Fujoshi
| Synonyms: | 腐女子, fujo, funü, Hujoshi, Sao-wai, (Fujoshi) فوجوشي |
| See also: | Women and Slash, Fujoshi.info, Anti-Fujoshi |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fujoshi [腐女子, lit. "spoiled girl"] is a Japanese term that describes female fans of published media or fanworks that focus on the romantic relationships between male characters.[1] Fujoshi are those who derive enjoyment from the depictions of or imagined scenarios where male characters from manga, anime, novels, fan-works, and occasionally real-life performers, experience same-sex attraction.
Originally coined as a derogatory term, the label has since been reclaimed by fans and used to indicate their inclinations toward this genre of content. The label encompasses fans of Boys' Love, Yaoi, and Shonen-ai.
The male equivalent to Fujoshi is Fudanshi (腐男子, "spoiled boy") and, far less commonly, Fukei (腐兄, "spoiled older brother"), both of which are puns of similar construction to Fujoshi. Fudanshi and Fukei are not always used to mean "fans of BL" although both terms are most often used to match that description and if a male claims to be a Fudanshi or Fukei, it's almost certainly the case. The term "Fujin" (腐人, "spoiled person") also exists as a gender-neutral version and is used by some non-binary fans.
The term "Fujoshi" is typically used in reference to a consumer of M/M content, but there are many instances of Fujoshi creating and sharing their own content derivative from a pre-existing media (often presented through doujinshi or fanart) or through the use of original characters. These works are created for personal enjoyment, for a fandom, or for distribution at conventions such as Comiket.
Etymology
The term was coined around the year 2000 by male users of 2Chan, an anonymous messageboard similar to and more popular than 4chan. It is a homophonous food pun on fujoshi (婦女子), meaning 'lady', ‘respectable woman’ or ‘wife’[2], created by replacing the character 婦 (pronounced "fu"), meaning married woman or lady, with the character 腐 (also pronounced "fu") meaning fermented, decayed, or spoiled. The definition of this 'spoilage' is literal, expressing "something that has become fermented and is no longer consumable in its original state". The descriptor is made in reference to a woman's perceived decrease in value by men who deemed them as 'rotten' for not upholding traditional feminine interests and for exploring queer themes, thus were unfit for marriage[3][4], and toward the quality of the content itself now 'tainted' by Fujoshi who interpret the characters as queer and therefore make it unfit for consumption. Fujoshi were framed as antisocial, unattractive misfits by these 2Chan users[5]. Before this term, others such as Yaorā (ヤオラー) and Yaoi shōjo (やおい少女) were used[6][7][8] in the late 1990s.
Before the term entered mainstream usage in 2004, these fans sometimes referred to themselves by many labels, such as kifujin (貴腐人, "noble spoiled woman"), a pun on a homophonous word meaning "fine lady", and ochōfujin (汚超腐人), which sounds similar to a phrase meaning "Madame Butterfly", possibly taken from a character nicknamed Ochōfujin (お蝶夫人) in the 1972 manga series Ace o Nerae! by Sumika Yamamoto. These labels were coined in the same self-deprecating spirit as Fujoshi, but much the same as it, were also reclaimed.
By 2005, the Fujoshi label was synonymous with 'female otaku' colloquially, though many were aware that this was a misconception[9]. As of the 2020s, with the popularity of other '-joshi' terms such as Yumejoshi and Himejoshi, this colloquialism became far less common.
Anti-Fujoshi
Anti-Fujoshi have existed since the early 2000s.
A portion of fans view Fujoshi as an inherently homophobic subculture that is guilty of fetishizing homosexual relationships[10], and cite the "rotten" etymology of the word, interpreted in English as indicative of their "rotten behaviour", as support for their opinion.[11][12] Other fans rebut this point by saying that Fujoshi is simply any female slash fan, does not imply any homophobia by itself[13], and that "deriving pleasure from fictional gay relationships, sexual or otherwise, is not fetishization".[14] This is the subject of much discourse on discussion platforms such as Tumblr, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Tiktok.
Digressions
Date of origin?
The oldest example on the web of the word "fujoshi" is said to be a geocities blog dated 1999: 落書帳.[15]
Further Reading
Academic Perspectives
- American Identities and the Consumption of Japanese Homoerotica, Archived version (2020) by Caitlin Joyce.
- Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among “Rotten Girls” in Contemporary Japan, Archived version(2011) by Patrick Galbraith in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
- Making Fujoshi Identity Visible and Invisible (2012) by Mizuko Ito in Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World
- Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan (2015) by Mark McLelland, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, and James Welker
- On the response (or lack thereof) of Japanese fans to criticism that yaoi is antigay discrimination (2013) by Akiko Hori in Transformative Works and Cultures
- The possibilities of research on "fujoshi" in Japan (2013) by Midori Suzuki in Transformative Works and Cultures
- Rotten use patterns: What entertainment theories can do for the study of boys' love (2013) by Björn-Ole Kamm in Transformative Works and Cultures
- The bitches of Boys Love comics: the pornographic response of Japan’s rotten women, Archived version (2020) by Kristine Michelle L. Santos in Porn Studies
- Girls and Women Getting Out of Hand: The Pleasure and Politics of Japan's Amateur Comics Community, Archived version (2003) by Rachel Thorn in Fanning the flames fans and consumer culture in contemporary Japan
- Six Colors of the Rainbow by Lim Geun-jun and eighteen others (2015)
Commercial Articles
- The Evolution of “Boys’ Love” Culture: Can BL Spark Social Change? (2020) by Fujimoto Yukari here
- Do Japanese Gay Men Read Boy’s Love Comics, Dislike ‘Fujyoshi’? (2016) by Akemi Harada here
- Evolved Boy’s Love: How Fujyoshi Could Eliminate Prejudice (2016) by Akemi Harada here
- Fantastic fujoshi just wanna have fun, Japanese netizens say, “No!” (2015) by KK Miller here
Blogposts
- The Origin of the “Gays Are Anti-BL” Movement: 2Chan’s “Women-Bashing” on the Online Discussion Board Douseiai Salon by HOMPIG here
- I know not everyone is sure where to fall on the fujoshi discourse but if you want to know my take..., Archived version - tumblr post by themadcapmathematician (Jan 29, 2019)
- What's a fujoshi?, Archived version - tumblr post by himedanshi (March 19, 2018)
- I'm probably gonna get yelled at for saying this but sometimes something isn't a real problem in fandom, you just learned a Japanese word describing a general fandom practice and got scared and decided it meant 'The Bad Ones' of that practice - Tumblr post by raptorific (2023)
Polls/Research/Data
- We asked 1,800 BL readers! Awareness Survey on “BL (Boys Love)” by HONTO here
- Rotten girl on rotten girl: Boys' Love 'research' (2018) by Anna Madill here
- fujoshi discourse tag, Archived version - series of tumblr posts by satans-tiddies
Videos
Fanworks
- Kankai na Fujoshi - humorous comics classifying types of fujoshi based on their shipping preferences
BL-centric Forums
- 腐女动漫 (Fujoshi Anime Bar) [Unable to archive], a large Chinese BL/yaoi forum on Tieba Baidu with over one million members as of the 2020s
Fan Sites
- Fujoshi.info - an informative website for addressing misconceptions surrounding fujoshi and related identities by Sam Aburime.
- Metafujo - a Korean fujoshi advocacy blogging site launched in 2016 and discontinued in 2019
Fujoshi-centered Events
- Fujoshi Manifesto Incident - a Korean art exhibition that featured BL art without permission or notice from its creators.
- Elyasion Story Incident - a Korean writer suspends continuing her web novel, Elyasion Story, due to being sent BL derivative works.
References
- ^ Ishida, Hitoshi. 2022. "Survey report for BL readers / Non-readers" (BL読者／非読者に対する調査 報告書) Source: Published works of Ishida Hitoshi and PDF.
- ^ Suzuki, Midori. 2013. "The Possibilities of Research on Fujoshi in Japan." Transnational Boys' Love Fan Studies. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 12. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2013.0462.
- ^ Galbraith, Patrick. (2011). "Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among “Rotten Girls” in Contemporary Japan." Signs. 37. 211-232. 10.1086/660182
- ^ Novitskaya, Alexandra. Otaku sexualities in Japan (pp. 1177-1180) in Howard Chiang, et al. (eds.). (2019) Global Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (GLBTQ) History. New York: Gale
- ^ Akiko Mizoguchi, 2022
- ^ 例えば中島梓の『タナトスの子供たち―過剰適応の生態学』（筑摩書房、1998年）で使われている。
- ^ 661夜『やおい幻論』榊原史保美|松岡正剛の千夜千冊
- ^ 山根千尋 「「やおい少女の来し方行く末〜コミックマークケット参加者に対するアンケートより」 1998年 富山大学
- ^ Seen in an article of Eureka (magazine) published in 2005.
- ^ An Open Letter To Fujoshis: One Gay Boi’s Rant. (Archived version)
- ^ downwithddlg: fujoshi literally means “rotten woman”. why are you labeling yourselves like that when you could just say homophobe it’s not that hard lol
- ^ Like do fujoshis even know what that term translates to? It means “rotten girl”., Jan 20, 2018
- ^ Twitter thread by Miyu, 10 Oct 2018. Archived version
- ^ https://allshipsareok.tumblr.com/post/168993021820/fujoshis-are-fetishizing-gay-relationships
- ^ 腐女子関係の最古のネット記録と思われる。 ボーイズラブ回顧年表：ぶどううり・くすこ文責 (Boys Love Retrospective Chronology: Gourmet/Kusuko Fubun), page 12 (2016).