documenting the BL fan experience
I used to get very mad and confused at people who shipped enemies/rivals like Yugi/Kaiba when I was a kid (lol). I think I was in denial about liking it though. I liked seeing male characters together because I liked men. I feel like a…
I think French BL fandom is pretty chill still, thankfully. I have seen anti-adjacent takes from some folks who are younger than me but we have a lot of well-established institutions that defend and promote BL especially through an LGBT/queer lens. We have a convention…
I think it was kind of the stereotypical idea that people have in mind when they’re denouncing BL— teenagers, mostly girls (and/or people who identified as girls at the time) who were very loudly into this stuff, having fun, and not really caring about the way it looked to others. I remember people on deviantart getting so mad over “yaoi” and “yaoi fangirls.” It was very fun and honestly mostly harmless.
— 27, He/Him, France
I randomly came across an old BL manga online. I believe it was “Yokan Ex Noise”. I didn’t know what the BL/yaoi tag meant at the time so I was pretty shocked when I saw the interaction between two male characters. I dropped it before…
BL helped me learn about LGBT+ people and topics, along with helping me figure myself out. It’s the discussion about BL and it’s ‘controversial love’ that were super interesting to me. It kind of helped me with getting a grip on my sexuality. — 20,…
