Constructions of Gender in Original Chinese Boys' Love Novels

Abstract

Original Chinese boys' love (BL) novels are literary works about male-male homosexual love. Their main communication channel is the Internet, and the dominant audience is young heterosexual women from all walks of life. Previous studies on BL novels mainly concentrated on the psychology of BL fans, and in recent years, more and more studies have begun to focus on the phenomenon of BL novels being adapted into commercial TV series. In addition, some researchers considered BL culture as a kind of misogynistic culture. This study will analyze how BL novels construct gender from the aspects of constructions of body, sexuality, and gender relations. Furthermore, by analyzing women's construction of gender, there will be an opportunity to reinterpret the BL audience's attitude towards gender equality, which can explore whether BL is misogynistic or not. This study uses feminist qualitative content analysis to focus on women's experiences and voices in BL culture. The source materials will be mainly existing online BL novels. The research results show that the audiences are used to putting themselves in the aesthetic subject position and treat the body in BL novels as an aesthetic object to relieve the anxiety brought by the patriarchal culture and release sexual pressure. At the same time, their...