Boys' love - Knowledge

2379: 2397: 2388: 2187: 1956: 2552: 3724: 16958: 13710: 17378: 16968: 17416: 13699: 4896: 17404: 4868: 883: 13757: 13762: 4882: 2889:. As is typical in romance fiction, couples depicted in these stories often must overcome obstacles that are emotional or psychological rather than physical. Akiko Mizoguchi notes that while early stories depicted homosexuality as a source of shame to heighten dramatic tension in this regard, beginning in the mid-2000s the genre began to depict gay identity with greater sensitivity and nuance, with series such as 3977: 3466: 340: 10542: 40: 1336: 2318:(imaginary couples) who are designed to be paired together by Thai BL's predominantly female fans. For cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette, BL series produced in Thailand represent the next stage in the historic development of BL, which is increasingly becoming "dislocated" from Japan among international fans' understanding of the genre. 2936:, while earlier works in the genre focused "more on the homosexual way of life from a realistic perspective", over time the genre has become less realistic and more comedic, and the stories are "simply for entertainment". BL manga often have fantastical, historical or futuristic settings, and many fans consider the genre to be 4650:". While early approaches to the popularity of the genre often referred to the role of women in patriarchal Japanese society, to which the genre offers a resistance and escape, this approach has been rejected by others who note that BL and BL-like media became popular outside of Japan in other social circumstances, such as 4488:

approximately ten percent of the broader English-speaking BL readership were male. Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese gay men who are offended by "pornographic" content in gay men's magazines may prefer to read BL instead. Some gay men, however, are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of

2925:(2016–2018) and other BL television dramas that emerged in the 2010s as a "'missing link' to bridge the gap between BL fiction and gay people," arguing that when BL narratives are presented using human actors, it produces a "subconscious change in the perception of viewers" towards acceptance of homosexuality. 4638:

populating the genre were a backlash against male sex fantasies of a feminized ideal of adolescent girls, that the genre offered a safe space for sexual fantasies with the free choice of identification figure in the relationship, and that the male characters in BL are interpreted by female readers as

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manga published in North America between 2003 and 2006, 14% were rated for readers aged 13 years or over, 39% were rated for readers aged 15 or older, and 47% were rated for readers age 18 and up. Restrictions among American booksellers often led publishers to label books conservatively, often rating

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and muscular body types. Critics and commentators have noted that this shift in preferences among BL readers, and subsequent creation of works that feature characteristics of both BL and gay manga, represents a blurring of the distinctions between the genres; anthropologist Thomas Baudinette notes in

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rating, removing some of both the sexual and the violent content. Compared to BL manga, fewer BL games have been officially translated into English; the lack of interest by publishers in licensing further titles has been attributed to widespread copyright infringement of both licensed and unlicensed

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were more common; when tragic endings are shown, the cause is typically not an interpersonal conflict between the couple, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world". Thorn theorizes that depictions of tragedy and abuse in BL exist to allow the audience "to come to terms

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Historically, female characters had minor roles in BL, or were absent altogether. Suzuki notes that mothers in particular are often portrayed in a negative light; she suggests this is because the character and reader alike are seeking to substitute the absence of unconditional maternal love with the

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role even if he is not presented as feminine, simply by being juxtaposed against and pursued by a more dominant and masculine character. Anal sex is ubiquitous in BL, and is typically rendered explicitly and not merely implied; Zanghellini notes that illustrations of anal sex almost always position

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often features references to literature, history, science, and philosophy; Suzuki describes the genre as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand", with "philosophical and abstract musings" that challenged young readers who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as

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years in prison under laws prohibiting the production of "obscene material for profit". Hu, Ge and Wang summarise the trajectory of consorship over danmei from 2004 to the present, and suggest that the Chinese party-state has endeavoured to boost a discourse as regard danmei hatred in particular

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as indicating that for Japanese gay and lesbian readers, BL is not as far removed from reality as heterosexual female readers like to claim. Welker has also written that boys' love titles liberate the female audience "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity".

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Although the genre is marketed to and consumed primarily by girls and women, there is a gay, bisexual, and heterosexual male readership as well. A 2007 survey of BL readers among patrons of a United States library found about one quarter of respondents were male; two online surveys found

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A 2012 survey of English-language BL fans found that just 15 percent of respondents reported that the presence of rape in BL media made them uncomfortable, as the majority of respondents could distinguish between the "fantasy, genre-driven rape" of BL and rape as a crime in reality. This

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in 2018. Thai BL dramas are noted as having gained popularity in Indonesia, where LGBT representation in domestic television is less common; as well as in the Philippines, where many fans view BL as an originally Thai form of popular culture. The coming-of-age BL series,

2310:. Thai Series Y explicitly adapts the content of Japanese BL to the Thai local context and in recent years has become increasingly popular with fans around the world who often view Thai BL as separate to its Japanese antecedents. Thai BL also deliberately borrows from 4154:

represented a "watershed moment" in the depiction of queer romance in Thai media, exploring how the series adapted tropes from Japanese BL to create a new genre of media. While Japanese BL manga attracted an audience in Thailand as early as the 1990s, the success of

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While Japanese society often shuns or looks down upon women who are raped in reality, the BL genre depicts men who are raped as still "imbued with innocence" and are typically still loved by their rapists after the act, a trope that may have originated with

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are the most common generic terms for this kind of media, they specifically avoid attempts at defining subgenres, noting that the differences between them are ill-defined and that even when differentiated, the subgenres "remain thematically intertwined."

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Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax:

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is understood as a means of expressing commitment to a partner, and in BL, the "apparent violence" of rape is transformed into a "measure of passion". Rape scenes in BL are rarely presented as crimes with an assaulter and a victim: scenes where a

2961:(postmodern) ones." In 2019, BL manga magazine editors have stated that stories where a man is concerned about coming out as gay have become uncommon and the trope can be seen as outdated if used as a source of conflict between the characters. 924:

Multiple terms exist to describe Japanese and Japanese-influenced male-male romance fiction as a genre. In a 2015 survey of professional Japanese male-male romance fiction writers by Kazuko Suzuki, five primary subgenres were identified:

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mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male-male romance media marketed to women.

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in the West for Japanese-influenced comics with male-male relationships, and was preferentially used by American manga publishers for works of this kind due to the belief that the term term "boys' love" carries the implication of

3638:" any male-male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or create a story about two original male characters and incorporate established characters into the story. Any male character may become the subject of a BL 3071:, which found that just 13 percent of all original Japanese BL available commercially in English contains depictions of rape. These findings are argued as "possibly belying the perception that rape is almost ubiquitous in BL/ 1055:

fans were using the term to describe fiction by both amateur and professional writers published in those magazines, as well as to designate literature with themes of homoeroticism and implied homosexuality by authors such as

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McHarry, Mark (2011). "Girls Doing Boys Doing Boys: Boys' Love, Masculinity and Sexual Identities". In Perper, Timothy and Martha Cornog (Eds.) Mangatopia: Essays on Anime and Manga in the Modern World. New York: ABC-Clio.

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in the 2010s is regarded as a driving force behind the production of BL dramas across Asia, as online distribution provides a platform for media containing non-heterosexual material, which is frequently not permitted on

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expressed skepticism that realistic depictions of gay men's lives would become common in BL "because girls like fiction more than realism". Alan Williams argues that the lack of a gay identity in BL is due to BL being

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of the genre's largely female readership. He suggests that the decline of these misogynistic representations over time is evidence that authors and readers "overcame this hate, possibly thanks to their involvement with

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in the west. Against this background, theories emphasizing pleasure gained support: BL could be compared to pornography or even considered a specifically female form of pornography, appealing to desires for eroticism,

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to portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men", or will subvert expectations of dominance by depicting the active pursuer in the relationship as taking the passive role during sex. In other cases, the

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rather than towards a general audience. When these works were adapted for a general audience, same-sex romance elements were typically downplayed or removed entirely, as in the live-action television adaption of

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included boys' love manga among with other books deemed potentially "harmful to minors" due to its sexual content, which resulted in several magazines prohibited from being sold to people under 18 years of age.

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in historic European settings. Though these works were nominally aimed at an audience of adolescent girls and young women, they also attracted adult gay and lesbian readers. During this same period, the first

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in South Korea. The unexpected success of the series introduced the BL genre to the mainstream South Korean audience, which subsequently resulted in a rising production of South Korean BL dramas and films.

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of male-male romance scenarios performed by primarily male voice actors. They are typically adaptations of original BL manga and novels. The first BL audio dramas were released in the 1980s, beginning with

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BL works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide, especially after translations of BL became commercially available outside Japan in the 21st century. In

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have stated that, with the growth of BL artists in Taiwan and South Korea, they have recruited and published several of their works in Japan with expectations that the BL manga industry will diversify.

265:("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often 9866: 1595:

manga, introducing a greater diversity of themes and subject material to the genre that drew inspiration from by Japanese and European literature, cinema, and history. Members of the group, including

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is often depicted as restrained, physically powerful, and protective; he is generally older and taller, with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine and "

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In Suzuki's investigation of these subgenres, she notes that "there is no appropriate and convenient Japanese shorthand term to embrace all subgenres of male-male love fiction by and for women."

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recognizing, and taking responsibility for, his sexual desires. Where the uke is raped by a third party, the relationship is shown to be emotionally supportive. Conversely, some stories such as

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is entertainment for women that does not seek to be a realistic depiction of homosexuality, and instead serves as a refuge from the misogyny of Japanese society. The scholarly debate that the

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summarized the dominant theories for the popularity of BL with a female audience: that Japanese women were disillusioned or bored with classic male-female relationships in fiction, that the

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manga" was occasionally used in the 1970s, but fell out of use by the 1990s as works in this genre began to feature a broader range of protagonists beyond the traditional adolescent boys.

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below). Though "boys' love" and "BL" have become the generic terms for this material across Asia, in Thailand, BL dramas are sometimes referred to as "Y" or "Y series" as a shorthand for

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or passive pursued. BL has a robust global presence, having spread since the 1990s through international licensing and distribution, as well as through unlicensed circulation of works by

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since 2021 as exemplifed in the ban of danmei-adapted web dramas and media representation of male effeminacy in September 2021. Zanghellini notes that due to the "characteristics of the

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that was the first substantial English-language work on manga, Schodt observes that portrayals of gay male relationships had used and further developed bisexual themes already extant in

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to denote only works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with the Western use of the word to describe the genre as a whole, creating confusion between Japanese and Western audiences.

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fiction as a teen because she could not enjoy "conventional pornography, which had been made for men", and that she had found a "limitless freedom" in BL, much like in science fiction.

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Despite attempts by researchers to codify differences between these subgenres, in practice these terms are used interchangeably. Kazumi Nagaike and Tomoko Aoyama note that while BL and

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is an original series, it influenced the creation of live-action BL works adapted from manga that are marketed towards mass audiences; notable examples include the television dramas

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in 2001. The development of Japanese live-action television dramas that focus on BL and same-sex romance themes explicitly was spurred by the critical and commercial success of the

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In the mid-1990s, estimates of the size of the Japanese BL fandom ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 people. By April 2005, a search for non-Japanese websites resulted in 785,000

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engendered led to the formation of the field of "BL studies", which focus on the study of BL and the relationship between women and BL. It additionally impacted creators of

2637:. Aleardo Zanghellini suggests that the martial arts terms have special significance to a Japanese audience, as an archetype of the gay male relationship in Japan includes 1104:

first published in 1978, the term was originally used to describe works that resembled the art style of manga published in that magazine. It has also been used to describe

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Mizoguchi, writing in 2003, feels that BL is a "female-gendered space", as the writers, readers, artists and most of the editors of BL are female. BL has been compared to

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to remove BL works from circulation attracted national media attention, and promoted a debate over removal of BL works constituted a form of discrimination. In 2010, the

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had several male contributors, while several female BL authors have contributed stories to BDSM-themed gay manga anthologies or special issues, occasionally under male

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trappings of heterosexual pornography, gay manga is primarily an expression of gay male identity. The early 2000s saw a degree of overlap between BL and gay manga in

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inspired the creation of manga that depicted realistic human relationships, and opened the way for manga that explored human sexuality in a non-pornographic context.

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as a term and concept predates male-male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, having originated to describe erotic highbrow literary fiction by authors such as

7844: 7015: 1168:, which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning". Initially used by artists as a self-deprecating and ironic euphemism, the portmanteau refers to how early 6892: 4774:

BL has been the subject of disputes on legal and moral grounds. Mark McLelland suggests that BL may become "a major battlefront for proponents and detractors of '

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as akin to "girls playing with dolls". This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love, but is also condemned as a means of avoiding acknowledgement of

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and in the 2010s became a subgenre of both commercial and non-commercial BL. Stories in the genre are premised on societies wherein humans are divided into a

17004: 13491: 13444: 9874: 9394: 9331: 8440: 7617: 1243:. "BL" is the common term used to describe male-male romance media marketed to women in Japan and much of Asia, though its usage in the West is inconsistent. 1421: 13679: 8903: 8812: 1663:, the first commercially circulated gay men's magazine in Japan, was published in 1971, and served as a major influence on Takemiya and the development of 12184: 11963: 10304: 7361: 7191: 5263:

Naughty girls and gay male romance/porn : slash fiction, boys' love manga, and other works by Female "Cross-Voyeurs" in the U.S. Academic Discourses

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above). A trope of BL that has attracted criticism is male protagonists who do not identify as gay, but are rather simply in love with each other, with

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kick-started the production of domestic BL dramas: between 2014 and 2020, 57 television series in the BL genre were produced and released in Thailand.

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based on existing manga and anime, and were often written by teenagers for an adolescent audience. Several legitimate manga artists produce or produced

2641:. He suggests that the samurai archetype is responsible for age differences and hierarchical variations in power of some relationships portrayed in BL. 13244: 12315:

Suzuki, Kazuko (2015). "What can we learn from Japanese professional BL writers?: A sociological analysis of yaoi/BL terminology and classifications".

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Kazumi, Nagaike (2003). "Perverse Sexualities, Perverse Desires: Representations of Female Fantasies and Yaoi Manga as Pornography Directed at Women".

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in its contemporary usage with BL is thus not universally accepted, as the genre constitutes material that marketed to both male and female audiences.

13259: 9517: 13532: 13504: 9705: 8752: 4150:(2014–2015), the first Thai television series to feature two gay characters as the lead roles. Cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette argues that 3367: 3192: 1777: 1232: 11462: 11247: 7927: 5697: 4325:

launched as the first domestically-produced BL series in 2020. The BL genre didn't receive much traction in the country until 2022, when the series

13454: 10921: 4459:/BL studies," but acknowledges that "the overwhelming majority of BL readers are women." 80% of the BL audience is female, while the membership of 1890: 1771: 11048: 10677: 10108: 2953:, stating that "a common utterance in the genre—when a character claims that he is 'not gay, but just in love with a man'—has both homophobic (or 2915:

have the couple form a family unit, depicting them cohabiting and adopting children. It is also possible that they marry and have children, as in

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has said that "even in Japan, reading boys' love isn't something that parents encourage." In Thailand, the sale of unauthorized reproductions of

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parodies based on existing works that include female characters, the female's role is typically either minimized or the character is killed off;

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is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters, indicating an interest among many genre authors in exploring the

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content in their offerings, which kickstarted the commercial publishing market of the genre. Between 1990 and 1995, thirty magazines devoted to

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in an effort to collect these disparate genres under a single term, the term became widely popularized in 1994 after being used by the magazine

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online fiction. In 2015, laws prohibiting depictions of same-sex relationships in television and film were implemented in China. The growth in

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by distancing sex from their own bodies, as well as to create fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality and rejects "socially mandated"

17076: 13955: 13569: 12913: 11767:. (1993) "Unlikely Explorers: Alternative Narratives of Love, Sex, Gender, and Friendship in Japanese Girls' Comics." New York Conference on 7483: 6241: 4275:(2012) depicted a romance between its two lead male characters, though when it was adapted into a television drama on the streaming platform 2940:. Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all, is used as a plot device to heighten drama, or to show the purity of the leads' love. 10076: 9308: 6920: 16776: 13595: 13564: 13254: 11329: 11025: 10771: 9835: 4849: 291:; and depictions of rape. A defining characteristic of BL is the practice of pairing characters in relationships according to the roles of 10205: 8842: 7690: 4122:. The label was created to promote Japanese BL dramas based on existing BL novels and manga due to the growing popularity of BL caused by 2899:

and the characters' gradual acceptance within the wider community. BL typically depicts Japanese society as more accepting of LGBT people

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Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie BL. Parallels have been noted in the popularity of

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is not a BL series, it is often discussed in the context of live-action BL media as it focuses on a gay male couple and series creator

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female readers. A 2008 survey of English-speaking readers of BL indicated that 50-60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual.

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has suggested that as BL is primarily a romance genre, its readers may be turned off by political themes such as homophobia. BL author

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Ogi, Fusami (2001). "Beyond Shoujo, Blending Gender: Subverting the Homogendered World in Shoujo Manga (Japanese Comics for Girls)"".

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Australia's proposed internet filtering system : its implications for animation, comic and gaming (ACG) and slash fan communities

9935: 2174:, while Hisako Takamatsu took into account the arguments of the genre's critics to create works more accommodating of a gay audience. 16997: 15524: 13638: 13527: 13326: 12755:

Welker, James (2011). "Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga".

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Marketing was significant in the transnational travel of BL from Japan to the United States, and led to BL to attract a following of

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his fieldwork that gay men in Japan "saw no need to sharply disassociate BL from when discussing their consumption of 'gay media'."

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in 2019, both of which similarly revise the nature of the relationship between the lead male characters. Consequently, fans of both

16312: 13517: 13369: 11788: 10734: 9805: 9457:"The International Yaoi Boys' Love Fandom and the Regulation of Virtual Child Pornography: The Implications of Current Legislation" 6379: 6273: 5452:"Eureka Discovers Culture Girls, Fujoshi, and BL: Essay Review of Three Issues of the Japanese Literary magazine, Yuriika (Eureka)" 4809:

novels on an online novel website were arrested in 2014. In 2018, the pseudonymous Chinese BL novel author Tianyi was sentenced to

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in the 1980s began to depict older protagonists and adopted a realist style in both plot and artwork, as typified by manga such as

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as a "first step toward feminism". Kazuko Suzuki, for example, believes that the audience's aversion to or contempt for masculine

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In 2003, 3.8% of weekly Japanese manga magazines were dedicated exclusively to BL. Notable ongoing and defunct magazines include

10863:"The heteronormative frame in Chinese Yaoi: integrating female Chinese fan interviews with Sinophone and Anglophone survey data" 9988: 7423: 5451: 4609:

manga to appeal to their female audience. Japanese critics have viewed BL as a genre that permits their audience to avoid adult

1468:, which follows the relationship between a professor and his younger male lover, is regarded as an influential precursor to the 17491: 17040: 15711: 13754: 13713: 13410: 13359: 13321: 13316: 13127: 10707: 7576: 7392: 11940: 11089: 1494:, and BL: western exoticism, educated and wealthy characters, significant age differences among couples, and fanciful or even 112:, though BL does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. BL spans a wide range of media, including 14419: 13388: 13364: 12732:

Saito, Kumiko (2011) "Desire in Subtext: Gender, Fandom, and Women's Male-Male Homoerotic Parodies in Contemporary Japan" in

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Galbraith, Patrick W. (2011). "Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among "Rotten Girls" in Contemporary Japan".

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writers to publish their works online, with a 2009 ordinance by the National Publishing Administration of China banning most

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In the face of this legal and cultural shift, artists who depicted male homosexuality in their work typically did so through

399: 9574: 9552: 8933: 5806: 4436:; the later game, although already nonexplicit, was censored for US release to achieve a "mature" rather than "adults only" 4269:. In reaction to state censorship, Chinese BL works typically depict male-male romance as homoerotic subtext: the web novel 4237:

as the International Drama of the Year in 2021. It has been suggested that BL dramas could become a source of Thai cultural

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works typically focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development; it is also a subversive reference to the

17456: 16990: 15172: 14961: 13522: 13393: 13354: 10236: 9461: 9228: 6543: 4140:(2007), which features a gay male romance storyline, found unexpected mainstream success upon its release and grossed over 506: 9896: 8880: 8224: 5841: 13928: 13574: 13381: 12473:

Aoyama, Tomoko (2013). "BL (Boys' Love) Literacy: Subversion, Resuscitation, and Transformation of the (Father's) Text".

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Since the late 2000s, women have appeared more frequently in BL works as supporting characters. Lunsing notes that early

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introduced new guidelines around material containing "sexually explicit or suggestive" scenes, while public broadcaster

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literature and pornography," and also published articles on homosexuality, literary fiction, illustrations, and amateur

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Akiko, Mizoguchi (2003). "Male-Male Romance by and for Women in Japan: A History and the Subgenres of Yaoi Fictions".

4265:(2016), the first Chinese BL web series, accumulated 10 million views before being pulled from the streaming platform 2928:

Although gay male characters are empowered in BL, the genre frequently does not address the reality of socio-cultural

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Though McLelland notes that authors are typically "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the

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The late 2010s saw the increasing popularity of masculine men in BL that are reminiscent of the body types typical in

2150:"disgusting women" who "have a perverse interest in sexual intercourse between men." A years-long debate ensued, with 108:

relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from

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Suzuki, Kazuko (1999). Inness, Sherrie (ed.). "Pornography or Therapy? Japanese Girls Creating the Yaoi Phenomenon".

12372: 12349: 12296: 11587: 11562: 11398: 11373: 9668: 9634: 8785: 8647: 8551: 8123:"Appropriating Yaoi and Boys Love in the Philippines: Conflict, Resistance and Imaginations Through and Beyond Japan" 8039: 7271: 5878: 5428: 5331: 4684:

narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative differentiations", while James Welker described the

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employee Kaoru Azuma established Tunku, Kadokawa's label for publishing live-action BL drama series, partnering with

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Buckley, Sandra (1991). Penley, C.; Ross, A (eds.). "'Penguin in Bondage': A Graphic Tale of Japanese Comic Books".

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of the number eight is "ya", zero can be read as "o" (a Western influence), while the short reading for one is "i".

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oriented around male-male couples. The first BL game to receive an officially-licensed English-language release was

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emerged in the late 1950s, which sought to use manga to tell serious and grounded stories aimed at adult audiences.

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Ueno, Chizuko (1989). "Jendaaresu waarudo no "ai" no jikken" ("Experimenting with "love" in a Genderless World")".

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culture. Characteristic similarities of fan works in both Japan and the West include non-adherence to a standard

2524:, with growing emphasis on stories featuring muscular bodies and older characters. A 2017 survey by BL publisher 2061:

and "boys' love" (BL) came to be the most popular terms to describe works depicting male-male romance, eclipsing

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contexts, who are defined by their "ambivalent passivity, fragility, ephemerality, and softness." The 1961 novel

12797: 12625:"Australia's 'Child-Abuse Materials' legislation, internet regulation and the juridification of the imagination" 12624: 12306:

Nagaike, Kazumi; Aoyama, Tomoko (2015). "What is Japanese "BL studies?": A historical and analytical overview".

11296:"Fudanshi ("Rotten Boys") in Asia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Male Readings of BL and Concepts of Masculinity" 8911: 8820: 7445:

Baudinette, Thomas (1 April 2017). "Japanese gay men's attitudes towards 'gay manga' and the problem of genre".

7016:"[Recorded Lecture] Thailand's "Boys Love Machine": Producing "queer" idol fandom across Southeast Asia" 6957:"Lovesick, The Series: adapting Japanese 'Boys Love' to Thailand and the creation of a new genre of queer media" 5233:"Intersections: Review, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre" 4259:

reports that such material is "deemed sensitive and is inconsistently but regularly removed" from distribution.

16739: 15085: 14896: 14348: 13935: 13669: 13189: 13049: 12949: 12656: 12214: 10296: 7353: 7296: 4496:, which some perceive to be more realistic. Lunsing notes that some of the BL narrative elements criticized by 2721: 12742: 8991:"Elegant Caucasians, Amorous Arabs, and Invisible Others: Signs and Images of Foreigners in Japanese BL Manga" 7181: 4500:, such as rape fantasies, misogyny, and characters' non-identification as gay, are also present in gay manga. 4348:

In the Philippines, BL television dramas gained popularity through the broadcast of foreign BL dramas such as

3741:

manga were published in the North American market in 2003; by 2006, there were roughly 130 English-translated

3590:

feature male-male pairings from non-romantic manga and anime. Much of the material derives from male-oriented

2886: 17: 16495: 16222: 15839: 15147: 14691: 14514: 13654: 11528: 10756: 10326: 8097: 6713:"Intersections: Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong" 4378: 3886:

initially gained popularity in the United States in the early 2000s, several American artists began creating

1074:

in this context is primarily used to describe prose fiction, but has also been used for manga and visual art.

904: 526: 311:

online. BL works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide.

9687: 9282: 9197: 5876:

Wood, Andrea (2006). "Straight" Women, Queer Texts: Boy-Love Manga and the Rise of a Global Counterpublic".

2275:, but continued to grow slowly in the following years. South Korea saw the development of BL in the form of 304: 17461: 17286: 16878: 16110: 16085: 14936: 14916: 14072: 14045: 12934: 12903: 12872: 12413: 11997:"Regulation of pornography and criminalization of BL readers and authors in contemporary China (2010–2019)" 11053: 10926: 9606: 9529: 8373: 4709:

Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the

4087: 3840: 3296:

of dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas". These terms are derived from those used in

1869:

creators, and the genre increasingly depicted Japanese settings over western settings. Works influenced by

1801: 11496:

Shojo Manga Text-Bild-Verhältnisse und Narrationsstrategien im japanischen und deutschen Manga für Mädchen

11302:, Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 69–84, 9712: 9664:"Simulation and database society in Japanese roleplaying-game fandoms: Reading boys' love dojinshi online" 17476: 16640: 16212: 15765: 15630: 15319: 14647: 14116: 13739: 13590: 13211: 13103: 12939: 12812: 11477: 8504:"Editorial departments from three BL magazines talk about the future of BL - Forbidden love is outdated!" 7224: 5705: 4929: 4366: 2827:, a BL author, suggests that women are typically not depicted in BL as their presence adds an element of 2209:

came to affect the manga industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but did not particularly impact the

811: 296: 11225: 7905: 1409:(1868-1912), and moved towards hostile social attitudes towards homosexuality and the implementation of 17481: 17394: 16650: 16257: 16100: 14745: 14034: 13789: 12954: 12944: 12510: 10100: 4944: 4327: 4199: 3800: 2344: 1784: 1648:(1976-1984) by Takemiya. Works by these artists typically featured tragic romances between androgynous 1296:, a genre which also depicts gay male sexual relationships, but is written for and mostly by gay men. 864: 501: 11199: 10515: 7715:

Nutzen und Gratifikation bei Boys' Love Manga Fujoshi oder verdorbene Mädchen in Japan und Deutschland

6349: 2525: 17466: 17081: 16660: 16217: 16172: 16080: 15458: 14901: 14861: 14412: 14197: 13841: 13674: 13153: 12959: 12882: 10601: 8960: 5397: 4643: 4032: 3404: 3361: 3343: 2047:

works that were published during this period were typically comedies rather than melodramas, such as

2017:

created by Ozaki that she adapted into an original work. By 1990, seven Japanese publishers included

758: 12406:"Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan's Amateur Comics Community" 11606:

Welker, James (2006). "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: 'Boys' Love' as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga'".

10386:"Gay-themed drama is latest victim of China's drive to purge 'harmful and obscene' content from web" 8611: 8258: 7104: 5193:

Welker, James (2006). "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: 'Boys' Love' as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga'".

4212:

platform. The genre has seen some backlash from conservative elements in Thai society: in 2020, the

2903:, which Mizoguchi contends is a form of activism among BL authors. Some longer-form stories such as 1042: 17132: 17066: 16162: 15182: 15177: 15045: 14886: 14509: 13194: 12969: 11968: 11193: 10953:

Welker, James (2006). "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shôjo Manga".

10922:"Anime, mon amour: forget Pokemon--Japanese animation explodes with gay, lesbian, and trans themes" 5730:

Zsila, Agnes; Pagliassotti, Dru; Orosz, Gabor; Demetrovics, Zsolt (2018). Chiesi, Francesca (ed.).

4934: 4762:

fans are discontented with "the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a

4350: 4308: 4182: 3949: 3821: 3766: 3758: 3484: 3308: 2387: 2378: 1937: 897: 429: 374: 16227: 12341: 12324: 12288: 12258: 11049:"Anime, mon amour: forget Pokémon—Japanese animation explodes with gay, lesbian, and trans themes" 10137:"Giving Back to the BL Genre! Behind the Scenes of KADOKAWA's Live-action BL Drama Studio "Tunku"" 8376:(ed.). "Office Sluts and Rebel Flowers: The Pleasures of Japanese Pornographic Comics for Women". 7618:"He Loves Him, She Loves Them: Japanese comics about gay men are increasingly popular among women" 7480: 6251: 2676:

can alternatively be established by who is dominant in the relationship; a character can take the

2123:

in the late 1990s; the country subsequently outlawed the publishing and distribution of BL works.

2035:

manga magazines of this era. The manga in these magazines were influenced by realist stories like

1702:

to describe their creations ironically, emerged to describe amateur works that were influenced by

17324: 17096: 16152: 16030: 15482: 15286: 14489: 14460: 13132: 13083: 9316: 8955: 5600: 4296: 4229: 3699: 3090:

stories, particularly stories that ended in one or both members of the central couple dying from

2502: 2414: 1895: 1426: 1307:

is used to describe titles that primarily feature sexually explicit themes and subject material.

703: 364: 17436: 11017: 10775: 3799:

books originally intended for a mid-teen readership as 18+ and distributing them in shrinkwrap.

2396: 1541:(1969–1971), which eroticized its male protagonists and depicted male homosexuality in American 17496: 17408: 17127: 16424: 16372: 16237: 15958: 15750: 15559: 15431: 15264: 15167: 15152: 14946: 14834: 14011: 13871: 13732: 13113: 12857: 12805: 12594: 10597:"Boys' Love series 'Hello Stranger' starring Tony Labrusca, JC Alcantara to premiere next week" 10195: 8210: 7682: 7105:"Forbidden love: incest, generational conflict, and the erotics of power in Chinese BL fiction" 4949: 4873: 4795: 4610: 4455:

Suzuki notes that "demographic analyses of BL media are underdeveloped and thus much needed in

4427: 4412: 4321: 3852: 2891: 2492: 1360: 1303:

is sometimes used to describe titles that focus on romance over explicit sexual content, while

887: 716: 379: 12543:

Haggerty, George E. (2000). Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures. Taylor & Francis.

11706: 10455: 9622: 9089: 7995: 7319: 7156:"Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong" 6633: 6411:"Conflicting Discourses on Boys' Love and Subcultural Tactics in Mainland China and Hong Kong" 4696:

as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian. Dru Pagliassotti sees this and the

4008:

cassette". BL audio dramas proliferated beginning in the 1990s with the rise in popularity of

17230: 16608: 16167: 15809: 15699: 15356: 14109: 14104: 13184: 12838: 8134: 4489: 4271: 4261: 4146: 3996: 3826: 3650: 3540: 2911: 2134:(やおい論争), a debate held primarily in a series of essays published in the feminist magazine 2081: 1960: 698: 638: 359: 17446: 16645: 12664: 11964:"Outcry as Chinese erotic writer jailed for more than 10 years over gay sex scenes in novel" 11294:

Nagaike, Kazumi (2019), Ogi, Fusami; Suter, Rebecca; Nagaike, Kazumi; Lent, John A. (eds.),

10487:[The theatrical version of the BL drama that caused a social phenomenon in South Korea, 10416: 7961: 7502:. ... In general, I'm going to say no. There is much less obsession with pursued/pursuer in 6145:

Writing the love of boys : origins of Bishōnen culture in modernist Japanese literature

5236: 3388:

manga magazines, as they include material considered too explicit for an all-ages audience;

3315:

elements and also draws influences from Omegaverse, particularly the use of a caste system.

3270:

in the early 1980s, the subgenre was later adopted by male readers and became influenced by

3063:

subvert the rape fantasy trope entirely by presenting rape as a negative and traumatic act.

16961: 16858: 16754: 16417: 16120: 15985: 15797: 15731: 15142: 15079: 15074: 14951: 14765: 14718: 14600: 14551: 14450: 14405: 14386: 14288: 13819: 13804: 13617: 13158: 13088: 12867: 12862: 7529:

Zanghellini, A. (2009). "Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime".

7289:"The Beautiful Shōnen of the Deep and Moonless Night: The Boyish Aesthetic in Modern Japan" 6887: 5745: 4954: 4939: 4341: 4111: 3670: 3665: 3408:. A 2008 assessment estimated that the Japanese commercial BL market grossed approximately 3374: 2900: 2349: 70: 14226: 10352: 10049:, East Asian Popular Culture, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 286, 295, 3855:

BL material because they are unable or unwilling to obtain it through sanctioned methods.

3331: 2749:

roles are not strictly defined. Occasionally, authors will forego the stylisations of the

2027: 8: 16464: 16337: 16322: 16187: 16090: 16025: 15721: 15682: 15554: 15539: 15366: 15125: 14931: 14906: 14871: 14824: 13221: 13148: 12877: 12852: 12427: 11825: 11789:"Intersections: (A)cute Confusion: The Unpredictable Journey of Japanese Popular Culture" 11772: 10518:[The surprising success of ‘Semantic Error’... BL syndrome spreads through OTT]. 10200: 9965: 9739: 8757: 6323: 5802: 5424: 4965: 4250: 4176: 3747:

works commercially available, and by 2007, over 10 publishers in North America published

3683: 3661: 3529:

were amateur publications that were not controlled by media restrictions, were typically

3518: 3293: 2847: 2576: 2487: 2410: 2271:

below); the market expanded rapidly before contracting in 2008 as a result of the global

2206: 2186: 2049: 2004: 1638: 1473: 1065: 993: 434: 12157:

Kimbergt, Sébastien (2008). "Ces mangas qui utilisent le yaoi pour doper leurs ventes".

11792: 6281: 5749: 3598:

works, which contain close male-male friendships perceived by fans to imply elements of

2115:(1996–2000). When these works were released in North America, they were among the first 1609:(1970) by Takemiya is considered the first work of the genre that would become known as 1579:

Contemporary Japanese homoerotic romance manga originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of

17320: 16868: 16788: 16712: 16598: 16588: 16490: 16382: 16362: 16262: 16242: 16010: 15938: 15844: 15829: 15760: 15465: 15401: 15259: 15239: 15130: 14780: 14701: 14635: 14625: 14588: 14207: 13059: 12774: 12644: 12590:

Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre

12568: 12490: 12266:

Hishida, Hitoshi (2015). "Representational Appropriation and the Autonomy of Desire in

12206: 12024: 11905: 11872: 11852: 11623: 11321: 10970: 10890: 10843: 10068: 9478: 9380:

Boy's Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre

9274: 8846: 8676: 8666: 8556: 8483: 8405: 8303: 7546: 7241: 7186: 7124: 7085: 7077: 6984: 6187: 6042: 5920: 5768: 5731: 5650: 5563: 5210: 4966:

Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre

4763: 4730: 4600: 4422: 4255: 3778: 3774: 3622: 3575:

to recruit talented amateurs; this practice has led to careers in mainstream manga for

3428:

per month. A 2010 report estimated that the Japanese BL market was worth approximately

3050: 3029: 2885:). This spiritual bond and equal partnership is depicted as overcoming the male-female 2603: 1481: 17338: 13761: 12456:

Writing the love of boys: origins of Bishōnen culture in modernist Japanese literature

11675: 8998: 7081: 7049: 4992:

Works featuring homoerotic relationships between female characters are referred to as

4279:

in 2018, the relationship was rendered as a close, homoerotic friendship. The 2015 BL

3571:

concurrently with professionally-published works. Many publishing companies review BL

249:) emerged as a name for the genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of 17377: 17111: 17106: 16967: 16918: 16707: 16630: 16480: 16434: 16407: 16402: 16392: 16307: 16267: 16045: 15933: 15923: 15849: 15777: 15657: 15502: 15497: 15426: 15381: 15344: 15281: 15269: 15187: 15135: 15069: 15064: 15040: 15008: 14740: 14735: 14484: 14175: 13997: 13464: 13068: 13000: 12908: 12778: 12747: 12719: 12670: 12613: 12598: 12576: 12559: 12544: 12530: 12514: 12494: 12459: 12417: 12401: 12387: 12368: 12345: 12292: 12227: 12210: 12104: 12077: 12028: 12016: 11820: 11733: 11627: 11583: 11558: 11499: 11394: 11369: 11325: 11311: 11274: 11153: 11128: 10996: 10974: 10894: 10882: 10847: 10835: 10750: 10436: 10072: 10058: 10004: 9630: 9482: 9278: 9177: 9060:

Compilation of Papers and Seminar Proceedings - Comparative Studies on Urban Cultures

8969: 8761: 8680: 8643: 8307: 8282:"Heteronormativity in BL Webtoons Love is an Illusion, Room to Room, and Path to You" 8214: 8101: 8065: 8035: 7906:"Rotten use patterns: What entertainment theories can do for the study of boys' love" 7729: 7719: 7550: 7462: 7267: 7128: 7089: 7069: 6988: 6976: 6649: 6246: 6191: 6148: 6046: 5924: 5846: 5773: 5604: 5567: 5521: 5463: 5266: 5214: 5056: 4332: 4188: 4021: 3635: 3580: 3059: 3023: 2958: 2111: 1955: 1765:

works, with this genre later becoming "a transnational subculture." Publishing house

1644: 1477: 1092: 1046: 774: 742: 481: 444: 245: 237: 191: 62: 31: 16142: 12648: 11018:"Online discussions on Yaoi: Gay relationships, sexual violence, and female fantasy" 10711: 10263:"Thailand's erotic Boys Love TV dramas are a hit with Indonesians, gay and straight" 9252:"Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy? Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7" 8028:

Drazen, Patrick (October 2002). '"A Very Pure Thing": Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes' in

7384: 3995:, occasionally referred to as "drama CDs", "sound dramas", or "BLCDs", are recorded 3626:

is known to have a large female readership who engage in BL readings; publishers of

3311:

universe" subgenre emerged in 2017 and gained popularity in 2021. The subgenre uses

17471: 17198: 17140: 17024: 16938: 16928: 16838: 16766: 16749: 16744: 16665: 16593: 16459: 16454: 16444: 16439: 16387: 16327: 16297: 16252: 16115: 16015: 15928: 15891: 15596: 15544: 15470: 15411: 15324: 15120: 15113: 15003: 14876: 14728: 14713: 14677: 14662: 14595: 14566: 14546: 14455: 14161: 14054: 14025: 13981: 13963: 13756: 13027: 13010: 12766: 12636: 12501:

Aoyama, Tomoko (1988) "Male homosexuality as treated by Japanese women writers" in

12482: 12337: 12320: 12284: 12254: 12222:

McLelland, Mark; Nagaike, Kazumi; Katsuhiko, Suganuma; Welker, James, eds. (2015).

12202: 12198: 12067: 12008: 11615: 11303: 11237: 10962: 10874: 10825: 10708:"JAST USA Announces Adult PC Game "Absolute Obedience" Ships, Also Price Reduction" 10428: 10050: 9701: 9677: 9513: 9470: 9266: 9223: 8293: 8089: 7917: 7821: 7622: 7538: 7454: 7233: 7116: 7061: 6968: 6641: 6179: 6034: 5912: 5763: 5753: 5591: 5555: 5350: 5340: 5202: 5029: 4647: 4520: 4516: 4508: 4504: 4469: 4205: 3728: 3530: 3513:) subculture emerged in the 1970s contemporaneously with BL subculture and Western 3476: 3349: 3301: 3068: 2937: 2933: 2328: 2257: 1808: 1718: 754: 467: 424: 354: 208: 13942: 12659:

Media international Australia, incorporating Culture & policy, 134, 2010, 7-19

12072: 12055: 12012: 11932: 11728:

McHarry, Mark (2007). Peele, Thomas (ed.). "Identity Unmoored: Yaoi in the West".

10878: 9363:

McHarry, Mark (2007). Peele, THomas (ed.). "Identity Unmoored: Yaoi in the West".

9150: 7163: 6972: 6712: 6410: 4621:

is something which has consciously emerged as a result of the genre's popularity.

3934:", and "global BL". The majority of publishers creating original English-language 3664:

such as actors and politicians. Amateur authors may also create characters out of

2119:-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences. BL gained popularity in 1173: 17441: 17215: 17183: 16888: 16813: 16803: 16798: 16783: 16692: 16635: 16534: 16429: 16347: 16342: 16272: 16207: 16127: 16000: 15995: 15968: 15864: 15662: 15625: 15571: 15564: 15517: 15391: 15361: 15274: 15234: 15229: 15162: 15108: 15093: 15013: 14988: 14983: 14921: 14839: 14829: 14790: 14706: 14630: 14556: 14372: 14168: 14133: 14018: 14004: 13093: 13073: 13044: 12918: 12827: 12506: 12245:

Hartley, Barbara (2015). "A Genealogy of Boys Love: The Gaze of the Girl and the

11419: 10357: 10054: 9582: 9204: 9172:

Fujimoto, Yukari (2013). Berndt, Jaqueline; Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina (eds.).

8925: 8747: 8400: 8326: 8298: 8281: 8060:

Fujimoto, Yukari (2013). Berndt, Jaqueline; Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina (eds.).

7487: 7120: 5794: 5758: 4775: 4677: 4546: 4512: 4056: 3860: 3704: 3675: 3604: 3522: 3337: 3187: 2921: 2816: 2283: 1861: 1791: 1625: 1109: 1101: 16522: 12279:

McLelland, Mark; Welker, James (2015). "An Introduction to Boys Love in Japan".

12185:"The World of Yaoi: The Internet, Censorship and the Global "Boys' Love" Fandom" 12056:"A state against boys' love? Reviewing the trajectory of censorship over danmei" 11996: 11307: 10862: 6956: 6554: 5590:(2007). "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and 5587: 4660: 3086:

narratives that focused on the suffering of the protagonists were popular early

1605: 1432: 531: 17255: 17061: 16873: 16843: 16823: 16685: 16670: 16615: 16573: 16412: 16367: 16357: 16332: 16287: 16277: 16055: 16035: 16005: 15990: 15948: 15913: 15871: 15859: 15854: 15647: 15618: 15507: 15492: 15436: 15291: 15249: 14760: 14576: 14467: 14307: 14154: 13848: 12986: 12451: 11414: 10991:

Antonia, Levi (2008). "North American reactions to Yaoi". In West, Mark (ed.).

10830: 10813: 10484: 10042: 10041:

Ishida, Minori (2019), Berndt, Jaqueline; Nagaike, Kazumi; Ogi, Fusami (eds.),

9904: 8872: 6140: 5122: 4853: 4625: 4497: 4194: 4042: 4012:, peaking at 289 total CDs released in 2008, which dropped to 108 CDs in 2013. 3959: 3762: 3564: 2881: 2828: 2824: 2741:, a shorthand for "reversible" (リバーシブル), is used to describe couples where the 2725: 2120: 1629: 1596: 1402: 997: 671: 496: 394: 258: 16982: 16729: 16527: 15819: 11295: 10624:"'Don't be afraid to be yourself': Trailer of BL series 'Oh, Mando!' released" 10432: 7874: 7787: 7733: 6168:

Toku, Masami (2007). "Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls' Dreams".

1678:(self-published works) subculture emerged contemporaneously in the 1970s (see 1529: 964: 540: 132: 17430: 17188: 17168: 16848: 16828: 16377: 16317: 16302: 16192: 16137: 16132: 16105: 16075: 16040: 15881: 15834: 15824: 15787: 15755: 15745: 15736: 15706: 15576: 15512: 15453: 15448: 15386: 15351: 15296: 15254: 15224: 15214: 15207: 15023: 14971: 14941: 14926: 14881: 14866: 14785: 14652: 14605: 14571: 14531: 14499: 14472: 14280: 14202: 13949: 13179: 13015: 12640: 12081: 12020: 11768: 10886: 10839: 10440: 9474: 8965: 8330: 7542: 7466: 7073: 6980: 6645: 4972: 4924: 4759: 4651: 4292: 4061: 4035:

since the early 2000s, these works were marketed towards a niche audience of

4009: 3712: 3707:

is noted as crucial to the development of Western BL fan works, particularly

3656: 3599: 3560: 3488: 3394: 3167: 2945: 2105: 2054: 1885: 1880: 1621: 1588: 1568: 1542: 1537: 1525: 1312: 1264: 1237: 1142: 1038: 1002: 601: 596: 284: 105: 16157: 9783: 9761: 9270: 9198:(Un)gendering the homoerotic body: Imagining subjects in boys' love and yaoi 8207:

Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale

6632:

Madill, Anna (2017). Smith, Clarissa; Attwood, Feona; McNair, Brian (eds.).

6553:. Turku: Interna-tional Institute for Popular Culture: 42–46. Archived from 3922:" fell out of use and was replaced by terms like "original English language 3067:"surprisingly high tolerance" for depictions of rape is contextualized by a 138:, or comics for girls. Several terms were used for the new genre, including 17420: 17381: 17345: 17265: 17250: 17225: 17163: 17101: 16719: 16702: 16655: 16505: 16449: 15980: 15975: 15906: 15782: 15726: 15677: 15652: 15640: 15371: 15103: 15098: 15035: 14998: 14976: 14966: 14844: 14775: 14755: 14657: 14615: 14521: 14504: 14366: 14353: 14317: 13703: 13098: 12995: 12715: 11764: 11300:

Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond: Uniting Different Cultures and Identities

10628: 8633: 7065: 5777: 5073: 4994: 4901: 4887: 4852:, cartoons are exempt from child pornography laws unless they are used for 4755: 4639:

girls, thus making the stories expressions of readers' same-sex fantasies.

4629: 4618: 4493: 4473: 4401: 4136: 4119: 4097: 3992: 3644: 3493: 3384:. Several of these magazines were established as companion publications to 3257: 3124: 3108: 3095: 2969: 2941: 2905: 2843: 2626: 2569: 2521: 2517:

is often exploited to explore notions of sexuality and gender in BL works.

1991: 1986: 1730: 1654: 1289: 1120:

market coined "boys' love" to disassociate the genre from the publisher of

1061: 956: 854: 678: 666: 633: 582: 549: 439: 109: 12770: 12712:

Erotic Comics 2: A Graphic History from the Liberated '70s to the Internet

12486: 12332:

Welker, James (2015). "A Brief History of Shōnen'ai, Yaoi and Boys Love".

11242: 9682: 9604:

Che, Cathay (4 February 1997). "Catoon Comes Out: Kizuna Volume 1 and 2".

8561: 7922: 7458: 5416: 5345: 5326: 3264:

boys in a romantic or pornographic context. Originating as an offshoot of

1975:

attracted the attention of manga magazine editors, many of whom recruited

1116:"; it has been suggested that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the 17235: 16971: 16933: 16913: 16908: 16893: 16883: 16863: 16793: 16771: 16697: 16603: 16544: 16539: 16397: 16202: 16182: 16147: 15896: 15792: 15549: 15534: 15475: 15441: 15219: 15192: 15157: 15028: 15018: 14891: 14851: 14819: 14770: 14686: 14667: 14640: 14536: 14494: 14445: 13777: 11649: 10196:"Everything you need to know about Thailand's thriving Boys Love culture" 7782: 5583: 5060: 4919: 4787: 4779: 4614: 4477: 4476:, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors and lesbian, 4450: 4036: 3907: 3856: 3831: 3723: 3708: 3631: 3610: 3576: 3555: 3514: 3286:

is a male-male romance subgenre that originated from the American series

3175: 2998: 2846:, with the diminished role of female characters cited as evidence of the 2682: 2551: 2483: 2406: 2245:, with a 2008 bookstore survey finding that between 25 and 30 percent of 2139: 1913: 1909: 1875: 1726: 1146: 1057: 981: 869: 834: 788: 732: 645: 558: 308: 274: 44: 11186:"Roundtable: The Internet and Women's Transnational "Boys' Love" Fandom" 8789: 7416:"TCAF 2015 – Gengoroh Tagame Talks Gay Manga, 'Bara,' BL and Scanlation" 7220:"Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement" 5009: 4960:

Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance Regarding the Healthy Development of Youths

4358:. This spurred the creation of domestically-produced BL dramas, such as 3890:

for female readers featuring male-male couples referred to as "American

3682:

is typically composed of the two lead characters' names, separated by a

3535: 3504: 3460: 2434: 2368: 2314:

celebrity culture in the development of its own style of idols known as

2263:

in 2001. The first officially-licensed English-language translations of

1673: 1591:. The Year 24 Group contributed significantly to the development of the 1444: 1105: 972: 279: 252: 49: 17363: 16923: 16903: 16853: 16833: 16818: 16808: 16724: 16675: 16485: 16292: 16232: 16050: 15943: 15886: 15814: 15772: 15603: 15421: 15406: 15376: 15334: 15303: 14993: 14856: 14620: 14561: 14541: 14431: 13990: 13020: 12898: 12757: 12734: 12707: 12365:

Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan: Cultural Myths and Social Realities

10136: 9486: 9111: 8739: 8503: 8088:

Tamaki, Saitō (2007). Bolton, Christopher; Csicsery-Ronay, Istvan Jr.;

7651:"On The Iconic Difference between Couple Characters in Boys Love Manga" 6925: 6183: 6170: 6038: 5916: 5903: 4791: 4738: 4664: 4523:

sites. In January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for

4432: 4397: 4372: 4253:

concerning depictions of LGBT subject material in media; nevertheless,

4238: 4171: 3945: 3941: 3786: 3283: 3201: 3116: 2950: 2929: 2916: 2896: 2866: 2630: 2222: 2190: 2143: 1941: 1918: 1600: 1564: 1495: 1453: 1449: 1410: 1269: 1218: 985: 859: 764: 491: 486: 288: 9928:"Sleepless Nights, In These Words – New BL Titles Scheduled For Print" 9382:. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. p. 3. 8200:"Theorizing comics/manga genre as a productive forum: yaoi and beyond" 7713: 7245: 6022: 5355: 5080:

to dismiss poor quality manga, and this was appropriated by the early

3834:

and marketed the title as "the first gay male anime to be released on

2989:, but rather as evidence of the uncontrollable attraction felt by the 2256:

in international markets, beginning with the founding of the American

17292: 17210: 17145: 16734: 16680: 16578: 16517: 16510: 16352: 16247: 16197: 15918: 15804: 15667: 15613: 15416: 15339: 15329: 15202: 15197: 14812: 14807: 14797: 14723: 14696: 14672: 14610: 14583: 14526: 14327: 14298: 14253: 14246: 14147: 13891: 8786:"Simona's BL Research Lab: Reibun Ike, Hyogo Kijima, Inaki Matsumoto" 8743: 8251:"More Than Just Mommy and Daddy: "Nontraditional" Families in Comics" 6380:"James Welker, "Boys Love (BL) Media and Its Asian Transfigurations"" 5698:""Boys' Love", Yaoi, and Art Education: Issues of Power and Pedagogy" 4909: 4656: 4141: 3754: 3711:. As BL fan fiction is often compared to the Western fan practice of 3510: 3276:(works depicting prepubescent or pubescent girls); the conflation of 3179: 3033:

notes that rape narratives typically focus on how "irresistible" the

2954: 2869:, giving men freedom to bond and pursue shared goals together (as in 2567:

The two participants in a BL relationship (and to a lesser extent in

2510: 2479: 2465: 2453: 2299: 2226: 2194: 1722: 1560: 1465: 1406: 1356: 1339: 1311:

can also be used by Western fans as a label for anime or manga-based

960: 723: 617: 125: 121: 15396: 12334:

Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan

12317:

Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan

12272:

Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan

12251:

Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan

12224:

Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan

10047:

Shōjo Across Media: Exploring "Girl" Practices in Contemporary Japan

8331:"The Evolution of "Boys' Love" Culture: Can BL Spark Social Change?" 7288: 4778:' policies in employment, education and elsewhere", while BL artist 4031:

While Japanese BL manga has been adapted into live action films and

3896:". The first known commercially published original English-language 2217:

magazines continued to proliferate during this period, and sales of

1112:. By the 1990s, the term had largely fallen out of use in favor of " 17281: 17245: 17178: 16620: 16282: 16177: 15963: 15953: 15901: 15591: 15050: 14802: 14479: 14378: 14271: 14262: 14140: 13911: 13884: 13773: 13078: 12666:

Fantasies of Cross-Dressing: Japanese Women Write Male-Male Erotica

12410:

Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan

11619: 11519:

McCaffery, Larry; Subda, Gregory; Kotani, Mari; Takayuki, Tatsumi.

11498:(in German). Universitätsverlag Winter Heidelberg. pp. 42–45. 10966: 7845:"It's A Yaoi Thing: Boys Who Love Boys and the Women Who Love Them" 7237: 7219: 5901:

Fan Fiction Writers: New Narrative Themes or the Same Old Story?".

5736: 5559: 5206: 4831: 4802: 4460: 4417: 4360: 4092: 4051: 3845: 3770: 3297: 3237: 3230: 3197: 3112: 2973: 2871: 2690: 2649: 2634: 2528:

found that while over 80% of their readership previously preferred

2498: 2457: 2260: 1932: 1659: 659: 460: 17403: 13877: 10737:. Boys on Boys on Film. Archived from the original on 24 June 2018 10543:"Love is love, says the cast of BL drama, HIStory 4: Close To You" 10170:"Boys' love: The unstoppable rise of same-sex soapies in Thailand" 6883:"Boys' love: The unstoppable rise of same-sex soapies in Thailand" 6386:. The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. March 27, 2018. 4867: 3863:

efforts of both commercially published Japanese works and amateur

2638: 1401:. The country shifted away from a tolerance of homosexuality amid 1365: 1346:

novels laid the foundation for many of the common genre tropes of

882: 17357: 17314: 17297: 17220: 17091: 17071: 16943: 16625: 16568: 15586: 14239: 13905: 13765: 10297:"Boys' Love: The Gay Romance TV Genre Taking Over Southeast Asia" 8047: 6551:

Imaginary Japan: Japanese Fantasy in Contemporary Popular Culture

5729: 5327:"Queer encounters between Iron Man and Chinese boys' love fandom" 4805:

reported that in China, at least 20 young female authors writing

4726: 4472:, was 85% female. It is usually assumed that all female fans are 4311:" or "socialist bromance" to avoid detection from state censors. 4307:

discussed the series' male homoerotic content under the hashtag "

4281: 4209: 4082: 4047: 3830:

was distributed by Ariztical Entertainment, which specializes in

3480: 3272: 3261: 3171: 3091: 3083: 2823:

readings and likeable female characters are mutually exclusive."

2697:, but instead receives the sexual and romantic attentions of the 2594: 2478:

manga) drew influence from popular culture of the era, including

2099: 1683: 1417: 1377: 1108:

depicting male homosexuality that are original creations and not

845: 769: 626: 474: 12573:

Zowie! It's Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys' Love

11901:"Osaka Lists 8 Boys-Love Mags Designated as 'Harmful' (Updated)" 11368:. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International. pp. 100–101. 8180:

McHarry, Mark. Brulotte, Gaëtan; Phillips, John (eds.). "Yaoi".

4722: 3976: 3838:

in the US." The film was reviewed in the American LGBT magazine

3668:

of abstract concepts (as in the personification of countries in

963:, beginning in the 1970s it was used to describe a new genre of 17331: 17205: 17193: 16898: 16095: 16020: 15672: 15608: 15581: 15244: 15057: 14911: 13898: 13037: 12221: 11150:

Beyond Common Sense: Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Japan

10571:"Filipino BL digital series 'Gameboys' gets international love" 6415:

Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context

6203: 6201: 5643:

Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context

5024: 4208:, which produces BL dramas in Thailand for distribution on its 4115: 3735:

The first officially-licensed English-language translations of

3465: 3355: 2323: 2277: 2267:

manga were published in the North American market in 2003 (see

1507: 1396: 1384: 1216:, or alternately as "boy's love" or "boys love", the term is a 827: 608: 451: 389: 384: 266: 14397: 12587:

Levi, Antonia; McHarry, Mark; Pagliassotti, Dru, eds. (2010).

11730:

Queer Popular Culture: Literature, Media, Film, and Television

8031:

Anime Explosion! The What, Why & Wow of Japanese Animation

7182:"China's Gay Rights Stance Can't Derail Demand for LGBT Films" 6679: 6677: 6634:"Erotic Manga: Boys' love, shonen-ai, yaoi and (MxM) shotacon" 5979: 5943: 3958:

manga in 2012; outside of the United States, German publisher

2985:

are not depicted as symptomatic of the violent desires of the

2177: 1947: 1843:

By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published

17351: 17240: 17173: 17013: 16583: 15716: 15694: 15687: 15487: 14293: 12828: 10653:"BL movie 'The Boy Foretold by the Stars' joins virtual MMFF" 10463: 10141: 9627:

Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature

9365:

Queer Popular Culture: Literature, Media, Film and Television

8533: 8531: 8508: 8389: 8387: 7778:""Yowie!": The Stateside appeal of boy-meets-boy yaoi comics" 4741:. Criticism of the stereotypically feminine behaviour of the 4689: 4406: 4276: 4266: 4167: 3817: 3041:"cannot control himself" in his presence, thus absolving the 3009:

as more than just a good friend, and typically result in the

2766:; in these instances, the roles are sometimes referred to as 2311: 1905: 1502: 1222:

construction derived from the literal English translation of

818: 781: 652: 331: 327: 217: 117: 113: 101: 11521:"The Twister of Imagination: An Interview with Mariko Ohara" 11271:

Reading Japan Cool: Patterns of Manga Literacy and Discourse

6750: 6198: 5967: 5821: 5518:

Reading Japan Cool: Patterns of Manga Literacy and Discourse

4766:

that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent".

3773:. Notable defunct English-language publishers of BL include 2302:, live-action films, and live-action television dramas (see 1442:

formed the foundation of what would become the aesthetic of

339: 39: 17260: 15635: 14428: 14359: 14232: 12792: 12135:

de Bats, Hadrien (2008a). "Entretien avec Hisako Miyoshi".

9997: