You’re not the first person to ask me this. I once made a post all about them, but I will reiterate because the past must not be forgotten lest we repeat history
I’m mostly copypasting from my original post on this:
The yaoi paddle is…an odd yet fascinating relic of the ‘weeabo’ phase everyone went through, specifically prevalent throughout the Naruto and Kingdom Hearts fandom in thy early days.
The Yaoi Paddle was literally a small oar with the words Yaoi, Seme, or Uke written on them
Their function was to slap people’s asses.
Now you would think this would be something reserved for say an after dark or +18 panel, but no, it wasn’t. This was a very real thing people carried around with them on the convention floor
People would go up and slap each other on the ass with these in public, in front of everybody.
Not only was this acceptable behavior, it was downright expected! Something that by today’s standards would be considered sexual harassment was acceptable
This was a real thing that happened for a long time at conventions, as you can tell by the timestamp this photo. If you thought random hugs were a violation of personal space then you’ve gone soft in the absence of these unholy weapons.
if you wore a Naruto, Sauske, Sora, Riku, or Org. XIII cosplay from 2006 to 2009, you were officially fair game and you might as well have been wearing a target on your ass, regardless if you were in to that or not.
Nowadays they are but a distant memory, a forgotten part of convention culture that a lot of people want to pretend never happened; with good reason mind you
So there’s your history lesson!
