Information about the true meaning of the word "fujoshi"
Lots of the stigma of the words "fujoshi" and "yaoi" in western fandom spaces comes from harmful misinformation. This page is meant to educate about the actual meanings of these words.
"Isn't a fujoshi someone who fetishizes gay men?"
Nope! A fujoshi, by literal definition, is a woman who enjoys consuming mxm content (e.g. bl manga/anime/games, doujinshi works)
"But doesn't fujoshi mean rotten girl?"
Yes, but this is because the word has misogynistic and homophobic origins. It was created by users on 2chan who thought that women enjoying gay romance/ships made them "rotten" and unfit for marriage.
"But fujoshis are all straight women, so its still weird!"
This is not true. In both western and Japanese fandom spaces, fujoshis are mostly queer women. There is a lot of overlap between fujoshi and queer spaces in fandom, and fujoshi culture is what led to the normalization of queer content in Japan. Even if most fujoshis were straight, saying someone should not read certain content based on their sexuality is only going to lead to the denormalization of queer content. I shouldn't have to explain why this isn't a good thing.
"But most yaoi contains disgusting things like rape!"
This is also not true. A good majority of yaoi and BL (that is officialy available in english at least) does not contain rape. I can't get the direct source because its locked behind a $40 ebook for some god foresaken reason, but according to Wikipedia's citation of the source, only 13% of yaoi officially available in english contains rape scenes.
The current popular definition of "fujoshi" in western fandom spaces comes from disinformation spread by terfs as a way of insulting trans mlm who enjoy gay romance content. Perpetuating this definition is inherently transphobic. (source)
links to more sources:
rottenboysclub list of sources
(note that just because i link a source here doesnt necessarily mean i agree with all their viewpoints. i share these sources because they provide factual information, not to stir up any discourse.)
