Fujojocast #8: 801 Special, Beautiful Things in BL

Hey fujojo! Happy Yaoi no Hi!

As always, I wish you all the best when it comes to BL! Itâ€s been a good year for BL with many exciting titles released in English, Japanese, and online! But as BL fans, weâ€re probably familiar with a lot of criticism with regards to our beloved genre. Weâ€ve seen it here and there how BL is unsophisticated because itâ€s all about sex. Sometimes, we as readers are also seen as virginal women who have no critical thought because we enjoy shameless boy bonking. And the list goes on and on and it even spreads within the community. We are critical of what is good and in the eyes of many, BL is not good.

Somehow, that got me thinking. Actually, Alan McKee’s book called Beautiful Things in Popular Culture made me think of the situation of BL and how popular culture’s position in the grand scheme of things is similar to BL’s position in the grand scheme of manga. So I got some of my closest fujoshi friends, Ami of Hazukashii kedo and Airin, and we discussed these criticisms in BL and discover if Boys Love has more to say than boy bonking. We’re discussing the Beautiful Things in BL and hopefully you can join us in this discussion through the comments on what you think makes beautiful BL.

So for those who will be listening, you might want to think about the following questions. These are the same questions I raised to Airin and Ami and let’s see if we all thought of the same thing.

1.) Think of a BL title that you believe is beautiful. If you can’t think of a title, think of the best BL author out there. if that’s still hard, just think what makes you want to keep a title in your shelf or give it away?
2.) Why do you think this title is beautiful? What are the criterias in which you name this title as the best or beautiful? Do you use this criteria for other titles?
3.) How does your selection fare with other fans? Is it just as popular?
4.) Do you think that BL fans also have particular criteria in selecting some of the most popular titles in Japan and outside of Japan?
5.) Do you think that our perspective/position as foreign fans change our appreciation of BL? Do we consume BL as the Japanese do? Or are we different?
6.) What are the things that makes BL reading shameful to you?

As much as youâ€d love to listen to our responses, Iâ€d also love to hear your answers to these questions too! Yaoi no Hi is a good day to reflect on the genre that we love and why we continue to love this genre.

OP/EP Music: Odore, Amars from the Kuragehime Soundtrack

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