holds for characters without canon orientations and even for those specifically
stated by their creators to be straight. This should not come as a surprise to those aware of the "textual poaching" nature of fandom. Fandom/fanfiction uses several tropes of its own—some of which are fairly well grounded in the actual closeting/coming out experience, some of which are confined to fiction—to justify altering canon sexual orientations or interpolating where none are specified.
See also
Heterosexual Life Partners,
Lovely Angels and
Romantic Two Girl Friendship.
Examples:
