A little bit of trivia for those who don't know, but
uke is a term most often applied to yaoi (romance between males), where one guy is notably submissive and receives the advances of his partner, the
seme, which means "attacker." The seme-uke dynamic can also be applied to yuri (romance between females), but it usually goes nameless or under a different moniker entirely. It would certainly be difficult to envision yuri taking an uke position since its personification would be female while yaoi would be a guy, but the former is overshadowed so much anyway.
Why is the output of yaoi so much higher compared to yuri? Because yaoi is more profitable. Why is yaoi more profitable? Because more people are willing to buy that stuff. Why are more people willing to buy that stuff?
...That's where I got stuck. Both of these romantic sub-genres feature taboo relationships, so why does there seem to be more audience/reader acceptance of one set of gender-monotony and not the other? Is there some kind of greater psychology at work or are more people just really turned on by guy-on-guy than they are girl-on-girl? I mean, there has to be a reason I can walk into any random bookstore, ask for yaoi, and be directed to
Loveless, then ask for yuri, and be directed to books on some Russian dude, right? Right?! And by the way,
teasing doesn't count~
Anyone feel like correcting me on something? Or chiming in with your own thoughts on the subject?