Fujoshi
| Synonyms: | 腐女子, fujo, funü, Hujoshi, Sao-wai |
| See also: | Fujoshi.info, Anti-Fujoshi |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fujoshi [腐女子, lit. "spoiled (like as in food) girl"] is a term that originated in Japan for female fans who enjoy published media or fanworks focusing on romantic relationships between male characters.[1] The term was translated into other languages: Funü in Mandarin, Hujoshi in Korean and Sao-wai in Thai. In Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking fandom, the term is popular among BL fans and anti-Fujoshi.
Fujoshi enjoy imagining what it would be like if male characters from any media, as well as real-life celebrities, loved one another in a gay relationship or something similar to it. The label encompasses fans of Boys' Love, Yaoi and Shonen-ai. While some are also fans of Geikomi, this is rare.
The term "fujoshi" is a homophonous 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 or spoiled. The term was coined around the year 2000 by male users of 2Chan, an anonymous messageboard similar to, and more popular than, 4chan, and refers to the already existing subculture of female m/m fans deemed by them as 'rotten' for not having seemingly feminine interests and for exploring queer themes, thus were unfit for marriage[3][4]. 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 were also reclaimed.
By 2005, the label fujoshi was synonymous with 'female otaku' colloquially, though many were also aware this was a misconception[9]. As of the 2020s, with the popularity of other -joshi terms such as Yumejoshi and Himejoshi, this colloquialism is far less common.
In the late 2000s, fujoshi fully embraced their label by spinning 'spoiled' to instead mean 'fermented', like it was a food pun[10][11]. This interpretation makes the term similar to 'transformational fandom' fan, though this definition is inaccurate as it only encompasses BL and not other forms of transformative works.
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 the terms are most often used in that sense, and if a male himself 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 nonbinary fans.
The kanji "Fu" (腐) is often used as a prefix in fanwork titles on sites such as Pixiv to clearly mark works that contain male-male relationships[12].
Many fujoshi create doujinshi and may sell them at conventions such as Comiket. Fujoshi have also been credited with making franchises they like a lot of money, as as seen in the post "KOF94's internal eval was so low that I feared it'd be axed".
Anti-Fujoshi
Anti-Fujoshi have existed since the early 2000s. The yaoi paddle tormented cosplayers at conventions for years until they were banned, and part of this infamy was due to its popularity with fujoshi.
A portion of fans view fujoshi as an inherently homophobic subculture that is guilty of fetishizing male-male relationships[13], and cite the "rotten" etymology of the word as support for their opinion.[14][15] Other fans rebut this point by saying that fujoshi is just any female slash fan, and does not inherently mean they are homophobic[16], and that "getting off on fictional gay sexual relationships is not fetishization".[17] This is the subject of much discourse on discussion platforms such as Tumblr. Anti-fujoshis are also usually anti-yaoi and anti-shippers.
Digressions
As Seen in Media
The term "fujoshi" can be seen in overall popular Japanese culture, such as in the kanji for Toko Fukawa's name (腐川) from the Danganronpa series. In the series, she is portrayed as an antisocial, unattractive misfit who also happens to make creative works specifically for female audiences. 腐川 is not a real Japanese surname and Japanese fans of the series often confuse her for a fujoshi at first[18] despite her being more like a Yumejoshi if anything, leaving the name "Fukawa" a strange choice unless it was to reflect stereotypes of fujoshi.
Date of origin?
The oldest example on the web of the word fujoshi is said to be this 1999 geocities blog: 落書帳.[19]
Further Reading
Academic Perspectives
- American Identities and the Consumption of Japanese Homoerotica (2020) by Caitlin Joyce. (Thesis)
- Fujoshi: Fantasy Play and Transgressive Intimacy among “Rotten Girls” in Contemporary Japan (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
- 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
- Otaku sexualities in Japan (Global Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (GLBTQ) History) (2019) by Alexandra Novitskaya in Global Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (GLBTQ) History
- 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 (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 (2003) by Rachel Thorn in Fanning the flames fans and consumer culture in contemporary Japan
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... - tumblr post by themadcapmathematician (Jan 29, 2019) Archived version
- 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
- Boys' Love: The History and Transformation of BL in Asia by Mizoguchi Akiko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFPIMjr-w8g
Fanworks
- Kankai na Fujoshi - humorous comics classifying types of fujoshi based on their shipping preferences
- Fujoshi.info - an informative website for addressing misconceptions surrounding fujoshi and related identities by Samantha Aburime.
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.
- ^ "Fujoshi instead ‘fermented’ the original (often heterosexual and male-centric) media by adding deeper and more complex queer ‘flavours’ to these narratives (Mizoguchi 2022)" from Fujoshi.info by Samantha Aburime.
- ^ Nov 29, 2018 post by rottenboysclub
- ^ 腐 on PixivEncyclopedia
- ^ 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
- ^ 腐川冬子 on PixivEncyclopedia lists her name as fictional, ie, not a real Japanese surname.
- ^ 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).