This is based on information taken from teens re-blogging ‘yaoi manga,’ a graphic Japanese comic genre that depicts ‘boys love.’ An anecdotal account gathered by Broadly explained, “I feel more comfortable being attracted to gay masculinity than straight masculinity.” “That kind of makes sense…if they’re going to watch porn, gay men have a look that [girls] are more attracted to,” Hannah says. She explains that with regular porn, men look ‘burly’ and are ‘hyper-masculinized.’

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These ‘boys love’ blogs have a growing audience of teen girls. Hannah suggests that another factor that explains this is, teen girls feel connected, on an emotional level, to gay men in porn. John offers a different idea, describing the characters in gay porn as, “This tiny, skinny, little person that can’t hurt you, that looks girlish.” He points out that teen girls are attracted to boy bands because they portray the ‘sweet and charming’ and ‘non-threatening’ image, and it’s a similar image gay men in porn have.