The influence of transphobia, homonationalism and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms

Abstract

In recent years, hostility towards Asian boys love (BL) media and fans in western English-speaking fandoms has been growing. This has manifested in anti-BL and anti-fujoshi anti-fans, many of whom express the general notion that queer western media is morally good and queer Asian media is morally bad. This division has encouraged a dehumanizing environment and some of these anti-fans consider their prejudiced behaviour morally justified and necessary. Their proposed aim is to maintain the moral sanctity of LGBTQ+ representation in their western English-speaking fan spaces. This article explores what drives this division and how BL and fujoshi specifically came to be so vilified in parts of LGBTQ+ western English-speaking fandom. The origins of this growing desire for LGBTQ+ moral sanctity in western English-speaking fandom are critiqued and how anti-trans gender critical beliefs in online communities came to affect western English-speaking fans’ perceptions of BL and fujoshi is revealed.