Home⇛PCS Review⇛vol. 17 no. 1 (2025)

Exploring the Development of Boys Love in Asia via the Circuit of Culture Over Time: A Literature Review

Gabriel Luis P. Sebastian

Discipline: media studies

 

Abstract:

Over the last few decades, queer visibility in media has increased, particularly through the genre of boys’ love (BL). However, visibility is only part of representation, and debates continue regarding the nature and influence of queer media, such as BL. Pivotal to these debates is how these representations reflect and potentially influence the perception and acceptance of queerness. As such, this essay sought to analyze the push-and-pull relationship between BL and society, offering a perspective on these influences. Through a thorough review of the literature, using a diachronic approach and guided by the Circuit of Culture (Du Gay et al., 1997, 2013), this essay traced the changes BL has undergone since its beginnings in the 1970s and its migrations across Asia. In taking a diachronic approach to the Circuit of Culture, this essay also proposed a framework for analyzing and contextualizing BL texts temporally. This essay discussed (1) how norms and local attitudes have constrained and shaped local BL productions, (2) issues, criticisms, and limits of BL works, (3) how BL presents an alternative image through its counter-hegemonic narratives and imaginings, and (4) how the development of these alternative imaginings reflects and potentially contributes to the shifting of norms even as they are constrained by them. The shifting and potential subversion of norms is exemplified by the development and elaboration of the seme-uke (attacker-receiver) trope commonly found in BL. Over time, this trope has undergone several elaborations that perform similarly more elaborate imaginings and discourses relating to gender norms, from mirroring and inverting to playing and problematizing to confronting and revising. Ultimately, this essay argues that the potential of BL relies not on individual character traits but on its ability to reflect and facilitate alternative, critical, or counter-hegemonic imaginings.



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