documenting the BL fan experience
I guess being into BL was my way of exploring my sexuality for years without really noticing I was doing it. I had a very late “gay awakening” (at 21), which also helped me open up in terms of sexual acceptance, but it didn’t really…
The representation in BL is generally good. Most fictional media shouldn’t, to me, be held up as a golden standard for representation because I’ve found in my experience that leads to extremely toxic fandom interactions. Representation in BL isn’t going to be every single gay…
Gei comi is a bit heavier and with more sex than BL, less bishounen, but I like it. It feels too real sometimes. I don’t always want to relate to stuff, sometimes I just want to vibe.
— 23, He/Him, Japan
There was a time when most cons were cancelled and merch wouldn’t ship due to some trade b.s. Not to mention I was a queer child with secret interests that I didn’t want my family to know about (still is that way). So the internet…
I’ve learnt very very basic katakana, so if the guiding katakana is given in a BL comic, I am able to follow it, although it does take me some time to decipher it. —20, She/Her, India
BL (and GL) has always been a safe space for me since I was young— a space to explore kink and sensuality, love and romance, gender, and relationships. Having friends in the BL community was a guarantee of acceptance and that was a huge comfort growing up.
— 28, She/They, USA
The same as my opinion on m|w representation in romance… it depends on who wrote it, the story, and the characters. Everything stands alone. Yes, the genre has tropes, but I don’t like to assign a “genre” caveat to what I consume and generalize an…
I think here in the Philippines the more mainstream BL fandom is into Thai BL now, but there’s a large following of the “traditional” Japanese BL manga/anime since a lot of us grew up with general anime/manga. — 29, She/Her, Philippines
The depictions in BL are often exaggerated and don’t always reflect real life. It is a work of fiction after all. I know that as heterosexual person, my understandjng of LGBTQ relationships to not be as deep as an actual LGBTQ person. As long as you recognize that and don’t generalize, or impose things on people, just enjoy what you like.
— 23, She/Her, Indonesia
No, I don’t use fujin terms personally, but I tag my accounts as fumuke, since I usually only focus on mlm. — 22, He/Him, Venezuela
