bl’s grip on the girls.

the queer experience as entertainment.

This won’t be a long essay, mostly because I feel as though the contents I’m mentioning need further dissecting and so for this moment I’d like to just give my thoughts. 

I don’t often watch BL however I recently came across an edit for a Philippine drama love in the air that truly sent me spiralling. It was so good I shed tears at the 2 minutes and fifty-one seconds gifted to me by dreamie234. It got me thinking about the unusual grip these gay relationships have on women like myself, who despite on interacting with the odd edit such as this one, finds appeal in two men kissing.

BL is… interesting. Like a lot of queer coded things, heterosexuals are good at colonising them, myself included. I think BL has changed the landscape of media for women mostly because the internet has made it easier to enjoy things previously hidden, and previously shamed. Although I said heteros colonise queer things (an exaggeration at best) I don’t think it’s a particularly bad thing to enjoy BL, in fact I think—some— BL’s have grown to have better characteristics than love stories between most other sexualities, which is to say that lesbians are still suffering from horrible rep and straight people are, well, straight (derogatory). I also think BL has become the most popularised of the sexualities, and subsequently the most commodified. 

BL stands for Boy’s Love. It originated in Japan—surprise, surprise— in the 70s and was predominantly made by women and marketed towards women. Homosexuality in an East Asian country didn’t often go down well, so BL mangas were created to challenge the norms of Japan. The content spread throughout Asia until it reached Western waters and took on many forms; literature, anime, dramas, etc. Like I mentioned BL is the most popularised queer commodity that we have today. Whilst the issue of fetishising lesbians is a normal occurrence, BL has seen exponential levels of women—some normal, and some fujoshified—putting these male x male relationships on pedestals. 

Most notably are in Kpop. There is not one Kpop stan that hasn’t fallen into the trap of fan service or sexy edits of two group members fondling each other. It’s a very weird phenomenon because whilst it’s received its criticisms, the Kpop industry still benefits heavily from the obsession with BL. 

Originally, shojos—romance novels targeted towards adolescent girls—featured BL between adolescent boys. From the very start BL was created for women and not necessarily for gay men. Why was that?

Whilst I don’t speak for gay men—and to all the gays that love me, let me know if I’m talking shit!— I do understand that the fetishisation emerging from the world of BL’s is practically inescapable. Being accosted on the question of whether you’re a bottom or a top as if that should be public information and seeing your community being represented through poorly written stories is only two examples. I’ve talked about Minority Media before, where a piece of literature or film scrutinises the minority it’s “representing” whilst completely eradicating any ounce of story. Black people get it. Marginalised women get it. And the gays without a doubt also get it. We’re in a flux between wanting to represent queer identities and wanting queer identities to represent what we’ve categorised them as. Heartstopper actor Kit Connor was bullied into coming out on Twitter so that teenage girls—and the odd middle aged woman—could fantasise about him and co star Joe Locke actually being together omg omg omg!!!!

There are however queer people watching and reading BL because of its representation. Good queer media has taken a hot minute to get to where we are but it exists for the girls and the gays and the theys to recognise themselves as elastic beings with the kindness and the softness and the selfishness they deserve. 

A lot of straight media, especially when dealing with male characters, are next to stupid. They have no tact, no care, and most of all no understanding of the human behind the man. As horrible as men can be they aren’t just horrible. And they can be as well-represented as a guy figuring out he likes other guys. 

For me, BL is not a gateway to queerness but a sort of relief at the—non sexual—male form. I nearly ran out of tears watching the first season of Heartstopper and I’ve put off watching the second because I literally cannot do that to myself right now. I love seeing men soften, I love seeing love be at the centre of male relationships. I love bromance! The reason I hate the love triangle trope so much is that it’s always two guys who are close ruining their friendship over a girl. No kdrama lead has ever been worth that!

I do think that within the intersection of fictional characters and real people is where the fetishisation really sits. It takes place mostly with real people; Getting upset when a Kpop idol dates a—gasp!—woman, or ends up not even being gay, or worse, is bi. 

I’ve also written about bi erasure pertaining more to Black men and women however the same argument still stands:

“The impact of bi-erasure on Black men forces them to fall back into boxed traditional gender roles during sex. By masking their sexuality with a forced sense of masculinity, they avoid discrimination.” - The double standard of Black Queer representation in Black culture.

In writing better represented male/male relationships, one character is often bisexual or questioning, but the bisexual element is either that they’re greedy and horny and always wanna fuck, or are secretly gay. They can never be those things in conjunction with their sexuality, it will always be a consequence of it. 

Anyhow, to conclude I think that the concept of BL has yet to be played to its very last string because there is still more rep that’s need. One thing that really irks me about popular media and it’s never ending quest for the ultimate minority is that there is always some semblance of trying to get the queer, black, non binary person to conform to the shape of their minority. It’s in the word, and for now it’ll be the main focus on the screen.