Today is August 1st, or in manga otaku terms yaoi day, and the manga blogosphere is all a-Tweet with contests, more contests, and quite a bit of general squee. Last week, during the CLAMP MMF, I somewhat passively self-identified as “fujoshi.” But the real truth of that is a pretty complicated and, as such, prevents me from participating in the day’s festivities with unfettered glee.
At Otaku Champloo Khursten Santos (previously spotted at Manga Bookshelf as part of the epic roundtable Breaking Down Banana Fish) speaks frankly about her own identification as a fujoshi, and what that means for her. It’s an interesting read for me on a number of levels, particularly as Khursten and I live in very different cultures—and I’m not even necessarily speaking in purely geographic terms. I suspect the online community that has been vital in forming my own views around fandom has been different in some ways as well. In both the physical and virtual communities in which I live, the issues confronting me regarding identifying myself as “fujoshi” are quite different than those Khursten describes, though they may yield some similar results.
Every community, of course, inevitably develops a sense of shared values—even if these values are not held by some members of that community—and as it happens, living where I live and doing the work I do, there is nothing about my community’s values that would require or even encourage me to hide an interest in books about gay or lesbian romance. I live in a socially progressive area and I work in the theater. Many people I work and interact with daily are openly gay, and for most people, this is a non-issue. Though there are surely those in my community who do not share these values, they have little (if any) presence in my daily life. Nobody I remotely care about gives a hoot if I read romance comics about gay men. My collection of BL manga is plainly visible in my living room. I’ve shared slash (and femslash) fanfiction with family, coworkers, and friends. Overall, the “comics” and “fanfiction” aspects of those things have required much more explanation than the sexuality of their protagonists.
But if I can reasonably go about my life without fear of being called a “pervert,” there is another label I must consider daily:
I am a able-bodied, caucasian, cisgendered woman married to a caucasian, cisgendered man. Though my background is not wealthy, both my parents are forward-thinking arts educators—a lucky circumstance that has benefitted me greatly in more ways than I can count. I have a degree from an expensive private college and a supportive, loving family I can rely on in tough times. I don’t have children. I do have an iPad. And while I have experienced certain inequities as a woman in my society, given my background, place of residence, and field of work, they have had minimal impact on my overall quality of life. There’s absolutely no denying that I possess a hefty amount of privilege, and when I consider my interest in BL manga, that’s the biggest worry on my mind.
Now, the concept of privilege and how it relates to sexual or romantic fantasy is pretty freaking tricky. Fantasy is a private and personal thing, and there is no denying that in our society, even now, it is women who are most encouraged to feel shame for their fantasies. I don’t want to be a part of reinforcing that. EVER. I have absolutely no rightful place from which to judge any other woman on her reading habits or her fantasies, nor do I have a desire to do so. But that doesn’t mean I don’t worry about or analyze mine.
I enjoy many BL manga. My tastes are pretty specific—similar to my tastes in other romance manga (shoujo, josei, yuri, whatever), and pretty much fiction in general. I review BL manga regularly. I’ve edited some, too. But what does that really mean in terms of how I may be exercising my privilege?
I feel uncomfortable when men lasciviously objectify women (real or fictional) and even more so when that objectification moves into fetishization of lesbianism filtered through a male gaze. When I see movies, television, comics, or real-life situations that embrace and glorify this type of objectification, it makes me feel dehumanized and humiliated. The fact that this portrayal of women is so pervasive in our society as to be popularly viewed as normal is evidence of straight male privilege, and I’m always appreciative of straight men who take the time to acknowledge and be thoughtful about that.
So, if I enjoy stories in which two male characters fall in love with each other, am I objectifying and fetishizing gay men? Is there a difference if the characters have sex? Is there a difference if the sex is explicitly portrayed? If the characters in the story identify as gay, is that different than if they don’t? Does it matter if the author is male or female? Gay or straight? If the author is writing from/for a different culture than my own, should I be judging the work by my own cultural standards? Am I fetishizing that culture as well?
Some of these questions may seem pedantic, but I can’t help but feel that they’re important to consider when coming from a place of privilege, which I undoubtedly am. This feeling is only enhanced by reading things like my former Manga Recon colleague Issac Hale’s experiences at Yaoi Con, or Micheal Arthur’s (sadly removed) essay at The Hooded Utilitarian. Even if I think that women (including me!) have the right to enjoy and share their fantasies freely, I think that gay men should be listened to on the subject of how the BL manga and fujoshi culture they encounter makes them feel, especially in the context of our shared western otaku community. After all, I’d like straight men to listen to me. Wouldn’t I?
So, how do I reconcile all those feelings and questions (and even more feelings) with the fact that I still enjoy BL manga? Because, y’know, I do. How do I reconcile my dislike of some male-aimed fanservice in manga with the female-aimed fanservice I genuinely enjoy?
I don’t know what the answers to these questions are—and I certainly don’t expect anyone else to. But that leaves me, of course, with at least one more…
With all this hand-wringing… am I fujoshi? Are you?
I do believe that yaoi is a way of objectifying and fetishing gay men. I firmly believe that it is okay, in a personal fantasy, to objectify (aka it’s okay to admit you enjoy something, that certain things appeal to you sexually). For that reason, I am okay with men fantasizing about women in ways that I dislike; however, it’s the fact that some men would project their fantasy on women in real life that makes me uncomfortable and humiliates, like I’m being used and judged before I could say anything about it. Likewise, as fujoshi, I believe that as long as we remember the line between fantasy and reality, and, when thinking of gay men as people with problems, people with personalities like how we have personalities, instead of viewing them as “OMG kawaii desu,” then we may relieve some discomfort gay men may have with being objectified by women.
Aka, objectify responsibly. People are people before they are objects in fantasy.
Privilege is a word that’s quite tricky to define. I think it’s important to say privilege as respect to what.
I think this is probably a very reasonable perspective.
And yeah, I agree that privilege is tricky to define, which is why I was careful to spell out the ways in which I feel that I personally enjoy privilege. My circumstances do not apply to BL fans in general, but I’m pretty sure from where *I’m* sitting that I don’t get to call privilege on gay men. And if I’m in the position of privilege, it’s up to me to be responsible for it, not them.
Men objectifying lesbians is often set up as the downside, don’t-want-to-go-there baseline for these arguments I think — which is certainly understandable. On the other hand, though…there are a lot of instances where male lesbophilia is not just about objectification, but about identification, and seems to be linked to feminist commitments. The most obvious case maybe is the early Wonder Woman comics; William Marston’s vision of lesbian female community (which is what the Amazons are, and what he absolutely thought of them as) was inextricably linked to his feminism. That’s true of women-in-prison films, too; they’re definitely about guys getting off on lesbian sexuality, but they’re also about guys getting off on feminism…which at least complicates the claims about exploitation and objectification.
My point being…I think you could say some of the same things about BL fandom. That is, yes, it’s objectification and fetishization…but I think for a lot of BL fans (at least the ones I’ve spoken to), the identification and homophilia is also connected to a commitment to gay rights.
Not that it’s all good or anything; you’re discussion and concerns are well taken. I think there are at least potential upsides to cross-identification too, though….
I think it really is complicated, which is actually a reason why I found the conversation in Michael Arthur’s post so interesting… because I felt some kind of agreement with both sides of the argument. Also, many women I know who enjoy BL manga (and slash fanfic too) are lesbian, bisexual, or otherwise identify as queer, which complicates the question even more.
I agree about the upsides to cross-identification, and that’s something I personally experience as well. Though I’ve had some really troubling encounters with homophobia in both slash and BL fandoms that have left me feeling really angry. Women who write or read stories about gay men specifically as a guilty pleasure while posting anti-gay sentiments in their livejournals damage the fandom as a whole.
I considered heavily whether this was an appropriate time to say anything I did here. I don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. But it’s hard for me to throw myself fully into joyful celebrations of BL when I do have concerns about my own participation, so I figured I’d go with it.
Actually Noah, I disagree. The best case where male lesbophilia is not linked to objectification is my own Yuri fandom.
Over and over again I am told by male fans (of non-porn Yuri, the fandom that is looking for lesbo sex is not typically my fandom,) that what they like best – what they read Yuri for is to see the two women happy together. The sex is fine, but it’s not the reason for reading or seeking out this particular kind of coupling. Interesting, because this is exactly the same motivation I hear from women who like Yuri.
Melinda – I understand your hand-wringing. It would be delusional for the many female fans of BL to categorically deny that they don’t read the sex for titillation (although they frequently do), but as I note with Yuri, there *can* be a desire to just see the guys together, happy-ever-after. There’s nothng wrong with both…and as a gay person, I don’t mind terribly if someone is honest about their interest. There’s nothing wrong with fantasies, and nothing to be ashamed about. I *know* that tons of guys look at lesbian comics to get off. I just happen to be friends with a lot of them who want more than just sex from a story, in the same way that you’ve been upfront about wanting more from a story.
Erica, thanks for weighing in here! I really appreciate your perspective.
I can very honestly say that I don’t read BL manga to “get off” as it were. However, I absolutely read all romance manga (BL included) for that wonderful, tingly, giddy-in-love feeling that comes along with watching people fall for each other, and I’m not sure it’s all that different in some ways. It’s not sexual, precisely, but it’s definitely an adrenalin rush. And I think part of the reason that I like all kinds of romance (including BL and Yuri) is that there are just… I don’t know… slightly different variations on that feeling that tend to come along with one type or another. I don’t know that this makes me any better than the men and women who are just in it for the porn, because I think I enjoy this particular experience just as much as they enjoy porn. Perhaps even more. It just so happens that I get what I want much, much more easily out of stories that are really well-written romance than I can out of stories that just jump right to the sex. In fact, there doesn’t need to be any sex at all. I just like reading about people in love. :)
I don’t think those two are reconciled- you have to just let it go. Just as we objectify men (because we undoubtly do) and sometimes other women, men can do, too. And vice versa. The freedom of speech, the freedom to enjoy porn no matter how perverse it might seem to other people’s eyes (if it’s RL, some rules though must be kept for the safety of the actors) shouldn’t be upheld by our guilts and dislikes.
The only thing we should do is to talk to others and especially men in our lives and make sure that fantasy is and remains fantasy. What we read and watch shouldn’t be transfered to real life distorted views and behaviors, and sexual practices should remain consensual. Part of this is the sexual education of both girls and boys and I don’t talk about how the chicken made the egg. I talk about relationships, sex, pleasure, protection, mutual respect.
Objectification is part of normal fantasy. Respect should be part of every day life.
“Objectification is part of normal fantasy. Respect should be part of every day life.”
Nicely stated. :)
Me, I’m a fujoshi. I don’t have any uncertainty about that, and I’m not shy about admitting it either. :)
On the question of male-oriented vs female-oriented fanservice, I do feel that the type of fanservice that happens in BL (and for that matter shoujo / josei / “ladies’” manga) is less problematic than the type of fanservice that happens in ecchi manga, and I think this is related to the form of the fanservice rather than the sex of the character involved. I read a fair amount of “otokonoko” (crossdressing guys for a male audience) manga, which applies male-oriented ecchi tropes to male-bodied characters, and guess what: when a male character trips and falls and somehow ends up on the floor in a suggestive position with whipped cream dripping off his naked ass, it’s still totally skeevy, and when a male character is presented as a compliant, opinionless, always-available little sex-doll, it’s still totally obnoxious, even though it’s not happening to a girl. I’m all for pretty people looking dewey-eyed in frilly outfits, and if guy-manga would limit itself to female-type fanservice instead of closeup jiggly boob shots and not-actually-a-blowjob popsicle eating and blah blah blah, I wouldn’t have a word to say against it.
On objectification… This is a fragment of a long argument that I need to lay out someday just so I can get it off my chest, but there’s different kinds of objectification.
I don’t think BL objectifies men in the dis-individuating way that men’s porn can objectify women; BL is mostly romance, and most writers at least try to present the characters as individuals with desires and motivations rather than just as sex-hungry masturbation aids that will jump on any available wang. Not all BL books really do characterization successfully, but then neither do all shoujo or josei either, and I don’t think BL does anything to its men that shoujo / josei / ladies’ doesn’t do to female characters.
Conversely, I think it’s positively valuable that BL presents men as sexual objects as well as sexual subjects; that is, as specularized bodies that you the (presumptively female) reader are encouraged to gaze at and desire, bodies you can act on, rather than as either “selves” to identify with, bodies to imagine occupying (which is what most heterosexual erotica for women primarily offers – a fantasy of a woman you can be), or as spectators that you are supposed to imagine gazing at and desiring you, bodies who will act on you (which is how women are usually encouraged to fantasize about men). A lot of men don’t like seeing men being put in the object position, because it’s not one that men normally occupy in general-audience media and so, firstly, it’s not familiar to them, and secondly, it’s associated with femininity and therefore disempowerment (because obviously men should never be passive, right?). But I think that it’s healthy for women to have a field to imagine themselves as active and acting on a desired other rather than passive and acted upon by a desiring other. Why this doesn’t happen more often in women’s heterosexual material is a whole ‘nother argument.
As to characters that identify as gay, my big issue on this point which I’ve never been able to fully resolve, is: does it matter if the characters saythey’re gay, if the work doesn’t depict actual gay culture or opinions? Is it actually useful to just have the label and ignore the contents? Considering that “mainstream” Japanese gay culture (if you’ll pardon the oxymoron) prioritizes gender-normative men, has a pretty strong tendency to fetishize hyper-masculinity and can be quite femiphobic, “realistic” gay depictions mesh very poorly with BL, which, as a genre, prioritizes gender-nonconformity and male femininity. Consequently, most depictions of gay culture in BL have little to do with what the average Japanese gay man experiences or finds appealing. Is it better to have something like the “One Night Stand” story in Hiro Madarame’s Scarlet, which depicts a “gay bar” that’s modeled on heterosexual bars and filled with “gay men” who are modeled on heterosexual fashion and beauty standards, or is that actually worse, more misleading, than a work that doesn’t try to show gay reality and therefore doesn’t get it actively wrong?
I think that BL, as a genre, is fundamentally driven by a dissatisfaction with normative masculinity, and as long as that holds true, I don’t think it is able to incorporate a strictly realistic take on Japanese gay men (or more than that minority of JGM that are already part of the more gender-bending sub-subcultures, anyway). The Japanese women who want to see the kinds of stories that appeal to Japanese gay men are already reading gay men’s manga (bara), not BL; driving BL to duplicate that material is just going to lose it the audience it has, it’s not going to make all the fujoshi suddenly wild about stories about sports-watching, shochu-swilling slobs who wouldn’t be caught dead baking cookies or talking about their feelings.
In terms of gay men’s reaction to BL, I think the discussion is doubly handicapped in that both the mainstream and the marginalized cultures involved are foreign to us; mainstream Japanese culture has significantly different cultural markers of masculinity/femininity, and gay Japanese culture is relatively unfamiliar to most discussants on both the female-fan and gay-commenter side of the fence, so that a lot of the topics that get raised are either irrelevant or interpreted differently than the Japanese author and intended audience would. To take a tiny example, I’ve seen lots of complaints about the lack of body hair in BL, since in the West we are conditioned to regard male body hair (especially chest hair) as a marker of virility, but this has nothing to do with BL as such; most Japanese women think male body hair, particularly chest and arm hair, is disgusting and a grooming problem, and therefore lack of body hair is part of the depiction of an attractive man, not a gender marker (Laura Miller’s Beauty Up, which has a great chapter on Japanese male beauty standards, contains a couple of amusing anecdotes of American men who positively refused to believe that their hairy chests were unattractive to Japanese women, even in the face of actual Japanese women firmly informing them otherwise).
Oh God, this is longer than your post… I need to get a blog of my own someday. :)
You really should start a blog of your own, because I’d really like to read it! :D
There’s a lot here, and I feel that there is no way for me to respond as thoroughly as it all deserves, so I’ll probably come back more than once. Also, I really appreciate your perspective, and there are a number of things I really need to think about before I know how I feel about them.
The section on characters identifying as gay is one of these. I absolutely take your point. I can’t decide what I think. I’ve said in the past that I prefer stories where at least one of the primary couple actually identifies as gay, but I think it’s less about any illusions that the author is getting it “right” and more about some acknowledgement that being gay is a real thing, even if it’s not being portrayed in a realistic way. I don’t expect BL manga to depict gay men or gay culture (Japanese or otherwise) with any level of authenticity. But I feel really uncomfortable when I read a story that essentially pretends that they don’t exist–or worse, that they do, and there’s something wrong about it. I suppose what it comes down to, is that if women are going to be (for lack of a better word) using gay men as subjects/objects in stories intended to fuel each others’ sexual or romantic fantasies, at the very least it seems like those stories should be gay-positive in some way. That’s something I look for when I read BL, and it’s important to me. That said, I don’t think that necessarily makes me (or the stories I like) any better than others, because (as you say) even those stories are generally unrealistic in their portrayal of gay culture in Japan. Though, interestingly, I’ve read more than one with characters that reminded me very much of gay men I’m close to in my own life (and/or their lovers and circle of friends), who are (obviously) not in Japan.
Now I have to go to work. But I’ll be back. :)
“Though, interestingly, I’ve read more than one with characters that reminded me very much of gay men I’m close to in my own life (and/or their lovers and circle of friends)”
Oh, I don’t question that somewhere out there there is a gay man, Japanese or otherwise, who is of any type you can imagine (the staggering array of human diversity, and all that). And there are certainly subcultures of Japanese gay men who want to be pretty and androgynous, to look like visual kei stars or male idols, or who want to be domestic, “artsy”, or gender-nonconforming in some way or another; but they’re not typically represented in Japanese gay media, that’s not really part of how “mainstream” (commercialized) gay culture represents itself or how it wants to be seen. Or at least that’s how it seems to me from this side of the Pacific.
I’m not trying to make an argument that any of these stories represent Japanese gay culture at all.
I still prefer a romance story that addresses the sexuality of its characters in some way, not even just because it feels more thoughtful to me, but because it also can just make a story better. For example, in Haruko Kumota’s My Darling Kitten Hair, the way the author has fleshed out one of the main characters’ circle of friends–really fleshed them out as individuals, including their sexuality–makes them each read as authentic humans who might actually live in the real world and have real thoughts about their sexual identity. Reviewing it purely from a technical standpoint, this kind of vibrant characterization is just… well, better writing than what I sometimes see in BL. More nuanced characterization enriches every other aspect of the storytelling, all the way through the artwork. These particular characters also happen to resonate particularly with me on a personal level, because “Mii-kun” and his friends could have been almost entirely based on several of my closest friends in college—their personalities, relationships, idiosyncrasies, and yes, their individual ways of expressing their sexuality—the details were kind of astounding. This last bit is coincidence, of course, but whether or not this accurately reflects larger gay culture in Japan (from what you’ve suggested, it does not), the thoroughness of the characterization not only reflects the author’s love for her characters and a thoughtfulness regarding them as whole people, it makes her story work better.
“More nuanced characterization enriches every other aspect of the storytelling, all the way through the artwork.”
I quite agree with this. :) I haven’t read My Darling Kitten Hair yet (I’ve bought it, but I don’t really like reading manga online so I haven’t gotten bored enough to read my recent JManga purchases), but maybe I should move it up the priority list. I do like the kind of manga that runs in Citron (Libre’s artsy / alternative BL mag and MDKH’s parent magazine); the artsy / alternative end of the BL spectrum tends to be slow-moving stuff that has more room to breathe. BL tends to have very compact casts (as does “ladies’” manga), with often just the main couple and maybe a third person (rival, best friend, relative), and while I don’t really mind that, it does leave the characters feeling less “connected”, as it were.
It’s pretty adorable, I have to say. Mii-kun’s friends (at least the ones I was talking about) don’t really show up until the last few chapters of the first volume (which is all that’s available at this point), but the people in the house he lives in are pretty interesting as well. I clicked to see what else JManga has from Citron and was depressed to note that the only other is Apartments of Calle Feliz, which is lovely, but of course I already read it. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for more!
I’m not involved enough in fandom to use the term “fujoshi” comfortably. Most of the people I interact with wouldn’t know what it meant. Also, as BL forms only a small portion of my manga reading, I don’t feel like I should emphasize that part of my hobby.
But I am not in the closet. I make no excuses about reading BL and have been known to read yaoi in public. Partly that is a deliberate feminist stand on my part. To openly enjoy something that is (mostly) by women and for women and that is often dismissed and derided in mainstream culture. Nobody should be embarrassed about their reading habits.
About the objectification of gay men etc.: I freely admit that BL is objectifying. But it is a fantasy, and as long as I acknowledge the fantasy and do not imagine that it resembles the real world or try to involve actual living people in the fantasy, I don’t think that I’m doing anyone wrong. Every bit of fiction is offensive to someone and if we weren’t allowed to enjoy problematic stuff, our world would be much too boring. I wouldn’t expect an apology from a guy who enjoyed some form of chauvinistic macho power fantasy, but I would hope that he’d acknowledge the problematic nature and wouldn’t try to make me like the stuff. The trouble is usually with people who accuse others for liking stuff that’s “wrong” while being blind about the problems of their own chosen entertainment.
ramble… ramble…
Yeah, I suppose I am a fujoshi.
“To openly enjoy something that is (mostly) by women and for women and that is often dismissed and derided in mainstream culture. Nobody should be embarrassed about their reading habits.”
Absolutely agreed on this subject. Also, I will probably never get over my irritation at the fact that so few people were willing to give a shot to Wild Adapter during its MMF, I think largely (not exclusively, of course–often people simply don’t have time or easy access to the books) because it is BL, despite Michelle, David, and I going on and on about how brilliantly crafted it is. And (unrelated to Wild Adapter, which couldn’t really be classified this way) in general I’m irritated by how little cred is given to really well-written romance. It’s freaking hard to write well-paced, believable romance (many, many writers fail at this) and those who manage it don’t get enough respect. Dammit.
Okay, I’m done now. Probably. :)
I’ll join you in your irritation.
I’m not a big fan of romance, as such. Romace as a plot is rarely enough to satisfy me, which is also why I don’t read more BL. But I get soooooo irritated at those snobs who turn their noses up at romance novels (or romance anything.) It’s elitist, snobbish and often chauvinistic. Romance as a genre deserves just as much respect as any genre. There’s just as much rubbish published as mystery (or fantasy or…) as there is in the romance genre.
/steps off the soapbox
Melinda, I have nothing but love for this post! It genuinely represents the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of how different societies can get and I am so happy for you that in your part of the world, you won’t feel the shame in your fujoshi life.
I live in the Philippines where a great number of people are Catholics and a good number of people are not gender aware nor are they respectful of even the most basic women rights such as reproductive health. I work in a Catholic university where many are cisgendered to the core and the mention of homosexuality often entails a good joke on flamboyant homosexuals or general awkwardness over the idea that I’ve brought a topic to something they can’t see. We’re not yet as progressive as it is in some parts of the US, but I’m grateful that there are few people around me who do understand my fujoshi character. In a way, that makes me as privileged as you are. Perhaps a little lesser than you. I can’t exactly out myself to my Jesuit boss. lol.
That said, I do understand your issues with regards to where do we stand with our concerns over objectifying men in BL against our own fight against the objectification of women? And we can all go through the ethics and morality involved in them and it will all boil down to what many scholars consider debate over where do these women stand in this gender issue? And strangely, for some studies like Lunsing’s Yaoi Ronso, etc. the women don’t care because it’s all a fantasy. In fact some bask in the objectification because it’s the only way or mean that they find “liberty”.
I’d like to think that many authors consider their manga as safe spaces for their fantasies. In a way that we know that Tezuka would probably never rape a woman, for the sake of the plot (and for lack of knowledge of how to best oppress a woman), a great percentage of women in his stories get raped. In the same way that women have taken their manga as a safe space and also abused men because they don’t know how best to oppress them. The earliest of which is seen in Keiko Takemiya’s Kaze to Ki no Uta where Gilbert’s greatly objectified as a sexual object and he sees himself as nothing as such because he’s been nothing but a toy to his patron, Auguste. And it’s difficult to position yourself as a fan educated in gender to see something so difficult as these stories. Do you praise it? Do you hate it? I can’t answer for you, but for me, as with everything, I have to understand their context. I wouldn’t like to judge their work solely because it is strongly against my own personal values, but I’d like to understand why’d they written that. Perhaps, I’d learn something from them.
What I find interesting is I actually find friends who find BL amusing interesting. A great percent of DMP titles for them are nothing but cheeky fun titles while I have some who managed to read Basso and Est Em who are captivated if not impressed by their works. I think BL is also at that critical stage that it tries to capture homosexual fantasies and realities. Many of these titles are not yet available in English, but when more of these works come in, I definitely would like to see responses from homosexuals. In Japan, it seems that while some may connect with a limited number of titles, there is a load of BL that wishes to divide itself from being consumed by homosexuals as it was purely designed for women. It’s strange and actually at times it’s annoying because they’re driven by economics and not a wider audience.
Are you a fujoshi? I think only you can say that. :3 I think, my point with the post and perhaps my great lesson in the last year is that once you’ve called yourself a fujoshi, own it and be proud. <3
Thanks so much for commenting, Khursten!
I do try to take things in context as much as possible, though one thing I also have to take into consideration is that when it comes to something like manga, which is coming out of a culture so different from my own, is that I may very well not actually understand the context, at least not fully. I read a lot about Japan, but I’m certainly not a Japanese scholar or anthropologist. Nor do I read Japanese, so I must rely on what information is available to me in English. When it comes to things like BL manga, that information can be pretty sparse, and often contradictory. I’m grateful when someone like you is able to offer a clearer perspective. I do hope that we’ll continue to see a wider variety of BL translated into English (someone bring us some Basso please).
I am still not sure if I am a fujoshi. :D I suppose I’ll figure it out someday.
I’m a little late to this but the article is so honest I felt like I had to comment.
I would never call myself a fujoshi because they by and large frighten me. The encounters I have had with a few engendered horrors that made me want to hold my hands in my head and slink away lest I be identified with them. But that is because of how they acted, not because of what they read. (At least I like to think BL didn’t rot their brains.)
But then I wonder if anyone would consider me a fujoshi anyway. I read a little BL. But most of it I have found to be juvenile. One of the great “masterpieces” of the genre that has achieved worldwide acclaim I hate because it managed to offend and disturb me. This is saying something since fiction just doesn’t get under my skin like that. The question of characters identifying as gay or not, makes me sort of sad. I have an aversion to labels and the political implications they carry.
As for the female/male fanservice quandary, I don’t relate to a lot of women because I actually find that aspect to be, dare I say, natural in being included. People are fond of the human body. So I don’t buy into the argument that sensuality, erotica, or pornography (especially literature and art based) encourages or perpetuates abuse, degradation and violence. People like what they like. It confuses me that there is the idea of a direct correlation between fiction and reality when a person chooses a type of book and assertions are made on the nature of their character.
Encountering something alien to your own culture or sensibilities brings a natural question of if your analysis is justifiable. However, one of the great things about the medium of comics as I see it is that the creator has less limitation (at least optimally) in creating things that are entirely unrealistic because it is possible (and perhaps the only ethical way to express such). Though, I wouldn’t argue that to do so produce something good or moral in every case either.
I think the hand-wringing and large justifications people create have more to do with the “normal negativity” in society. Such is the idea that if something makes you happy, invariably there has to be a downside to it as well. So valuing or celebrating such pleasure is hedonistic, dangerous, or recklessly irresponsible. Personally I’ve had a very close and personal experience of such embedded belief as I was raised in a very fundamentalist form of Christianity. My former religion even went so far as to take note of BL in one of its publications calling it “twisted romance”. And sometimes I do wonder if that’s an accurate description, just not in the way it was originally meant.