Yuri Fan

Synonyms:	himejoshi, himedanshi, yuributa, yurijin
See also:	otaku, yuri
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Yuri Fans are, as the name implies, fans of yuri media. There isn't a singular strongly associated term for a yuri fan, instead there several that vary in popularity depending on language and location.

It should also be noted that while the word yuri comes from term "yurizoku" (百合族, "lily tribe"), which referred to female readers of the gay men's magazine Barazoku (薔薇族, "Rose Tribe") in the 1970s, yurizoku is not used as a term for yuri fans as it is linked more to Japanese lesbian culture than yuri fan culture.

Names

Himejoshi, Himedanshi and Himejin

Himejoshi (姫女子, "Princess Girl") and Himedanshi (姫男子, "Princess Boy") are believed to have been created by the yuri manga magazine Yuri Hime sometime around 2011-2012. Himejin ("Princess People") appears to have been introduced later as a gender neutral version of the terms.

In Japanese fandom spaces they are used interchangeably with other more general terms such as yurijoshi/yuridanshi, yuri ota and yurizuki. The terms have seen far greater use in English-speaking fandoms starting in the early 2020s, in part due to fans looking for a term they could use to identify themselves by in a similar manner to how Boys' Love fans use "fujoshi" and "fudanshi".

Yurijoshi and Yuridanshi

Yurijoshi (百合女子, "Yuri Girl") and Yuridanshi (百合男子, "Yuri Boy") reflects the naming conventions of several other Japanese fan names such as yumejoshi and fujoshi. It may have first been popularized by Kurata Uso's 2011 manga Yuri Danshi which ran in Yuri Hime for several years.

Yurijin

Yurijin (百合人, "Yuri People") was proposed by Erica Friedman in 2019 as a more inclusive name to be used over the likes of gendered terms such as himejoshi/himedanshi and himejoshi/himedanshi. It sees some use by Friedman and her academic peers but has not caught on within the general yuri fandom.

Yuri Ota

Yuri Ota (百合オタ, Yuri Otaku) sees more use in Japanese fandoms, with several mangas and one-shots using it within their titles. It is notable that the 2016 manga Ore ga Fujoshi de Aitsu ga Yuri-ota de ("I'm a Fujoshi and that guy's a Yuri-Otaku") was officially localized in English as "I Love Yuri and I Got Bodyswapped With a Fujoshi!", possibility showing that "Yuri Otaku" is not a term that is as widely understand in English as Fujoshi.

Yurizuki

Yurizuki (百合好き, "yuri lover") is another general term used in Japanese fandoms. It was used in the 2015 manga Yuri Lover-kun and Yuri Lover Lover-kun by U-temo.

Yurichū and Yuributa

Yurichū (百合厨, "Yuri Freak/Nerd/Addict) is a negative term for yuri fans who behave in a manner that others find annoying. What counts as annoying is subjective and can vary from posting about yuri elements in a none yuri work, to disliking characters who prevents a yuri ship from happening, or hating any men who appear in a yuri. Despite its negative reputation some still choose to label themselves as such. Yuributa (百合豚, "Yuri Pig") seems to be a newer incarnation of this term when self idenifying as such. Both are rarely used outside of Japan.

Community Thoughts

English Community

Desire for a Name

The wish for yuri fans to have their own name to be collectively known by has been around since the early days of yuri fandom and seems partly inspired thanks to Yaoi and Boys' Love fans having "fujoshi" and "fudanshi" as popular terms for their own fandom.

I’ve been a yaoi fan for a long time as well as a yuri fan and I have to say that, I appreciate both and as for a term for the yuri counterpart, I’m kind of sad that there’s really not a term for that [quite yet]. Overall, I do hope an official term comes soon about and I understand there are some that do prefer to not express it openly or for some that do.

KIAB's comment on "Secret Yuri Conspiracy?" (July 18, 2012) 

Although Yuri and Yaoi/Boys' Love fandoms each have unique histories and fan cultures, there is a tendency to compare the two, and within English-speaking anime communities the question as to if yuri fans have a term for themselves is often framed using "fujoshi" as an example. Erica Friedman has recounted being asked about yuri fans having a name simlair to fujoshi at a 2019 Anime NYC panel, by which point himejoshi and himedanshi had started to gained enough popularity that Friedman suggested the creation of a new name, yurijin ("yuri people"), in favor of himejoshi and himedanshi as to avoid gendered terms.

Interestingly, a whole new section of my paper opened up with my desire to create a new word for Yuri fans. We’ve gotten first-hand testimony from Rica Takashima that Itoh Bungaku-sensei meant to specifically coin a phrase for lesbians when he chose Yurizoku and I’ve done some primary research this week of currently used terms. Yuri is a common genre term now, but there is no clear pre-eminent word for Yuri fan. Yurizuki has been suggested, but it’s no more common than anything else, having been primarily promoted on Twitter through the efforts of two bots who RTed it an average of 5 times a day in 2013-2015. So a bunch of us are now working with 百合人-Yurijin…although predictably there’s already valid discussion about pronunciation and calling it Yuribito…but as I was typing this I realized why I don’t care for that. Yuribito describes a single person’s identity or role within a society. I’m thinking of us all as “the Yuri people,”so Yurijin it is for me. (Leaving Yurizoku still for lesbians, as opposed to anyone who likes Yuri the genre.) I’ve been among those who shape how we talk about this genre for 20 years now and I love how we’ve pushed and prodded it towards a broader vision of inclusivity. ^_^ This conversation will evolve, undoubtedly. Who knows what we’ll call it in another 20 years! Isn’t language fascinating?

Erica Friedman (November 23, 2019) 

While yurijin has not seen widespread use on the level that himejoshi went on to have, fans have also used "himejin" ("princess people") as a gender neutral term from as early as 2018, though some have noted issues with the translation.

A bookstore display featuring yuri and non-yuri manga with a sign reading "Girlfriends... or besties? "To the true himejoshi/himedanshi, it's all yuri." - Socrates, probably." (June 7, 2024)

From 2018 onward himejoshi and himedanshi both began to see more use in english-speaking fandom spaces, with the terms being added to Urban Dictionary on January 9, 2018,, the Yuri Fan article on TV Tropes adding a paragraph noting the uses of "Himejoshi/danshi", "Yurijoshi/danshi" and "Yuri Ota" in 2019, and separate Fanlore entries being created on February 17 and 19, 2019‎. Generally is appears that himejoshi is used more than himedanshi.

Reason For a Lack of Consensus

When theorizing why yuri fans lack a singular associated term it once again tends to be in comparison to the term fujoshi. One of the limiting aspects of this discussion when framed around the mirroring to "fujoshi" is that many presume that since the default boys' love fan is a woman, then the default yuri fan is a man. This is a common misconception of yuri fan demographics, which historically have favored women equally, if not more, than men.

Regardless, a common theory among fans as to the lack of a term is that reading and watching yuri media is not considered noteworthy enough that its participants would need to be singled out, particularly when the fan is presumed to be a man. Weather this is due to the smaller size of the yuri fandom or homophobia and sexism in fandom spaces is a further point of discussion.

I speculatively submit the following as a possible reason why there are no clear analogues to the term fujoshi: a woman consuming media about male homosexuality is somehow more "scandalous" or otherwise unusual than a man consuming media about female homosexuality. It is well-documented that men, on average, are really into lesbian porn (see e.g. "Why Straight Men Gaze at Gay Women"); I imagine the same extends to non-pornographic media.

This may explain why there is a well-accepted name for fujoshi (they're a weird outgroup, gotta call them something) but not so much for hime-danshi ("you're not into lesbians? what are you, gay?").

[Note, indeed, that fujoshi was, at least originally, a term of derision ("rotten"), while the nascent term hime-danshi isn't derisive, at least not to the same degree. While researching this answer, I came upon a number of tweets observing (humorously or otherwise) the latent sexism here.]

Similarly, there's a strong segregation between BL media and "everything else". If a male homosexual relationship shows up in something targeted at general audiences, it's generally not well-received (cf. Shinsekai yori, which barely depicted any male homosexuality and still got people up in arms). If a female homosexual relationship shows up, though... who's going to complain about that? And so, we have "media for fujoshi" on the one hand, and "media for 'regular' people" on the other, and the latter bucket includes media about female homosexuality, so why would we need a name for people who like that stuff? They're just "regular" people, right?

senshin, in response to "terminology - Is there any equivalent to the "fujoshi"/"fudanshi" descriptors for yuri fans?" (April 20, 2017) 

Further Reading

• Yuri Fan artificial on TV Tropes
• Yuri Fan? Hime-joshi/danshi? Or Yuriko? by Lady Myu, Duchess of Yuri (January 25, 2019)
• Global Yuri Fandom Survey Results by Erica Friedman (January 27, 2023)