Why Do Women Love BL? Discuss Your Reasons

I watched Your Name Engraved Within 2 years ago and loved it so much that I searched for more info and fell on a Reddit convo where people kept mentioning this term “BL.”  I knew all about the LGBT genre, but never heard of the Asian genre called BL. One person on Reddit mentioned a show called Addicted on Viki.  So I subscribed to Viki for one month and watched Addicted. I then changed my subscription to a year because I wanted to watch more BL’s. And more.  And more. And more.   

In short, I was hooked!  But I also felt vaguely frustrated because I could not figure out why  I,  as a hetero woman, liked BL so much.   I’d heretofore thought gay men were the prime market for gay content. Yet my research showed that BLs are created by women, marketed to women, and consumed by women.  Most people -- especially those who've never heard of BL before -- find this baffling.  I even avoid telling people that I enjoy BL because I worry they'll think I'm the reader/viewer equivalent of a "fag hag."  After all, the Japanese translation of fujoshi is “rotten girl.” 

We may have reclaimed the label "fujoshi"  to wear it proudly  (reclaiming is a fabulous act of defiance for which we have blacks to thank, as they began it by reclaiming the n-word), yet I still worry that people think there’s something rotten about us.  For instance, some people accuse fujoshis of fetishizing gay men.  Now, if I had such a sexual fetish I’d simply watch gay porn.  So, no,  my reason for watching BL is not about a fetish.   Yet I could not come up with any other reasons either.   This placed me in the curious predicament of not understanding my very own tastes.

Thus, I began to research BL in order to better understand myself, and my community (ie, you guys!).   I am an English Professor and, as such, have access to  academic journals, including  dissertations  by Doctoral Candidates in  Queer Studies. Surprisingly, they've written tons on BL's from every Asian country. It's even the hot, new topic in  Queer Studies! They delve into a multitude of theses but I, of course, zoomed in on the question of why women were BL's main market. I waded through the academic jargon of over fifty papers and noted that 3 reasons continually appeared (1-3 below), and then I came up with 2 reasons of my own (4-5 below).   I would love it if you guys could add some reasons.  Or expound on the 5 reasons I already have.

1) Women enjoy witnessing a relationship wherein both partners are on an equal footing, since both are men.

2) BL's allow women to see men's softer, vulnerable side.

3) It makes women feel as if they're privy to the secret lives of men which, in turn, makes women feel closer to men in general.

4) The dramatic conflict in BL's is inherently more compelling because gays still aren't entirely accepted in Asia. That is to say, the stakes are higher for a gay couple, making the dramatic interest higher for we viewers.

5) Just as hetero men like lesbians in porn because it's a hot girl x's two, we hetero women like BLs because it's a hot guy x's two. Lol.

it all started with Boys love aka shounen ai.  and Yaoi

 Maggi64:

Yep, that's where it started in Japan in the 1970's.  And it was defined as being a genre created by women, marketed to women, and consumed by women.  But the question is:  why?  Why do women like BL so much? 

personally i have no idea. I think it has to do with attraction towards men i guess?

I am a woman but i am not hetero. and I definitely like women more, better to say femininity more than masculinity. So two masc men kissing will never be a turn on for me.

But i am a sucker for wlw romances. Like i have seen endless. and if two feminine guys kiss, i am a sucker for that as well. "for me its like, i like women, a woman kissing another woman ? woah!!!"

So, i think for hetero women, its like, "i like a man" " i like man kissing a woman." " oh wait i like another man" ," wouldn't it be better if both the guys kissed? two of the people i am attracted to kissing each other"

this is the best explanation i can think of.

Another thing, ive watched a handful of BL myself, because of the plot. I tell you they have the finest plots out there. sure im not into steamy bls. but cute fluffy ones with extremely good plot. yes i am a sucker for it, but thats probably because of the relatability. 

 Maggi64:

1] The Handmaiden (Korean)

handmaiden is the exact opposite of BL. it was made for men and by men. anyway i enjoyed it nonetheless lmao

Handmaiden was made by men, but it was based on a novel by the lesbian novelist Patricia Highsmith.  So the story is still by an LGBT creator.   

 Klio:

I don't really watch BL dramas (partly because I prefer platonic relationships and most BLs I have seen were on the steamier side) but I LOVE watching bromance, and the first 3 reasons you mentioned pretty much sum it all up. When I watch dramas I usually don't care about female characters and just focus on male leads, and having multiple male leads is always more fun. 

agree and disagree.  

agreeing that, I don't watch or like steamy bls either. not my cup of tea. 

disagree, that bromance is just queer bait. the leads don't have to go all 365 days or 50 shades of grey on each other, they don't even have to kiss, a confirmation of love is enough

Another reason to add to your list is purely escapism.

Without a woman on the screen, which you identify with on at least those grounds, you increase the psychic distance between yourself and the characters in the story. You're not putting yourself as fully in their shoes as events are going down.

Taking this even further and in a slightly different direction, you're not thinking about how [insert woman character here] isn't realistic (much the same reason why even some gay guys won't watch BL).

 Assassin Wench:

love finding good and new stories with interesting characters, and I think the BL or LGBT focus makes for interesting stories compared to the mainstream

This is a good reason too. Watching stories about different kinds of people than yourself, as they go through either different experiences than the usual story, or the story gets told in a different way.

(I also agree with the language part - I am learning Thai, and Thai BLs are a lot easier to find with subtitles than Thai lakorns and movies)