Yaoi and Fangirl Stereotypes

[fearme,I'mafangirl]

Fangirls get a bad rep whenever yaoi is brought up to anyone who isn't a female that enjoys it, regardless of how said person views yaoi.

When someone says "fangirl" in relation to anime/manga, most automatically assume 'oh, a yaoi fan.' I can't stand this very wide-spread stereotyping of female fandom.

Originally I refused to even look at anything related to slash just on principle, and while I have been partially converted via fanfiction, it still gets under my skin that this happens.

Your thoughts on the issue?

[Teeba]

For the longest time I was insecure about yaoi and slash because of all the bad rep women get for shipping it. I thought if I liked yaoi I would automatically be branded a woman-hater, and I (wrongly) viewed any criticism on female characters as an admission to liking yaoi. But bad fans exist in every fandom, and they can be men and women, fanboys and fangirls.

I think a lot of non-yaoi shippers assume we can't read non-yaoi mediums "properly". Like, "oh, you obviously don't care about the plot if you like yaoi."

Another yaoi fangirl stereotype I disagree with is that because I read yaoi, I have some kind of identity disorder because deep down inside, I want to be a gay man.

[Bloody Queen]

^ I agree with you there, Teeba. I wouldn't read BL stories if it just a load of fan-services with no obvious/interesting plot. And we all have different views of characters, just because I'm a BL fan-girl, I don't hate every single female characters. Vice versa; if anyone dislike a certain character, it doesn't mean they're yaoi/yuri fans.

Another stereotype I hate is BL fans' "preferences". My sister and I know two or three BL fan-boys as friends and they're as straight as a diamond pole. There's a case in youtube, a very known and popular youtube user is discovered to be a 'male' when the topic/videos he uploaded is related to female things (well, barely related). That single discovery encourage tens of people to post hate-comments, uncountable amount. Just — what the f***?!

When someone says "fangirl" in relation to anime/manga, most automatically assume 'oh, a yaoi fan.' I can't stand this very wide-spread stereotyping of female fandom.

That is also a big stereotype issue, and it doesn't exist on female fandome only. For example, let's say, Fairy Tail's fanboys. Just like people out there related fangirls with Yaoi/Slash, fanboys are almost instantly related with Ecchi/Hentai/Yuri even though few of them are not.