Why Yuri Anime Is Mostly a Male Gaze Fantasy (Not Proof of LGBTQ+ Acceptance)

This paper presents a structural hypothesis examining the gender demographics of yuri anime consumption and its downstream implications for LGBTQ+ sympathy signal reliability. Through analysis of creator backgrounds, publication ecosystems, market incentives, and sampling theory, the paper argues that yuri subtext in mainstream anime is primarily a male-gaze product regardless of creator gender, and that the apparent female presence in yuri audiences reflects overlapping sampling artifacts rather than substantial female fandom. Four compounding effects are identified: visibility bias, incomparable N sizes across titles, the barrel-scraping effect, and selective male dropout. The paper further argues that using yuri consumption as a proxy for LGBTQ+ sympathy produces a systematically inflated signal. Explicitly positioned as a hypothesis pending empirical verification.