What is a fanlisting? (taken from thefanlistings.org)

A fanlisting is simply an online listing of fans of a subject, such as a TV show, actor, or musician, that is created by an individual and open for fans from around the world to join. There are no costs, and the only requirements to join a fanlisting are your name and country. Fanlistings do not have to be large sites (although some are) - they are just a place where you can have your name listed along with other fans of the same subject. TheFanlistings.org is the original (but not official) web directory for fanlistings, dedicated to uniting the fans.

 

At times it seems these two terms are in a constant struggle. But what really is the difference between them, who uses them?

Boys Love is a Japanese term used for anime/manga/stories that contain male/male relationships and are aimed towards women.

Yaoi is a term that is used in Japan to refer to doujinshi that are usually based of existing non-boys love series. However in the internet and America, the term yaoi is used to represent all kinds of works that have male/male relationships. We can see this with examples like yaoi-con and publishers like June that identify their books as 'yaoi manga'.

The 101

  • Yaoi is an acronym for 'yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi' which means "no peak, no point, no meaning".
  • Shotacon is the term used when the story involves one or more pre-pubescent boys.
  • Shounen-ai refers to stories with younger boys and contain no sex. Shounen-ai is considered an obsolete term in Japan.
  • The biggest misconception about BL is that it is gay porn.
  • In Japan, male/male works created by and for gay men are called gay comics. Bara (muscle men) is included among these.
  • Slash is the English equivalent to yaoi and mainly used in non Japanese fandoms.

In the end, when it comes to the internet it really depends which term you want to use, most people will recognize either. Personally, I use boys love or BL. I reached this decision based on two facts: One is the amazing definitions that appear on aestheticism, the other is once I read a blog where someone took a trip to Japan and when trying to find BL manga discovered that almost no one knew what she was looking for when she asked for yaoi.

Resources/More information

What is Yaoi? by Jeanne Johnson
Japanese Boy's Love Publishing Industry by Emi Chiusano
Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi by April Gutierrez
Definitions From Japan: BL, Yaoi, June
Aestheticism's Yaoi/Slash Glossary by Jeanne, compiled from AMLA