Hey there. The majority of fans of this hardcore rapey yaoi tend to be young (teenagers or first college years). Adults tend to tune it down a bit.

I've spent my school years with certain likeminded friends and we would go to the yaoi section of comiccons and squeal at the non-con, the shota, and all that. Heck, I remember my classmates playfully made fun of me by gifting me a bunch of plastic toy snakes, due to a porn yaoi comic I had about a talking snake who raped some dude. Good times.

So, I know from first experience. It's not about "trauma" or "under-developed sexuality", but mostly the exact opposite of it.

The "shock value" part of it? That part is true. It's like when you get a thrill watching a horror film, but then you get used to it, so you seek out an even grosser and gorier horror film that can still scare you out.

It's harmless fun and it's about as dangerous as heavy metal fans listening to "demonic" song lyrics.

I've never met a yaoi or shota fan who wasn't actually a perfectly normal and adjusted lady (if a little bit on the nerd side)...... but I'm sure that somewhere there has to be some yaoi or shota fan who is genuinely disturbed. Keep in mind, however, that doesn't mean that yaoi fans are disturbed, but that a disturbed person can happen to be a yaoi fan.