This included voices like lesbian activist, writer, and BL fan Dr. Akiko Mizuguchiwho criticized the popular trend of having characters insist that they were straight outside of the central relationship. In her thesisMizoguchi also noted that Sato used the term “yaoi” in specific to frame his discussion on purely pornographic stories and impossible beauty standards in contrast to the lived experiences of the average gay man; in turn, the debate gave Sato space to explore women’s issues, and later to write on his fondness for shojo and how early shōnen-ai titles had helped him overcome internalized homophobia, writing (as quoted by Mizoguchi from Choisor), “To me, the misfortune does not lie in the fact that I can only love men. Rather, my misfortune lies in the fact that being a man loving a man is not accepted by society. In other words, it is the sense of being ‘excluded’ that brings me the sense of misfortune. My despair about this sense is deep, but still, I never came to hate my desire itself. This is all thanks to ‘girls’ comics.’” It could be said that this was a productive conversation for all involved.
While there were BL manga prior to this that tackled issues facing the gay community, such as Tomoi (1985-1986), these sorts of stories would gradually become more common in the wake of the yaoi ronso. Today, discussions about identity, cultural homophobia, and legal barriers for queer men are common topics in BL.
How did the categories evolve?
Categories of author and readership have also become increasingly fluid. In 2015, eminent gay manga artist and critic Gengoroh we guarantee noted: “Furthermore, going back to the gender of creators, that’s problematic as well because sometimes BL creators – and I’m speaking just from personal acquaintance with some of these creators – may be biologically female or identify on the page as heterosexual women, but sometimes they’re actually lesbian or transgender. And then sometimes it’s the case that a woman will draw sort of muscle-y characters and then take on male pen names for publication in gay media. Which is also very… not problematic, but just raises questions, just how do we start to categorize?”
Multiple writers have spoken on and documented the evolving readership of BL over the years as well as its cultural impactincluding Kazumi Nagaike, Akemi Harada, Thomas Baudinette, Mark McLelland, Katsuhiko Suganumaand James Welker. In the same panel where Tagame spoke, Senior Vice President of Publishing at VIZ Media Leyla Acker noted that up to 50% of reader response to some BL titles was male. Authorship has also evolved. Some writers prefer to include as little personal detail as possible regarding their identity, and male writers (such as Nagabe) have also become more common within the space.
What are class-S, girls’ Ffiction, and yuri?
Yuri is at once more straightforward and more difficult to talk about as an umbrella term. It hasn’t undergone as many terminology shifts as BL, but it also took much longer to coalesce under the firm marketing umbrella of “yuri.” Nobuko Yoshiya’s novels and other early 20th century writers established a trend of “class S” or just “S” fiction: stories about deep, spiritual bonds between girls who swore devotion to one another but ultimately had to leave their secluded space for the world of adulthood and heterosexual marriage. The Takarazuka Revue, an all-female theater company founded in 1913, also had hints of this duality. Though its actors performed intimately and attracted legions of fans, the troupe’s founder framed it as a training grounds for heterosexual marriage, and it was not uncommon to see reporting of harsh punishment or lovers’ suicides when actresses were found to be in relationships with female fans. As Sharon Chalmers noted in her 2001 work“According to the literature of [the 1920s]female homosexuality was divided into two types, referred to as dude and o-me no kankei. The former term implied non-sexual, that is, platonic intense friendships, which, while seen as ‘abnormal,’ were tolerated as a ‘girlhood phase.’ This period in a ‘girl’s’ life, from puberty to marriage, is known as shorkoki.”
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