As some of you may know, I was working on my Honors Thesis until a short while ago. My thesis was related to gender studies, and interestingly, one of my sources had an extensive chapter on otaku culture. A section of this chapter detailed how moe is explored differently by males and females, and for the latter group, cites the genre of BL specifically.
I summarized the main points from the chapter for those of you that might be interested in what has been written academically about this topic. I don’t claim ownership of, nor reinforce, any of the ideas below (aside from those under the “Thoughts” headline obv).
Otaku
The term otaku refers to fervent devotees of anime, manga or video games. The word in itself is an honorific to refer to one’s household as well as a formal expression for “you.” This offers a few explanations for where the word may have come from. Does otaku refer to the business-like, impersonal, detached nature of avid fans? Or does the term come from the stereotype that they never leave their houses and are “depressed, alienated individuals”?
The author of the book dispels the latter statement as myth, saying that otaku often leave their houses to participate in anime circles or meet each other. The origin of negative associations with the term can be traced back to a psycho by the name of Tsutomu Miyazaki who committed cannibalistic murders of four young girls in 1989. He happened to have owned a lot of otaku goods, e.g., figurines, twisted pedophiliac comics, etc. Aside from that, otaku may also be seen as immature by the generic public as they keep themselves attached to a transitional object; i.e., “take pleasure in things children usually outgrow at the latest by middle school.”
Otaku can be characerized (but not defined) by:
1. Exhibit an intimate familiarity with fictional context
2. Resort to fictions as a means of “possessing” love objects
3. Live via multi-orientations, not merely bi-orientation
4. Take fictional constructs for sex objects
The point to emphasize here is that they are “extremely sensitized to fictional materials.” The chapter notes that 18+ fictions portray all manner of sexual perversions, e.g., lolita. But few otaku are actual pedophiles in real life and allegedly enjoy “healthy” sexual relations with chosen partners of the opposite sex.
Difference Between Male and Female Otaku Desires
The writer argues that men have “character moe” (キャラ萌え) while women have “phase moe” (位相萌え). She discusses phase moe in the context of BL, and explains that “phase” refers to one possible stage in a relationship between the romantic interests. One such phase might be a stage of mixed feelings of friendship and antagonism between two boys. This stage of the relationship is the focus of attention for the fans. Essentially, tension is translated into a romantic phase of the homosexual relationship. Emphasis on situations can be found in other media for girls, not just BL, including shoujo manga, drama CDs, etc. The bottom line is that relationships between characters and psychological drama is the focus of most fiction targeting girls.
Men, on the other hand, have character moe due to nature of fixed positions. Gender studies principles characterize men as being in constant fear of having their position of power overthrown. Men must establish their position first before they can pursue the object of their affections.
Women, however, have less acute fear of one’s position being threatened since they comparably occupy positions of less power, sexually or otherwise. Therefore, when they desires something, they have lower barrier to entry than men do, if you will. She can immerse herself completely within the object. To relate this back to the BL context, this allows women to identify with both the seme and the uke.
Women maintain a clear line dividing this medium into fiction. They perform a sense of detached sexuality (not based on reality), like all other 18+ fiction, which brings up points that a. they don’t desire homosexual men in real life, and b. they aren’t necessarily looking for realistic depictions of sex. This explains why women characters aren’t ever the focus in a BL manga; the author explains that this would make the medium “too realistic.”
In conclusion, the fundamental difference between men and women are that men want to possess their object of desire, while women want to relate to their object of desire. Men operate from established positions where they are the agent of desire and pursue aggressively. Women, on the other hand, hold no set position, and thereby can circulate between aggression and passiveness (seme and uke, respectively) via BL.
Thoughts
A lot of the information above is very gender studies-ish in that it sees the male and female dichotomy in a very narrow view – it… sort of comes with the territory. Any thoughts, though? Personally I’m not versed well enough in fiction for men, e.g., yuri, to put forth that men and women definitely differ in what/how they enjoy fiction.
I will say, however, that I agree with the “advantage” women created for themselves in BL manga to be in the position of both pursuer and pursued. There’s also an article that was passed around pretty recently that said women might like BL because they feel as if they take a more active role via a male protagonist than a female character, since the latter tends to be reduced to a sexual object in works produced from a male mindset. This position of the “pursuer” empowers women. At the same time, the position of the “pursued” also empowers women, for obvious reasons.
Whether this advantage is a gender thing – well, the writer argued that men are both aggressors and strive to be the object of desire, so I think if you pick the logic apart, that’s exactly what women are getting out of BL according to the author’s very own words. I would say that for me, however, I find the situations and developments between characters more compelling than establishing a harem out of my fictional husbands.
– If you’re interested in the source material, look for Saito’s article in PostGender: Gender, Sexuality and Performativity in Japanese Culture edited by Ayelet Zohar. –
