This was an interesting read for me as someone that got super into yuri manga 10+ years ago and hasn't read almost anything since then. At the time I read pretty much everything I could find, and there was a lot I liked but not nearly as much range as BL. Your post inspired me to go look at some of the recs on your blog though and I'm pleased to see some of the new stuff that's coming out!! I've been saying and preaching there should be yuri about fujos and am so surprised and pleased to see there's even something about that that you've recced!! :D
On English GL vs BL fandom-- again, I'm really out of the loop for yuri specifically, but I still feel pretty in the loop for English-speaking fandom in general, although less so in the past few years. IMO GL is doomed to have scraps compared to BL due to our (English-speaking) fandom culture, because of how restrictive people are with it. By that I mean that people have moral expectations of GL that they don't of BL. When people promote or generally talk about GL, it's often done out of a sense that they should (or as you say, for brownie points). The ability to feel good about your GL promo is negated by the GL in question being problematic. But the problem is that pretty much everyone really prefers media that's problematic to some degree, even if they say they don't, and this actually probably applies moreso to GL because we're all already used to seeing women be unproblematic in fiction. So everyone only promotes GL that they're never going to really get excited about.
I think you can really see this in Killing Eve fandom. When it came out, people were comparing it to Hannibal in terms of the relationships between the leads; the shows are super different, but clearly both draw people because of the combination of lopsided power dynamics (Villanelle and Hannibal are both borderline undefeatable killers that have held control over Eve/Will in a very visceral way), general toxicity (each duo is in a clear antagonistic relationship where each person commits violent harm against the other), and intense attraction (making the previous two elements even more toxic). In Hannibal fandom this is abundantly apparent via the fanworks, which tend towards leaning into the toxicity of it all, vs in Killing Eve fandom the greater trend I've seen is to work as hard as possible to make Villannelle and Eve into a perfectly healthy couple. If they stay a little evil, it's usually not towards each other, because that would be bad! Similarly telling is that Eve is almost always made to be the top in fics, which IMO is definitely to try and counter the power dynamic present in the show. Again, in Hannibal fandom, people are more likely to lean into the toxicity and make Hannibal top.
All this is to say that I think a lot of people in fandom don't like the idea of themselves being more into BL than GL, but they will never let themselves enjoy GL works due to various fandom politics reasons, so they (unknowingly) commit themselves to forever making token comments about how they wish there was GL out there. Not sure how much this lines up what you've seen in the yuri space specifically.
I am Michi, an Otaku who is an Avid BL & Yuri fans. EN/ID. A blog where I post stuff I like & writing things on my mind. Mainly focused on Video Games, Japanese media/Subcultures, Fandom, Meta, Media review, etc. Occasionally talk about personal life.
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Date: Saturday, 10 May 2025 11:44 (UTC)This was an interesting read for me as someone that got super into yuri manga 10+ years ago and hasn't read almost anything since then. At the time I read pretty much everything I could find, and there was a lot I liked but not nearly as much range as BL. Your post inspired me to go look at some of the recs on your blog though and I'm pleased to see some of the new stuff that's coming out!! I've been saying and preaching there should be yuri about fujos and am so surprised and pleased to see there's even something about that that you've recced!! :D
On English GL vs BL fandom-- again, I'm really out of the loop for yuri specifically, but I still feel pretty in the loop for English-speaking fandom in general, although less so in the past few years. IMO GL is doomed to have scraps compared to BL due to our (English-speaking) fandom culture, because of how restrictive people are with it. By that I mean that people have moral expectations of GL that they don't of BL. When people promote or generally talk about GL, it's often done out of a sense that they should (or as you say, for brownie points). The ability to feel good about your GL promo is negated by the GL in question being problematic. But the problem is that pretty much everyone really prefers media that's problematic to some degree, even if they say they don't, and this actually probably applies moreso to GL because we're all already used to seeing women be unproblematic in fiction. So everyone only promotes GL that they're never going to really get excited about.
I think you can really see this in Killing Eve fandom. When it came out, people were comparing it to Hannibal in terms of the relationships between the leads; the shows are super different, but clearly both draw people because of the combination of lopsided power dynamics (Villanelle and Hannibal are both borderline undefeatable killers that have held control over Eve/Will in a very visceral way), general toxicity (each duo is in a clear antagonistic relationship where each person commits violent harm against the other), and intense attraction (making the previous two elements even more toxic). In Hannibal fandom this is abundantly apparent via the fanworks, which tend towards leaning into the toxicity of it all, vs in Killing Eve fandom the greater trend I've seen is to work as hard as possible to make Villannelle and Eve into a perfectly healthy couple. If they stay a little evil, it's usually not towards each other, because that would be bad! Similarly telling is that Eve is almost always made to be the top in fics, which IMO is definitely to try and counter the power dynamic present in the show. Again, in Hannibal fandom, people are more likely to lean into the toxicity and make Hannibal top.
All this is to say that I think a lot of people in fandom don't like the idea of themselves being more into BL than GL, but they will never let themselves enjoy GL works due to various fandom politics reasons, so they (unknowingly) commit themselves to forever making token comments about how they wish there was GL out there. Not sure how much this lines up what you've seen in the yuri space specifically.