Talk:Boys' love

Further reading

Removed from the article, but possibly useful to expand the references:

Talk:Boys' love/Reference suggestions

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 (talk) 03:38, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

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Artwork of a seme and uke

• ... that yaoi is a portmanteau of a phrase that translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning," referencing how early works in the genre focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development? Source: "Pornography or Therapy? Japanese Girls Creating the Yaoi Phenomenon"
  • ALT1:... that yaoi, a literary genre focused on male-male romance, originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of girls' comics? Source: "Loving the love of boys: Motives for consuming yaoi media"
  • ALT2:... that the two participants in a yaoi relationship (pictured) are referred to as seme ("top") and uke ("bottom"), terms derived from martial arts that were later appropriated as Japanese LGBT slang? Source: "Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime"
  • ALT3:... that any man can be the subject of a yaoi manga, including characters from literature, video games, and even real people? Source: "Moe: Exploring Virtual Potential in Post-Millennial Japan"
  • ALT4:... that in China, fans of BL – a male-male romance genre also known as yaoi – use the hashtag "socialist brotherhood" to avoid detection from state censors when discussing the genre? Source: SCMP

• Reviewed: Studio 2054
• Comment: Plenty of material to mine for hooks on this one, as one can imagine.

Improved to Good Article status by Morgan695 (talk). Self-nominated at 22:35, 5 January 2021 (UTC).

• passed appropriately as a GA. The third hook has the wrong source, I assume you meant to use "Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime" instead of "Boy's Love and Yaoi Revisited", which is used to cite something later in the paragraph. All the other hooks are fine. Elliot321 (talk | contribs) 20:38, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

• @Elliot321: Yes, that was an error on my part. I've corrected the source, if you wish to approve ALT2. Morgan695 (talk) 02:49, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

• approved. Honestly, I prefer that one — mainly because the image is cute. Elliot321 (talk | contribs) 05:23, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Some Copy Editing

Hi please change to:
drew inspiration from by Japanese and European literature -> drew inspiration from Japanese and European literature (Removed "by")
manga with Japanese settings such -> manga with Japanese settings, such (Added a comma)
BL and gay manga, represents a -> BL and gay manga represent a (Removed a comma) The Other Karma (talk) 20:23, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

 Done Nubzor [T][C] 21:20, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

completely valid concerns.

I am concerned about recent editorial decisions on this wiki that seem to systematically diminish the visibility of marginalized groups (nonbinary people, androgynous lesbians, transmen) and essential demographic contexts. Specifically, the removal of 'Josei' and 'Shojo' demographic tags from BL titles and the minimal inclusion of 'crossplayers' suggests a trend toward erasing the foundational connection between women’s BL and other feminist media. These categories are not merely metadata; they are crucial to understanding the history and evolution of this genre, which has long been a space for women to explore complex themes and identities. I am interested in understanding the editorial rationale behind these changes, as these omissions significantly impact the inclusivity and accuracy of this resource. The fact that it does NOT emphasize these things is concerning because men seem to think crossplayers are consenting to gay men and men in general for making a bishonen cross-cosplay and I do not find that to be fair. I’m tired of seeing BL cosplayers harassed at comic and anime conventions every time I go bc they assume they are mostly gay men when they are often girls. ~2026-34359-14 (talk) 00:02, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

NOTE: I also tag Wikipedia on X/Twitter about this. ~2026-34288-44 (talk) 01:16, 11 June 2026 (UTC)

"Anti-BL discourse, transphobia, and fictophobia"

This addition seems to be significantly sourced to a single article in S-F Magazine written by a fictophilia researcher. I have no problem having this perspective in the article, but its conflation of discrimination against "fictiosexuals" with homophobia and transphobia would seem to give WP:UNDUE weight to this supposed phenomenon and almost certainly represents a WP:FRINGE position. I think the section should be merged with "Criticism", and any discussion of BL criticism as representing discrimination against people who experience sexual attraction to fictional characters probably merits a single sentence at most. Morgan695 (talk) 15:58, 3 August 2026 (UTC)