Boys' love

Rare card · No. 17914

Boys' love (Japanese: ボーイズ ラブ, Hepburn: bōizu rabu), also known by its abbreviation BL (ビーエル, bīeru), is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivalent genre of homoerotic media created by and for gay men, though BL does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. BL spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works. Though depictions of homosexuality in Japanese media have a history dating to ancient times, contemporary BL traces its origins to male–male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, and which formed a new subgenre of shōjo manga (comics for girls). Several terms were used for this genre, including shōnen-ai (少年愛; lit. "boy love"), tanbi (耽美; lit. "aesthete" or "aesthetic"), and June (ジュネ; [dʑɯne]). The term yaoi ( YOW-ee...

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