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Introduction
I've seen all the Anime threads asking people what their favorite Yaoi pairing is and then putting, "O ya! I luv Yaoi! SasuNara is teh best!" And I'm sitting there like "What the ********? That's not Yaoi! That's Slash!" So for all you people that don't seem to know what Yaoi is, the great Doumeki-san is here to tell you all about it, and even give you some examples! (PM me if you want me to add an example to the list, thanks!)

So What is Yaoi then?
(Most of the following information is taken straight from the Wikipedia page.)
Yaoi (やおい) is a publishing genre, which originated in Japan and often encompasses manga, dōjinshi, anime, and fan art. It focuses on homosexual relationships between male characters and is generally sexually explicit.

Pronunciation
Strictly speaking, all three vowels should be pronounced in separate morae, yielding a three-mora word, (ya-o-i). However, yaoi is frequently heard as only two syllables, where under acceptable pronunciation produces the phoneme /oi/ with the 「お」 and 「い」 syllabic characters.

In the United States, it is commonly mispronounced as /jaʊi/ or /jeɪɔɪ/.


Etymology
The English letters form a backronym of the Japanese phrase 「ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし」 (yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi), often translated into English as, "no climax, no punch line, no meaning," or as the catchphrase, "No peak, no point, no problem." It has also been rather affectionately termed "Yamete! Oshiri ga itai!" or "Stop! My butt hurts!" in English.

The term appears to have been originally used in Japan, perhaps as early as the 1970s, to describe any doujinshi that was a bizarre, playful parody; however, it has come to refer solely to sexually explicit male-male homosexual material. Yaoi is not a common term in Japanese; it is specific to the otaku subculture.

Seme and uke
The two participants in a yaoi relationship are often referred to as seme ("attacker" wink and uke ("receiver" wink . Although these terms originated in martial arts, they have apparently been used in a sexual context for centuries and do not carry any degrading connotations. Seme derives from the Japanese verb semeru (“to attack”) and uke from the Japanese verb ukeru (“to receive”). Though gay males are often referred to in English as "tops" or "bottoms," seme and uke are more nearly analogous to "pitcher" and "catcher."

The seme is often depicted as the stereotypical male of anime and manga culture: restrained, physically powerful, and/or protective. The seme usually has a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more masculine demeanor than the uke. The seme usually pursues the uke.

The uke is usually more androgynous or effeminate in appearance and demeanor and is often smaller and sometimes unrealistically girlish in behavior.

Though these stereotypes are common, not all works adhere to them. For example, some of the anthologies published by Be X Boy feature stories on themes such as "younger seme" or "reversible." The "height rule," the implication that greater height confers greater power, is also sometimes broken.

While most earlier yaoi depicted both seme and uke partners as slightly effeminate, there has been an up rise of "muscle yaoi," in which adult men are portrayed as more masculine and strongly muscled. Yaoi of this kind is referred to in fan communities as "bara" after Barazoku, a now-defunct Japanese gay men's magazine often known for pictures of men with muscle tone. Yaoi of the former kind is now referred to as "bishie" within fan communities, after the word bishonen, a term for effeminate and/or androgynous "pretty boys" in anime and manga.



Shonen-ai/BL (Boy's Love)
Believe it or not, people actually get these confused too. Yes, Shonen-ai was the original term, but it now refers to having sexual feelings for someone under the age of consent (not young enough to be considered Shota though, that is under age 13). Boy love refers to anime/manga where yes, there is a homosexual relationship, but it has little or no sexual activity.




That being said, Shōnen-ai (少年愛, Shōnen-ai? "boy-love" wink is a term that is applied to anime or manga that deals with love between young men, especially of the bishōnen (美少年, bishōnen?) variety. The genre itself dealt with romanticized but non-sexual relationships between men. The predecessor of shōnen-ai was tanbi (耽美, tanbi?).

Shōnen-ai is less sexually explicit than yaoi, sometimes not at all. Shōnen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives. It has also found a strong audience in America and Europe, especially among 18–24 year old heterosexual women and homosexual men


Slash
Here is the category most Gaians seem to actually think of when they hear the term "Yaoi". Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction. It focuses on the depiction of sexual or romantic relationships between two or more characters, who are not necessarily engaged in relationships in the canon universe. While the term originally was restricted to fan fiction in which one or more male media characters were involved in an explicit adult relationship as a primary plot element, it is currently more generally used to refer to any pairing between male characters. The term is also sometimes applied to fiction focusing on relationships between female characters; however, some fans distinguish femslash as a separate genre.