Fujoshi

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About

Fujoshi (腐女子) is a Japanese slang term used to describe female fans of yaoi, also known as shōnen-ai (boy love). While often seen as a pejorative, the term has also been adopted by fans themselves in a similar vein to the terms "otaku" and "weeaboo", and is also often used to refer to female Otaku in general.

History

The term Fujoshi can be loosely translated to mean "rotten girl", a self-deprecating phrase which plays on the Japanese term "婦女子", also pronounced "Fujoshi" but instead meaning "respectable woman", by replacing the character 婦, meaning a married woman, with the character 腐, meaning rotten. The term is thought to have first originated on Japanese message board 2Chan to describe yaoi fans, but some speculate that it was coined by the media^[2]. Despite its roots as a derogatory term, it has since been adopted by many yaoi fans themselves.

Online Presence

The fujoshi community has a large presence on many sites, most notably including Tumblr ^[3], DeviantART and Fanfiction.net. The community is known creating fujoshi-style fan art and fanfiction, which are often yaoi based. As the community has grown online, fujoshi-orientated manga and anime series and characters have started to become more prevalent, most notably the character Kae Serinuma in the series Kiss Him Not Me^[4] (shown below).

The topic of Fujoshis has also been covered by many different anime-centered sites. On December 21st, 2016, the Anime News Network^[5] posted an article titled "What is a Fujoshi?", breaking down notable aspects of the fujoshi fandom. On April 4th, 2017, the anime streaming site Crunchyroll uploaded a Fujoshi themed episode of their "Anime Academy" series to YouTube (shown below, left), similarly breaking down the meaning of the term. The topic of Fujoshi was also covered by Channel Awesome contributor Rantasmo^[7], as part of his "Needs More Gay" series (shown below, right).

Fudanshi

Fudanshi is a term used to describe male fans of the yaoi and boy's love, who are generally not interested in guys themselves. While not as common as Fujoshi, Fudanshi have become increasingly common on sites such as Tumblr^[8]. The term has increased in popularity, following the airing on the short anime series The High School Life of a Fudanshi^[9] (shown below) on July 5, 2016, based on the manga series of the same name.

Notable Events

Swimming Anime

Swimming Anime was the fan-given name for a commercial for animation studio Kyoto Animation, which gained popularity among Fujoshi on sites such as Tumblr, due to the attractive male characters featured in the trailer, unlike other shows by the studio at the time. This led to a fan outcry for a full TV anime based on the commercial, later being announced as the anime series Free!.

Fujoshing TF Out

Fujoshing TF Out, also known as Fujo Out or Fujoshing TF Out is a slang phrase used to joke about women who are obsessed with or who find enjoyment in seeing two men be romantically involved. The term "fujoshi" comes from Japanese slang and is used to describe women who read yaoi, also known as shōnen-ai (boy love) fiction. While originally seen as a pejorative, the term has since been adopted by fans themselves in a similar vein to the terms "otaku" and "weeaboo". Ironic and sincere jokes about women "fujoshing out" began to gain notable traction online after the year 2023.