Fujoshi & Fudanshi; Yaoi & Yuri ♥

ok, so i figured before i write anything about my feelings for yaoi and start to fangirl about things, I should write an entry which, well, explains a little about the world of yaoi first, just in case some of you don't know what yaoi is. But really, if you don't know what yaoi is, my question for you is... where the hell have you been for the past decade or so? Living under a rock? *giggles* No ,I'm just playing with ya, so here goes *takes in deep, long breath in preparation for a long long speech*


Fujoshi/Fudanshi
As the title of my blog and my profile suggests, I'm a fujoshi.  Fujoshi(腐女子) is a term of japanese origin,  used to describe female individuals who enjoy manga, comics, fictions, novels, anime, television shows, movies etc. which depict the relationships between people of lgbtq orientations, most often of the romantic relationship between two males.


The term Fujoshi really means Rotten (腐) Girl (女子), and is a pun of the term 婦女子 which has the same pronunciation but  is used to describe a respectable female / a lady.  As mentioned above, this term is used to describe females who like yaoi/bl, but the media sometimes use it to describe all female otaku (御宅) [i.e. someone who's really into anime/manga; japanese equivalent of a geek]. Some female otaku may find it offensive to be called a fujoshi if they do no enjoy yaoi as the term originally had negative connotations (obviously), and has only recently been claimed by the yaoi fandom as a self-deprecating term. 


Older women who enjoy yaoi/bl may be referred to, or refer to themselves as  Kifujin (貴腐人) - which means nobel rotten  woman- or Ochōfujin (汚超腐人), which sounds similar to a phrase meaning "Madame Butterfly" (お蝶夫人).


Other related terms include Fudanshi (腐男子)/ Fukei (腐兄) - Rotten(腐) Male(男子), Rotten(腐)Older Brother(兄) - ; These are the male counterparts of Fujoshi and are most often used to describe males who enjoy bl, although this isn't always the case. 

Yaoi/Yuri
To put it simply, Yaoi/BL are about male couples and Yuri/GL are about female couples :3


The term Yaoi(やおい) is an acronym originally created in the dōjinshi market of the late 1970s by Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu and popularized in the 1980s standing for Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし) "No climax, no point, no meaning". 


While in North America the term Yaoi is an umbrella term for all contents which include homosexual males as the main subject, in Japan, the term is still used to describe medias which contain more explicit content that focuses more on / has more of  the sexual relationship between characters , an the term Shounen-ai (少年愛) is used to describe media which is more tame, and has content that focuses more on the emotional side and actual relationship between the characters. BL (which stands for Boys Love) in Japan is the umbrella term equivalent to Yaoi in North America. 


Interestingly enough, Yuri(百合), in Japan, is the umbrella term for all content depicting any kind of homosexual relationship, regardless of the target market, between females, while in North America, the term is generally used to describe the more sexually explicit end of things; and by this I mean hentai. [To this, all I have to say is make up your freaking mind people! Stop trying to confuse the general public! =x=]

Moe/Fu

So now you might ask, what is the appeal in Yaoi? Well, the main reason, to me at least, is because Yaoi is o(≧ω≦)o!!! Squeal worthy!! In other words, its because its Moe and i can Fu about it.  

Oh... right, more terminology *clears throat* Moe, according to wikipedia [by the way, a lot of this post's content are really just  paraphrased from certain wiki entries, i think i've linked them all.  I like yaoi, I enjoy yaoi, I didn't create yaoi, so i needed some help from experts in explaining it~ anyhooz...] 

Moe (萌え^?, pronounced [moe]) is  a Japanese slang word. It means "a rarefied pseudo-love for certain fictional characters (in anime, manga, and the like) and their related embodiments."^[1] Patrick W. Galbraith^[2] notes that it is a pun derived from a Japanese word that literally means "budding," as with a plant that is about to flower, and thus it can also be used to mean "budding" as with a preadolescent girl.^[3] Since the word is also a homonym for "burning" pronounced moe (燃え^?), there is also speculation that the word stems from the burning passion felt for the characters.^[4] The word has come to be used to mean one particular kind of "adorable", one specific type of "cute", mainly as applied to fictional characters.

 Blah blah blah blah... *yawns*  I'm done with explaining things in the boring way =x= 


To me, Moe just means it makes my heart go @#^&*(@#!U!%$!!!!@#, and my mouth go *squeal* , and my face flush and my expression go from >w< to *O* to *A* to *Q* and then i faint.  As you can see, it basically means i have a "crush" on the plot line.


As for Fu? As mentioned...way up there somewhere, it means "rotten" but when I say I'm Fu-ing, no, not fucking, Fu-ing about something, it just means my imagination goes wild, I'm fangirling,  and just sighing dreamily about two guys going at it like bunnies and/or staring deeply into each others eyes and proclaiming their undying love for each other *cues fluttering leaves, cherry blossom petals, rose petals and raining glitter and sparkles*.


What was that? Why not just read Shoujo then?  *face palm* ok, heres the thing.  Yaoi IS shoujo, its a branch of shoujo anyway, where the Uke (受け i.e. bottom- the term means to recieve-) replaces the Heroine and the Seme (攻め i.e. Top/ Pitcher - the term means to attack-) replaces the dreamy prince.  Really, its the same thing.  


Whats different, is that because its 2 males rather than a male and a female, it adds diversity to the plot line (added internal struggle, pressure from society, angst and tears = <3), eliminates the almost always annoying female character (for some reason, its ok if they're male, it makes the cute, not annoying) and thus eliminating potential competition (pfffft, that bitch ain't got nothing on me).Also, common, 2 hot guys or more instead of 1? I say hell yes to that =w= 


Summary
I Like Yaoi, it is hot <3