Fujoshi

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Fujoshi (腐女子, Fujoshi^? lit. "rotten girl") is a pejorative Japanese term for female fans of manga and novels that feature romantic relationships between men, often with the implication of Yaoi concept. It is also a homophonous pun on fujoshi (婦女子, fujoshi^?), a term for respectable women. The name originated with members of the demographic, who self-deprecatingly refer to their way of thinking, which perceives homosexual relationships between male characters in stories that do not include homosexual themes as being "rotten". "Fujoshi" carries a connotation of being a "fallen woman".^[1]

Summary

Fujoshi are females who enjoy imagining what it would be like if male characters from manga and anime, and occasionally real-life male performers as well, loved each other. The label encompasses fans of the shōnen-ai (boy love) genre itself, as well as the related manga, anime, and video game properties that have appeared as the boy love market began to develop.

Older fujoshi use various terms to refer to themselves, including as kifujin (貴腐人, kifujin^? "noble rotten woman"), a pun on a homophonous word meaning "fine lady", and ochōfujin (汚超腐人, ochōfujin^?), which sounds similar to a phrase meaning "Madame Butterfly", possibly taken from a character nicknamed Ochōfujin (お蝶夫人, Ochōfujin^?) in the 1972 manga series Ace o Nerae! (エースをねらえ!, Ēsu o Nerae!^?, lit. Aim for the Ace!) by Sumika Yamamoto.^{[original research?]} These labels were coined in the same self-deprecating spirit as fujoshi,^{[citation needed]} but as fujoshi is better known, it is often used to refer to female otaku as a group. This usage is growing in popularity with the Japanese media as well as people who would not consider themselves otaku.^{[citation needed]}

A common English term describing this kind of female is 'yaoi fangirl', used mainly amongst anime and manga fans.

Fujoshi have been characters in manga aimed at female otaku,^[2] and one butler cafe has opened with a schoolboy theme in order to appeal to the Boy's Love aesthetic.^[3]

References

1. ^ Kotani Mari, foreword to Saitou Tamaki (2007) "Otaku Sexuality" in Christopher Bolton, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr., and Takayuki Tatsumi ed., page 224 Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams University of Minnesota Press ISBN 978-0-8166-4974-7
2. ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-04-23/female-otaku-themed-books
3. ^ http://in.news.yahoo.com/reuters_ids_new/20080229/r_t_rtrs_od/tod-boy-cafes-sexy-comics-feed-japan-s-g-5348952.html

External links

• fujyoshi.jp - Includes a glossary of fujoshi-specific terminology.