This can be an ongoing topic! I was curious if other BL fans feel their tastes changing as they get older.
I've really noticed how I'm not as interested in super "pretty boy" stories nowadays and high school stories as much even though I loved loved loved things by Yonezou Nekota and Atsumiko Nakamura before. Now BL by Tsutomu, Emi Mitsuki, and Noda Matsumoto appeal to me (though I still love Nekota and Nakamura!).
Mine definitely have, especially on the art front - I still have much of my teenage fondness for the pretty boys, but I love some muscles and some body hair now (and more off-kilter art styles). And that ties in with changes in stories I like. I still read high school stuff, but I'd mostly rather read about adults and if they're old enough for crows' feet and eyebags, all the better. I don't need to relate to characters per se, but it can be nice when they're a similar age to me.
I have gone back and forth on dark themes... but there is a clear trend away from accepting tsun uke to really preferring to nooot.
What happened for me was, I read an enormous amount of content during a really low mental health period. Just anything I could put in front of my eyes regardless of content, quality, legality, etc. because it was one of the few things I could muster up enough energy to do during that time. Once I got into a much better headspace later on I became way more selective about what I wanted to read. It's sort of hard to say "I used to like X but now I prefer Y" when it really boils down to I used to read pretty much any garbage even if I didn't like it that much but now I just focus on things I genuinely enjoy.
I've definitely found my tastes change. I have less patience for high school, first love romance stories now. It's just so vanilla and I need a little kick to my story.
I'm not the biggest fan of the 'porny' types of stories. I will find myself actually flicking through smut scenes if I'm not emotionally involved with the characters and they are just straight up banging.
Weirdest one for me artist wise is that I used to like Makoto Tateno's art but now not so much and I can't put my finger on why.
I do this a lot too, even though I do like a fair amount of smut. Not everyone can pull off a satisfying sex scene (and sometimes even when they can, if there's otherwise too many of them in a story and I get bored), so if I'm not feeling it, I definitely will just skip right on by.
I really like the slow burns and the longing, getting the tension ratcheted up just right for this reason - so many emotions!
I feel like now that I'm a little older, I'm pickier about sex scenes if that makes sense. After reading a bunch of different ones, I really appreciate ones that really show a connection between the characters in the moment.
This can be an ongoing topic! I was curious if other BL fans feel their tastes changing as they get older.
I still love my high school and college BLs, but I'm more and more welcoming to BLs featuring older characters, or at least dealing with living in the same roof. Even with the spice level I seemed to level up even if some are still off-limits with me (e.g. featuring furries). I'd have to dig in how many threesomes & BDSMs I've read the past few years.
Sneaky Red might be a good mark in how my tastes in BL evolved...it's a title I can't imagine reading while barely into college, but when I finished it felt like my mind become more open on such difficult topics.