BOYS LOVE
GENDER AND SEXUALITY CONCEPTS FROM THE PAGES TO THE SCREEN
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63418/j8996648Keywords:
Boys love, Gender, Cherry Magic!, Manga, DoramaAbstract
This work investigates the dynamics of gender and sexuality in the boys love (BL) genre, using the manga and dorama adaptation of Cherry Magic! as an object of analysis. The study contextualizes the emergence of BL from the shōjo demographic in Japan and its subsequent audiovisual expansion in East Asia, especially through Thai live action productions. Through bibliographic research based on authors such as Mark McLelland, James Welker, and Judith Butler, the construction of the seme and uke archetypes is analyzed, as well as how these representations interact with the desires and imagination of the primarily female audience, the fujoshi. The results indicate that, although Cherry Magic! maintains traditional gender traits – such as the physical and role differentiation between the protagonists Adachi and Kurosawa – the work also reflects contemporary trends of flexible power norms and greater proximity to LGBTQIA+ reality. It can be concluded that BL functions as a space of subversion and fantasy, where gender categories are reworked from the perspective of a "fujoshi gaze".
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