Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre

by Antonia Levi (Editor), Mark McHarry (Editor), Dru Pagliassotti (Editor)

"Boys' love," a male-male homoerotic genre written primarily by women for women, enjoys global popularity and is one of the most rapidly growing publishing niches in the United States. It is found in manga, anime, novels, movies, electronic games, and fan-created fiction, artwork, and video. This collection of 14 essays addresses boys' love as it has been received and modified by fans outside Japan as a commodity, controversy, and culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, Manga, Queer, Fandom, Pop Culture, Academic

280 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2010

Reviews

[6655321 · Rating 4 out of 5]

NB: This book can probably be pretty triggering because coerced sexual contact is a staple of Yaoi

Short Form Review: Sections 1 & 2 are really good often integrating the opinions of fans into their analysis, what drags the volume quite a bit is section 3 where there is an over-reliance of psychoanalytic theories to explain why consumers enjoy boys' love manga even if these reasons contradict the reasons given by actual respondents in section 2. Section 3 also drags a little bit, not ALL the essays are bad and some are quite good the major problem is that because of the limited # of sources available in English that are *theoretical* many of the authors mine the same source (and often quotation) throughout the book, by the time i reached section 3 that was sort of a problem for me especially because some of the arguments raised in that section are raised in early essays and dismissed because they do not reflect fan opinion. The essay on transgender identification and BL Manga has some really... unsettling(?) language use although the fact that there is no standard for writing about trans* theory which i think is one of the problems with anyone writing about the subject.

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had hopes for this book. Not high hopes, mind you, but hopes nonetheless, and sadly they were not fulfilled. I first wanted to read this book many years ago and either I changed too much or there was never any chance for me too enjoy this.
Ignoring the fact that it is hard to say whether any of its information were still accurate (like the claim that there are no harlequinn gay novels), I think the essays in this book cover too broad a range of topics to satisfy anyone or even interest anyone.
It started early on with titles like "Gift versus Capitalist Econcomies", which was something that I really had no interest in.
Sure, this information here about how manga actually revigorated a dying german comic industry is interesting, but this book was not a good reading experience, the essays are all over the place and so many of them... I just don't care. And in the same chapter the author complained how the german magazine BRAVO provided escapism and not activism...that was a bad sign. And the rest of the chapter was no good, this was mostly a dissappointment.
In the chapter on Yaoi in Indonesia the autrhor stated that apparently, until Dutch colonialism, Indonesia had a "tradition of same-sex relationships" and the author states that it became increasingly intolerant despite that history... ignoring the fact that an islamic country doesn't need dutch colonialism to become homophobic, I suspected that this "same-sex" means underage boys in women's clothes. And I was partially right. Looks like there was/is a station of a warok (conductor of ceremonies) who had several apprentices called gemblaks. allegedly this was considered a privilege, since it meant privilege and a dowry for the boys' families. Their duties were assistence in household and ceremonies, which sometimes requires dressing as women. And "sexual intimacy" was usually considered part of the arrangement, but not always. And the boys stop working at 17 years. I come to expect this sort of thing when people claiming some sort of same sex tradition in Muslim and Asian countries. And here i even doubt that it was a tradition or rather something tolerated because of money and wealth. The author's statements stink of naivity and romantization. Which also makes me wonder whether it is correct that Indonesia had more protection of women's rights than the US... maybe that is true, after all, there is a difference between legal and practical reality. All in all, the indonesian chapter wasn't so good either, yeah, it was interesting to see the legal difference in regard to homosexuality between indonesian and arab islam, but that was it. There wasn't much to this chapter.
Afterwards there was one useless chapter after another and even the conclusions of the chapters were no good. To give an example: one conclusion could be summed up as "Americans read Yaoi with a mixture of their own views and foreign views", I could have told them that because this is pretty normal. Why even waste an entire chapter on something like this?
In the end, I was happy when I was done with this book, it really wasn't a good experience.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays explore the economics, history, and psychology behind yaoi, or boy's love manga. Originating from Japan, and hugely popular there, this sub-genre of manga is gaining huge followings in other countries. Yaoi features male-to-male romantic and erotic love. Written by women for women, boy-love manga breaks gender boundaries as relationships between men are explored. Fantasy relationships as the males are all beautiful, young, androgynous and don't have the pressures of real life situations.

I rated this 4, not due to the quality, but for the topic itself. The essays are uneven and someone oddly bound together, yet chart new territories in exploring this interesting genre.

[Spudpuppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is almost old enough to vote, so it's very dated but still had a lot of interesting things to say, especially about the state of manga and fandom in the early 2000s. An updated version would be super interesting, bc I thought it was fascinating how much the demographics and attitudes of yaoi fans have changed since this was written.

Huge shoutout to the livejournal divas who leant their Weiss Kreuz yaoi fics out to be studied academically lmao that fucking rules. If anyone wants my Lux Pain fanfic for research purposes please hmu

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up thinking, perhaps this will be illuminating as to queer readings of straight texts, and perhaps it will shine light on why straight people are so obsessed with gay sex (seriously: it's not mutual, what's your deal?), and perhaps it will be hilariously funny. I got a bunch of different perspectives on gender, sexuality, fan spaces, and the ways homophobia interacts with sexism and how people create space to breathe outside the dominant cultural paradigm.

[R. Reddebrek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its an interesting collection of essays from the mid 2000s with the latest being published sometime in 2008. This gives the book a sort of time capsule feel but does mean that its a bit dated in parts. The essay's examine BL from many different angles, from psychological surveys, gender and sexuality controversies and ambiguities, to business and sales statistics.

Surprisingly it doesn't just look at BL from Japanese and US perspectives, several essays are dedicated to the industry and its cultural impact in other nations like Germany, France and Indonesia. These were all very enlightening.

A noticeable lacking area given the time the essays were published and collected was transgender issues and phenomena. Most essays ignored it completed even when it seemed like a logical area of study for them, most just briefly mentioned `transsexuality` and then moved on. Essay 14 the final essay is an exception in that it heavily focuses on gender and identity issues expressed in the BL culture, though this was I suspect because its author is a self described transgender activist.

I learnt a lot reading this, and at times saw my own confused and adolescent self in some of the examples and biographies. I would love to see a revised edition or follow up that took into account the changing and growing popularity and acceptance of BL in the mainstream and amongst the openly Queer, and how its tropes and standards have changed.

[Kai]

i havent read it

[Jessie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting mix of essays looking at the cultural significance of yaoi around the world and its implications for gender and sexual identity.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also “History of Shōnen’ai, Yaoi, and Boys Love” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...