Since at least @shipperinjapan was interested, I wanna give a short insight into the work of Björn-Ole Kamm of 2010: "Nutzen und Gratifikationen bei Boys' Love Manga - #Fujoshi oder verdorbene Mädchen in Japan und Deutschland". published by Kovac in German. #yaoiron #BoysLove

The english title would be "Uses and Gratifications of Boys‘ Love Manga - Fujoshi or rotten girls in Japan and Germany". But as far as I know no English version exists, not even an English abstract. So this thread may at least give some insight for English speakers.

Kamm tackles the question of why women read Boys Love (BL;=maleXmale romance/erotic manga). He first gives an oversight on the discourse so far and dismisses much of it because of easily falsifiable generalisations und pure psychoanalytical, philosophical or anecdotic approches.

Instead he choses to listen to individual fans (in Japan and Germany) via interviews conducted by himself and also some interviews done by other reseachers before. He analyses these against the background of general media theory on why people consume certain media.

At the end of his analysis he gives four user types and an array of reasons why BL is consumed, bearing in mind that this is just the result of the interviews in the study plus the theories he built upon and not a complete and representative picture.

The 4 BL-user types: Connaisseuse; Con-Girl; Net-Girl; sporadic user. I think these are quite self-explaining. More might exist, but these emerged from his sample. Also one can be part of more than one of these types.

Kamm dismisses the question of "why 2 men?", because it's the defining characteristic of the genre. It's like asking "why is comedy funny" or "why are there scary things in horror". Instead he suggests: What does the manXman constellation in particular add to the entertainment?

He then suggests an array of answers which he divides alongside #Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
First there is pure lust and the value of erotic fiction in BL. Which is a reason for media consumption on its own. The BL theme adds an aspect of voyeurism and forbidden love.

Both add also to the entertainment value, since they include an element of suprise, suspense and conflict. Also other aspects of homosexual love play a role here, thus this genre offers conflicts and story lines unusual or impossible in heterosexual love stories.

In this respect BL may also cater cognitive needs, offering chances for diversity and novelty, even of educational value (at least on an emotional/emphatic level) or sociocritical, but also giving this in the somewhat familiar framework of the genres conventions.

The act of pairing (canon or not) also caters cognitive needs. Another need is adressed in the lively community around BL, giving the opportunity for socialising (over pairings), exchanging knowledge and gaining prestige, especially via the highly fostered fan creativity.

Creativity of fans in writing etc which is reinforced by the framework the genres conventions give, also caters the need for self actualisation in achieving ones creative potential.
So various needs are catered by BL, and some (in combination) in a way distinct for the genre.

So this was a small summary of some of Kamms findings in 2010. I am not aware that anyone built on this work since, sadly.
I will work some of the contents of Kamms work into articles in German #wikipedia on the topic in the (unforeseeable) future. So you may read more there.