The boys’ love genre, previously (and still known as) yaoi, began in Japan. But how did it get so popular, who is enjoying it, and what does its explosion mean for the LGBTQ and MLM communities? Get your notes ready for some recommendations and stay for some social commentary. There are several reasons for this: the general desire for queer representation, fatigue with heterosexual romances, or the fact that they are simply more interesting everybody has a different reason for enjoying it.

Whether it’s TV shows, movies, manga, or manhwa, every form of boys’ love has blown up in the past two decades - even more recently with the rise of social media. Trigger Warning: ‘The ‘Boys’ Love (BL) Genre’ mentions sexual assault in this article (specifically in the section “Normalization of Sexual Assault”)īoys’ love, abbreviated BL, is a genre where the main plotline is a romance between two male characters. What Boys’ Love Does For MLM Communities.