documenting the BL fan experience
People who are open about their taste in BL and being fujoshi/fudanshi/fujin are extremely accepting! The only times I’ve felt unwelcomed, was misgendered, and even accused of faking my gender and sexuality, was by people who seemed to be more ashamed of being into BL…
I would not have been exposed to the content that made me love BL so much if it weren’t for my easy internet access even at age 12. The largest difference in the way the internet has affected BL from the early 2000s to now…
I think of BL like a big mirror. BL content in order to be popular at the time of its creation is going to mirror society at that same time. No one in non-Japanese BL fan spaces ever considers when the series was created. Problematic content you see in an older series? It was popular and somewhat normalized back then. With the exception that fiction does not always reflect the real world. All of this “discourse” about various relationship dynamics is usually reflective of something popular at the time. Many times it’s a dynamic being critiqued through another culture’s lens (non-Japanese), which you can’t do successfully. It’s what creates this willingness to appropriate because you think you know “enough” to form an opinion. An opinion that ends up walking all over someone else’s history, culture, or life.
— 34, They/Them, USA
I can’t read Japanese, but I have been on and off learning since I was a young teen for the sole purpose of reading BL. — 24, He/Him, Canada
My first experience was in a Hispanic forum called Foros Dz. There was a section called “Clubes” and for some reason, I got myself in a Kai/Rei (Beyblade) club, thinking that it was a club dedicated to their friendship and to them as characters. I…
I don’t participate in many real-life fandom things, although a few of my closest friends are also BL fans. It’s still something that I largely interact with online. The past few years the fandom has gotten stranger as people are more quick to gatekeep, criticize, and even rank titles based on what they may personally find trite or problematic.
— 28, She/They, USA
I’m very thankful for BL in the sense that it helped me figure out my gender, sexuality, and a lot of personal sexual preferences I have. The fandom has always been incredibly welcoming, and it’s filled with so many people of different backgrounds but similar…
