Here, alongside softer images of romance on titles for elementary school girls, you will find glossy covers featuring only pretty boys - some of them closing in to kiss each other.
Now go to the part of the manga section that is furthest from the entrance. Even before one brushstroke of word or picture is written, the assumption is clear that girls exist to titillate men, whether they be characters, readers, or the wider patriarchal society as a whole. Walk into the manga section of your local Japanese bookstore and the overwhelming image you will see is one of a wide-eyed girl with impossible melon breasts in an available position. In a nation where patriarchy remains strong, Boys' Love homoerotic manga and other fictional media give women and girls a world of escapism from societal constraints.