Welcome to "What Do Boys Love - All Things BL"

One of my all-time favorite BL ships #MaxTul - Max Nattapol and Tul Pakorn

Hi! Welcome to my BL Blog. Here I will present reviews of BL dramas and movies, and information about the BL industry, which is expanding to a wide international audience, as well as share information about the actors, directors and writers of BLs, and anything else of interest to me. 

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And let's get the question handled: WHAT IS BOYS LOVE? 

While I don't totally agree with what is presented in the complete article, here is a basic answer that I like from Manga Planet: 

Boys' Love or BL is a literary genre or media depicting the romance between male characters. ... These include good-looking male characters, idealized “pure love” and dynamic relationships that aren't bound by societal norms. The genre also allows readers to explore themselves and their sexuality.

HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO ARTICLES THAT COVER THE TOPIC FAIRLY WELL:

While I also don't agree with all of the content on the Wikipedia article, particularly the items concerning rape and rape culture in BLs (there will be more from me about that...) it is one of the best general overviews of the genre. HERE: Wikipedia Article: Yaoi (Boys Love redirects to)

Here is a really well done article at Nippon.com about BLs and the evolution of the BL culture from female fetish fiction to GLBTQ+ activism, HERE: The Evolution of “Boys’ Love” Culture: Can BL Spark Social Change? from an interview with Fujimoto Yukari, Professor at Meiji University who specializes in manga cultural theory, gender and representation. 

And lastly, here is a pretty decent article about the rise of Thailand to predominance in the BL drama industry from Australia Broadcasting Co, HERE: Boys' love: The unstoppable rise of same-sex soapies in Thailand (also featuring one of my all-time favorite ships #MaxTul, pictured above.)

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A few disclaimers: 

1. This blog is for entertainment purposes. The content of the blog presents my opinions. If you don't agree with what is presented here, don't read it. If you think you know more about it than me, go write your own blog, or write me a respectful and rational comment. I will not respond to attacks, insults, rude people, or hateful or threatening comments. This is my blog and I'll write what I want. 
2. I am a gay man who lives in the USA, I do not speak (well, not very well) most of the original languages BLs are filmed in and I depend on closed-caption and subtitles heavily, which we all know are not always that well done. If my interpretation of some content is inaccurate that is likely why, and I am willing to hear feedback on that.
3. I know that my perspective as an American gay person is quite different from many of the countries where most BLs originate, and that many of the freedoms and social norms I have come to take for granted are merely dreams for GLBTQ+ people elsewhere. 
4. The BL industry has undergone a transformation in the last few years from a largely female audience who read and watched BLs as a kind of fetish or fantasy romance, to a fast-growing GLBTQ+-advocacy genre and the writers, directors and producers of BLs have begun to try to represent gay people in a realistic way. BLs, along with many other tireless activists and organizations and courageous individuals, are now leading the way for inclusion of GLBTQ+ people, and the acknowledgment of generational tensions, and the evolution of social acceptance of gay people in Asian countries. This is a positive change and it in no way diminishes the origins of BL, nor the importance of the core audiences who brought BLs to popularity, nor does it exclude those people now.
5.  I do not claim to be an expert on anything. My interest in Boys Love is primarily exactly that: the guys. Although I say that I have come to take largely for granted my freedoms and social norms, I spent most of my life with no or very little representation of gay people in movies and TV. The growing popularity of BLs puts positive gay relationships front and center on TV and in addition to the actors usually being extremely handsome, I get to watch gay love portrayed as normal.

Welcome to my blog. Stay tuned for more content.