documenting the BL fan experience
I was maybe 12 and was beginning to question my identity (sexuality and gender), and it was the first time I related to something and felt like I “belonged”, like something clicked and I realized I was different. Since BL is “common” in Japan I…
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…
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 male experience. Sometimes it’s just for fun.
I think the differences and similarities between BL and Gei Comi mean a lot to some people and that’s important for them. My interaction with Gei Comi was less when I was younger and my understanding back then was that it was ‘raunchier’ but to be honest they’re similar levels. Some are heavy pornographic content, some are not, same as BL.
— 27, He/Him, New Zealand
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
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
When I first discovered BL fandom: “Glomp rawr XD Yaoi means stop my butt hurts”. Now fandom has chilled out, BL is more readily available for consumers and talking to people is a lot more easy. Though the fandom online is a lot more angry about things. The real life people I talk to just enjoy what they enjoy and don’t worry about other people’s tastes.
— 27, He/Him, New Zealand
I’m a bi man, and I use Fudanshi. People like to use my mlm identity in discourse, as long as I agree with them (otherwise I don’t count). I like m|m representation in BL, it’s fictional, it’s for fun! It doesn’t need to be 1:1…
Queer content was not freely available in Brazil (it’s a very… complicated culture) so the internet (blogs and MSN groups and twitter and tumblr) was the only way I could find any of it, nowadays there’s a lot more queer content there, and here in…
I liked all of BL! The porn, the romance, etc. Only thing I didn’t really like was the yaoi hands but I got past it.
— 24, He/Him, Canada
I may be Latin American but BL is quite accurate to what my life is. So I think they’re pretty good, even the ones written by “supposedly cishet women”. (I don’t like assuming, hence the quotes.) — 22, He/Him, Venezuela
