documenting the BL fan experience
My identity makes me a bit more critical of the portrayal/manifestations of queer experiences in BL. Though when I turn to BL for escapism, the realistic portrayals hurt a bit more since I’m reminded of the real-life challenges of being a queer person. In reverse,…
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
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…
My friend used to talk with other BL fans via forums. When I started liking it, on the internet, I was mostly by myself, liking and reblogging stuff on tumblr, not really interacting with anyone. In real life though I was a member of a…
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 was 13 years old in that moment if I recall correctly; then I found Naruto BL when I was 14 and I was so into it that I wrote myself a bad fic where I shipped Naruto with everyone but he’d end with Gaara, because SasuNaru was overrated for me.
— 26, She/They, Mexico
My first experience was actually adults getting me, an 11 years old “girl”, into a group called anti-yaoi brigade. In which they willingly taught me what it was and told me how it was gross (despite my mom being pro LG). A year later I…
My earliest memory is of encountering boyxboy content in a fanfic I didn’t expect, when I was around 12 years old. I don’t remember if the fic was hosted in ff.net or yahoo groups or somewhere else. I didn’t think too much of it back…
Love Stage!!! I saw it recommended on youtube when I was younger and I fell in love with BL/GL and other queer media since. I liked seeing non-heterosexual relationships in media that was not automatically demonized and existed outside of a Christian anti-gay perspective, and seeing characters perform gender roles outside of typical societal standards (feminine/femme men and masculine/masc women).
— 18, She/They, Barbados
The quality of internet overtime made it easier to consume, relate to, and make content for. It’s easier to read on the go, talk about it to friends at the same time, live react, etc. There’s a lot more doujins that have been translated to…
