WORD OF THE DAY – Yaoi vs. Boys’ Love Part 1

Ever wonder what the difference is between yaoi and boys' love? Is there a difference? Well, it all comes down to where you are from, what is commonly used and what it means there.  I'll first start with yaoi and will later post boys' love: 

"The term yaoi was originally used to point to badly drawn doujinshi. It later came to be used to point to doujinshi with male/male sex scenes. It now can also be used to refer to sex scenes in any BL manga, or indicate that such scenes exist in a work, or to refer to commercial works that consist mostly of such scenes. For example, Zettai Reido, Boy's Pierce, and Comic June are referred to as BL or yaoi interchangeably.

For a while, the word June was used for original male/male stories and manga, but since June is a trade name for a commercial publication, it has been largely replaced with BL. Commercially published works that many Westerners call yaoi fall into the category of BL in Japan.

Many Westerners use yaoi as an umbrella term to mean any story that includes any male/male relationship and is linked to Japan – commercial manga, anime, games, game-based slash fiction, English fan fiction, fan art, etc. just as BL is used as an umbrella term in Japan. In Japan the term yaoi is limited to doujinshi and sex scenes, because of its negative connotations. Referring to a commercial work as yaoi may be considered offensive. Referring to a commercial BL, Lady's, or shoujo mangaka as a yaoi mangaka may also be offensive. Many titles which are shoujo, such as Yami no Matsuei by Matsushita Youko and Bronze by Ozaki Minami, are categorized by Westerners as yaoi.

Shounen-ai and tanbi are terms that are no longer used, and are of historical interest only."

Source