A Dictionary & Explanation of Various Fandom related terms
This list is not exhaustive, will probably write a sequel
While I was writing my first ever post on Substack, it occured to me immediately that I will often be discussing terms and concepts that would be hard to explain to the average normie or even just someone who is vaguely plugged into the culture wars, but isn’t familiar with the youth culture that often plays a role in breeding the “social justice” attitude among young people.
I’m certainly not the first person to talk about this phenomenon. Notably, Default Friend (Katherine Dee) and exiled_fan (Monia) have been analysing this trend and have masterfully written about the phenomenon, especially in relation to their own personal experiences and observations. Others, like psychologists and mental health professionals, have also observed this phenomenon, particularly in relation to internet social contagion through issues like high rates of youth transition or high occurrences of supposed Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This in turn is corroborated through the stories of detransitioned individuals who have spoken about how fandoms, social justice and online communities had an effect on their decision to transition.
I personally love these individuals and highly recommend that you listen to their stories/perspectives and what they add to the table, but what I wish to inject into the conversation is the “weaboo” side of things (ie Japanese related and inspired media which encompasses anime, manga, films, live-action television and video games). As someone who has sunk deep down that rabbit hole, I definitely do know some of these things. I’m also a bit familiar with the boy bands as well, on account of me being in the generation that got exposed to K-Pop and also my interest in 90s boy bands (mostly Backstreet), and so I am familiar with some of the lingos.
But why weaboos, you might ask?
A lot of people, from right wing pundits to heterodox thinkers, have noticed a seemingly high correlation between anime and social justice (as well as related communities like furries) to the point that phrases like “fucking anime avatar” has become a common quip among these culture critics. However, I feel like there is often a misunderstanding from these people about how anime is correlated to social justice discourse, mostly because they weren’t plugged into those scenes.
As someone who was formerly involved in those communities, I think it is an appropriate that I be the one to shed some light on these issues and to break it down for the sake of audiences who may not have a full understanding of what’s going on. A lot of this comes from my own experiences in these spaces, but I will also refer to similar thinkers who articulate certain ideas better than me.
Canon (noun): referring to the actual series of events within a piece of media.
Let’s start things off easy with a term that you might hear in conjunction with other fan-related topics: canon. In essence, it’s basically refers to main actual plot of a media piece that is shown on-screen or described in a book. This is in contrast to “fanon” (fan canon) or “headcanons”, which are basically fan’s alternate interpretations of certain events in a story or their own inventions on what happened in said story.
When it comes to “respecting canon”, it often depends on which fandom you are looking into. Most fans tend to treat the original work/plot with some kind of respect. But that too can be taken too far, as some fans might insist on relying the Word of God too much and thus be very rigid when it comes to certain alternate interpretations of certain elements within a story. In contrast, you also have people who have no respect for the original creator’s vision whatsoever and basically just try to pry the show’s concept away from the original creator as much as possible, especially when creators challenge some fandom-wide beliefs and the people go be a bit nuts when that dream doesn’t come true.
Comfort Character (noun): a character that brings emotional comfort to an individual.
Over-consuming fiction has seemingly replaced therapy or just talking to real life people about how you feel. Comfort characters seem to embody this trend through people closely connecting with certain characters because they give them a sense of comfort, particularly during times of great distress. This connection is often formed through the character either embodying certain struggles that a person relates to, or is an idealistic figure that one aspires to be like.
Of course, having a comfort character is not an inherently bad thing. I openly admit that I have my own comfort characters, like Mulan from the original Disney animated film. I mostly relate to her because of my own struggles with fitting into parental expectations of being a female, and also her resourcefulness and courage that allows her to be a respected individual. There is nothing wrong with relating and aspiring to be like a fictional character like a role model, as fiction can be a place where the human experience can be conveyed. The problem comes in when one develops an over-obsession over these characters to the point that any criticisms or contradictory views of the character are seen as an affront to the self or some other collective group one claims to be part of.
Do Not Interact (DNI)/Before Your Follow (BYF) (noun): a set of criteria in which a person should not interact with another, particularly in an online setting.
I’ve already discussed this phenomenon before, but in short, they are sets of criteria in which a person aren’t allowed to interact with another, particularly in an online setting. The criteria can range from completely understandable like an NSFW creator requesting under-18s to not look at their lewd content, to absolutely ridiculous like someone who doesn’t like a certain character from a show.
This mostly originated from Tumblr, most likely as a way to shut down potential critics of certain concepts that were effectively breeding on the site, among many other purposes. Ironically, this phenomenon is more likely to attract trolls who will spam the person with content, as this is effectively low-hanging fruit for them to take advantage of.
Fanfiction (noun): works written by fans about a certain piece of media they enjoy.
Fanfiction is another common thing you will find in a fandom. Essentially, these are works written by fans that are often set within the same universe as a piece of media they enjoy, but have an original story written by said fans.
Fanfics cover a wide-span of genres and styles. Some fans choose to write a story set in the same universe as the show they enjoy, but focusing on either another character outside of the main cast or an original character (OC) who has his/her own adventures. At other times, fans choose to write “alternate universes” (AU) where characters within the original story are put in another universe outside of the main story and have their own adventures.
And then there’s the romance ones, which is related to the phenomenon of “shipping” which I will discuss in further detail later. These stories focus on the romantic relationship between two characters that the fan supports, which may or may not feature sexual content. If present, the sexual content featured ranges from completely vanilla sex to…welll….some really crazy shit. These are some of the broad styles/genres that fanfiction encompasses and there will generally be overlaps in these particular elements.
Now, even as fanfiction can get crazy, one in particular rises above the rest: the real-life fanfic.
Essentially these are fictional stories written about people who exist in real life. This particular genre of fanfiction became popular during the 90s, due to the boy band craze. Many adolescent females who were coming-of-age around that time and were experiencing their sexual awakening began writing stories featuring fictionalised versions of these boy band members in a variety of scenarios. Some were sweet innocent fanfics where they successfully romanced their favourite member of the group, while others involved…the boys shacking each other behind the scenes. The latter especially is such an infamous phenomenon that some of these boy band members eventually became aware of it, as this video from 2013 with the Backstreet Boys will tell you.
This trend has naturally continued in the years after the popularity of these two bands diminished, particularly with the resurrection of boy bands in the early 2010s with One Direction. Monia in particular has a good piece on how the management of the band played into the tendencies of those girls as a way too boost their popularity. Now, this trend has turned to K-Pop. Archive of Our Own (AO3) has over 40,0000 K-Pop fanfics on their website and counting, featuring their favourite members being placed in a variety of scenarios.
If any of you are bored one day and would like to torture yourself, you could try reading a bunch of smutty boyband fanfics to pass the time. Trust me, you will find some….very…interesting things down there.
Femboy/Trap (noun): a male who either crossdresses as a female or looks convincing enough to be mistaken as female on first appearance.
Ahh yes, the age-old question: Are traps gay?
The femboy or trap is an interesting phenomenon that emerges in particular from the anime scene. Because anime is an animated medium, wackiness often goes on and there is so much suspension of disbelief. A manifestation of this suspension of disbelief is the trope of a male character who is able to convincingly crossdress as a female, or is inherently so feminine in his appearance that people could mistake for a woman. Sometimes, to really punctuate the character’s femininity, the animated character’s voice would be provided by a woman doing a young boy’s voice (ala Bart Simpson), although the creators will occasionally get a male actor who is able to sound convincingly feminine like famed singer and voice actor Shouta Aoi (who is perhaps a real life version of this trope).
An example of a femboy is the character of Venti from the anime-inspired video game, Genshin Impact.
However, if anything, this idea is often more well-known for being controversial, especially the idea of a “trap”. In certain circles of trans activism, “trap” is seen as a derogatory term against trans women because it insinuates that they are men who dress like women and “trap” men into sleeping with them. Of course, there are also just as many people, trans and otherwise, who think traps are different from trans women and thus do not see it as a slur. Still, it is an interesting phenomenon that is obviously closely tied to the “gender identity discourse” one often sees raging in these spaces.
And before anyone asks, there is a female version of this trope that is known by several different names, but the most popular terms used are “tomboy” or “bifauxen.” An example of this trope is Naoto Shirogane from the video game Persona 4 (whom I also love and would consider a “comfort character”).
Furry (noun): a fandom characterised by people who are fascinated by anthropomorphic animals.
Furries: the eternal laughing stocks of the Internet.
In short, the “furry fandom” refers to a rather eccentric group of people whose interest is focused on anthropomorphic animals. They’re commonly associated with people who wear animal costumes to conventions, but that’s only one section of that particular fanbase. Most of them are either people who enjoy consuming media related to the genre, or artists who draw this stuff.
Furries are basically the butt of jokes on the Internet for a very long time, mostly because the fandom is full of extremely strange people who all have the same interests. Not to mention a lot of them engage in audacious and antisocial behaviour that puts them in a bad light. For example, in 2015, a furry convention held at the Hilton Hotel known as Rainfurrest attracted the ire of the public due to the con-goers engaging in extremely degenerate behaviour, including extensive property damage and engaging in sexual acts within public spaces. You can see the extent of this degeneracy here from a now archived post from one of the organisers.
Of course, whatever happened at Rainfurrest is not the worst, as there have been cases worse than this. Some furries are actual criminals who engage in highly illegal activities, such as copulating with animals and even children, to put it in extremely polite terms.
If any of you would like to do a deep dive into the history of the furry fandom, I highly recommend this video from Fredrik Knudsen. He does a very good job in portraying the community in a fair light while also not shying away from their controversies, not to mention extremely comprehensive in his coverage.
Headcanon (noun/verb): a belief or interpretation about a piece of media that you can consider canonical to the original story in your head.
Oh boy. This is my favourite term to talk about.
Headcanons are basically the bread and butter of modern fandoms. These are often fan interpretations of various happenings within a story that are either not explicitly stated in canon or simply an aspect of a character/show which a fan has decided to impose on a character. Veteran fans might recognise this trope by an older name, “fanon” (or “fan canon”).
Headcanons can range from meaningful to (typically) unadulterated projection on the part of the individual making the headcanon. In cases which they are meant to be meaningful, headcanons can help to fill in gaps within a character’s story which are otherwise only implied or add depth to a character that is not seen on-screen. For example, you can headcanon that Norman Osbourne from the Raimi Spider Man films was an absentee father to his son Harry because he uses work to hide the fact he’s still grieving over the loss of his wife, since Harry’s mother is never mentioned within those films. The Goblin personality represents that repressed anger/grief and his whole reason for teaming up with Spider-Man is basically a way for him to cultivate the close father-son relationship he never got with Harry.
(I made that entire thing up by the way, I don’t think anyone has ever came up with that interpretation)
However, more often than not, they serve nothing but to facilitate “identity points” in a story where it is often unnecessary and often cringey/illogical. Here is an example from a Danganronpa (a popular video game series) blog on Tumblr.
Obsession with character sexuality headcanons is now a part and parcel of most online fandoms, to the point that is a culture in and of itself. It definitely is borderline fetishistic, considering how “uninteresting” it is to assume that every character is straight and not transgender.
Sometimes it’s not even enough for a character who is already LGBT, for they must ALSO be another flavour of LGBT in addition to their existing canon identity. Take a look at Sailor Uranus, a butch lesbian icon from anime.
I’ve seen a lot of people headcanon her as genderfluid, trans or nonbinary because apparently it’s not enough that she’s a lesbian. People often go with those headcanon labels because (a) she’s a masculine woman who gets mistaken for a man very often and (b) these same fans misinterpret a line from Sailor Moon Crystal where her partner, Sailor Neptune, states that Uranus is “both a man and a woman.” In this case, it’s probably meant less literally referring to her “gender identity”, and more of the fact that she is a woman who occupies a masculine gender role. And of course I haven’t touched the world of “real life” headcanons….
Needless to say headcanons are a one way to trip to crazy land. This is also a potential idea for future blog posts.
Himbo (noun): a male character, who is typically characterised as being physically strong but endearingly stupid in personality.
I’m pretty sure all of us have known at least one man in our life who is as dumb as bricks, but makes up for the lack of knowledge with his big heart and childlike innocence. That’s the himbo for you.
Himbos have been a trope for ages in media under different names like “dumb muscle”, but this term really encapsulates this VERY particular archetype in media where a male character is depicted as strong, but also really dumb. This is often accompanied by an often “childish” personality, whether that be believing that movies monsters are for real or simply enjoying playing with marbles as a hobby. They’re also often very soft-hearted and like to help people. Of course, this personality can always be adjusted according to what the writer needs/wants, but these three traits are essentially the core of the archetype.
My go-to-example for a himbo is Kronk from the Emperor’s New Groove, voiced by Patrick Warburton. The comedic minion to main antagonist (and third Catwoman) Yzma, Kronk is basically responsible for the events of the movie by virtue of the fact that he screwed up the potions used to “kill” Kuzco which resulted in the latter’s transformation into a llama instead, in addition to his many other antics which basically cause Yzma to lose. He also apparently has the ability to talk to squirrels.
While some people have tried to claim that himbos are “ableist”, most people seem to love the archetype. This definitely feeds into a slightly larger discussion on the kind of men that fandoms seemingly worship, but I will save that for some later related terms.
Kinning (verb): believing you are literally a fictional character.
Remember how I talked about “Comfort Characters”? Yeah, this is taking it to the next level. Kinning is the belief that you are essentially the real life version of a fictional character and can thus “claim” them because you are one and the same with said character. Some people take this to the extreme by adopting a character’s verbal tics in real life or dressing like them. The term is derived from the term “fictionkin”, which in turn is a spin-off from “otherkin”, which is the belief that you are an animal in a human’s body.
Admittedly, I find myself confused by the difference between kinning and having a comfort character at times, since it seems that some people use the term “kinning” to refer to a character they deeply relate to. I think it’s possible that some people use “kinning” to mean relating to a character on a deep level, but I’m pretty sure there are also just as many people who think that they literally are certain character in real life. It’s often very hard to tell, as you can see from this list that I managed to find online.
A part of me wonders (and sincerely hopes) that most people who do “kin characters” will eventually outgrow once they go into the adult working world, but there is also just as much of a chance of these people spiralling out of control. A rather extreme example of this comes from the infamous saga of the “Final Fantasy House”, where a group of women essentially lured various people into housing and abused them by pretending they were all the reincarnations of various Final Fantasy VII characters.
Manlet (noun): a male character whose defining characteristic is his shortness.
The manlet is a character trope referring to a male character that is defined by his…well, lack of height. Perhaps the most famous example of is Edward Elric, the protagonist of the award-winning manga/anime Fullmetal Alchemist.
The manlet is an interesting trope which speaks a lot about the kind of men (or rather, male characters) that are seemingly elevated within fandom spaces, in contrast to the typical interests of most straight women in real life. Not being a tall man would likely lower your chances of being seen as attractive by many women, but within fandoms, manlets are seen as endearing and adorable, with many characters being celebrated for this trait. I will talk about this later when we get to the section on twinks, because it does provide an interesting discussion on the kind of men that fandoms seemingly worship and adore.
Shipping (noun/verb): Believing two people, either fictional or real, are in a romantic relationship.
The actual bread-and-butter of most fandoms since the 1970s, shipping refers to the act of someone believing two people, either fictional or real, are in a romantic relationship with each other and the person supporting that relationship. It’s a very common thing you will notice and encounter at some point, even with “mainstream” popular franchises like Star Wars or Marvel. “Ships” may be either “canonical” (ie confirmed to happen within the story by the creator) or “non-canonical” (happens outside and is often a fan interpretation of the relationship). Fans who like certain ships will either draw or write fanfiction, based on the “ship” they support. Some fans who REALLY support certain ships will declare them to be their One True Pairing (OTP). Examples of various ships include “KirkSpock” (Captain James T. Kirk and Spock from the original Star Trek), “Reylo” (Rey x Kylo Ren from the sequel Star Wars trilogy) and “Xenabrielle” (Xena x Gabrielle from the TV series Xena: Warrior Princess).
Shipping is the lifeblood of most fandoms, but also its dynamite. People tend to be overprotective of their ships and will often attack others for either critiquing those who support certain ships, or just supporting another ship which “contradicts” their own (ie pairs a character with another rather than the one they support). In some cases, some ardent fans of certain pairings might ravage a creator of a show just because they do not implement a certain popular pairing that the fans enjoyed and wanted to see happen within a piece of media. This notably happened with the Voltron reboot, as fans of the ship “Klance” (Keith x Lance, two of the main heroes) harassed the creators of the show and the voice actors for refusing to confirm this relationship on-screen.
Related to this concept is the idea of pro-shipping and anti-shipping. In summary, pro-shipping refers to the idea that anyone can support any fictional ship, even if it contains questionable content, as fiction ultimately does not reflect reality. In contrast, anti-shippers believe that shipping DOES affect reality and thus object to pairings with content they deem “questionable” or “problematic”. By questionable or problematic content, this mostly encompasses the realm of issues like adult-child romantic relationships (or ones that are “coded” as such), supporting “queer-coded” characters in heterosexual pairings or ones that have “questionable” dynamics between the characters (read: potentially abusive or manipulative). It is probably the definition of “trivial shit that gets blown out of proportion.”
And then there’s real-life ships. Although tabloid speculation about whether certain celebrities were dating each other have existed since the invention of the tabloid press, real-life shipping is a whole another can of worms entirely.
I’ve talked about how this relates to the boy band phenomenon, but there are also many other notable instances of real-life shipping seen in other contexts like YouTubers. In particular, one very popular real-life slash pairing comes from the world of Let’s Players (LP), between LP legends Jacksepticeye (Sean McLoughlin) and Markiplier (Mark Fischbach). When these two were at the height of their popularity, the two were the subject of a popular pairing among fans who loved the dynamic between the two. However, this quickly turned sour when the two men started dating women and their respective girlfriends began to receive harassment from ardent fans who wanted their boyfriends to end up together instead. One woman even continued to draw lewd fanart of the two, despite both men requesting fans to not do that. Naturally, they have chosen to distance themselves from this ship because of how uncomfortable it got.
Speaking of crazy fans…..
Stan (noun/verb): a fan of someone or something; Bias (noun): a person’s favourite character or person (particularly that of a celebrity).
The term “stan” itself is derived from an Eminem song from the early 2000s, where it describes a crazy fan named “Stan” who stalks his idol.
Nowadays the term has been purged of his derisive meaning and is now used to describe fans who love a certain character, genre of media or person. In particular for those “stanning” a real life person, it mostly applies to a celebrity. Closely related to that term is “bias”, which refers to an individual’s favourite celebrity because they would be “biased” for them. This happens in particular within the context of a group like a boy band, where various fans will have a certain member they would be inclined towards.
For example, because I am a Gen Z kid trying to pretend to be a Millennial, I will say that Kevin Richardson is my bias. Because who could resist those piercing eyes?
However, much like how girls of the 90s were fighting over which boy band member was better, discussing one’s bias will lead people to fight among each other on who is better. Even just calling a celebrity by the wrong adjective will lead you to being harassed and dragged through the mud by other stans, as this Twitter user unfortunately learned the hard way.
We all know that boy band fans are absolutely terrifying on some level. “Beatlemania” was seen as a diagnosable mental illness back in the day and the same dynamics have been proven again and again with the other boy bands that were discussed here, like Backstreet and One Direction. But K-Pop stans take it to a WHOLE other level. Leaving aside the actual Korean fans who are their own breed of crazy, the western K-Pop fandom is arguably even more frightening than all of the ardent fans of the western boy bands combined. They combine the defensiveness and obsessive worship of the earlier boy-band fans, heap it with a heavy dose of social justice and the echo chambers of social media to create a truly terrifying contingent of fans who will harass people if they are accused of insulting their favourite K-Pop idol.
Twink (noun): a man who is attractive, particularly in a feminine way.
Twink is a term often applied to men, both fictional and otherwise, who are seen as attractive but in a way that is rather feminine. This mostly applies to their appearance, which is associated with things like a lack of facial hair, a slim build and generally soft facial features. This might also be accompanied by a feminine personality or demeanour, like being soft-spoken, gentle or shy, but there are also definitely twinks who have more stereotypically masculine personalities.
Generally, “twinks” are associated with anime characters who aren’t outright femboys but are distinctly not “manly” compared to other male characters. This trope is often known as a “bishounen” within anime and Japanese media, meaning “beautiful youth.” These characters are everywhere in the medium and perhaps almost every male character who isn’t a child, middle aged man or old man is a bishounen somehow.
In terms of real life twinks, they tend to be associated with boy bands and other male artistes who have a large teenage female following. A rather good example of a real life twink is Nick Carter circa 1999, when he sported the infamous “curtain” haircut.
A lot of people have noted that “twinks” generally seem to be popular among teenaged girls, as well as gay men. Why that is the case is an interesting topic for another time that is closely related to the tropes of “himbo” and “manlet”, and the fact that fandom culture seems to elevate men who aren’t “conventionally masculine.”
Yaoi (noun): Japanese works that focus on the homoerotic relationship between two men; Yuri (noun): Japanese works that focus on the homoerotic relationship between two women; Fujoshi (noun): a fangirl of yaoi, typically used in a derisive manner.
I saved the best for last.
Perhaps the most prominent phenomenon that has emerged out of fandoms is the obsession with fictional same-sex relationships, if I haven’t made it clear. The genre of yaoi and yuri are perhaps the most concentrated forms of this obsession.
Yaoi, also known as Boy’s Love (BL), “Men Love Men” (MLM) or simply “slash fiction” refers to works that prominently feature male characters in homoerotic settings. While the concept of fascination with gay fiction have been around since the dawn of humanity, the term “yaoi” comes from Japan. Apparently, the term is a contraction of the Japanese phrase yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし) which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning,” referring to the lack of character development in favour of smutty action these works. Of course, there are many yaoi media that can pull both the romance and characters off, as seen through works like Yuri On Ice. Its history is also not limited to just Japan, as there were already slash fiction being written in the 1970s and 1980s featuring Kirk and Spock from Star Trek among female Trekkies. The anime explosion of the 90s only brought this genre to new heights of popularity.
Yuri, also known as “Women-love-Women (WLW) fiction”, meanwhile, is the gender-inverted version of yaoi and focuses on female characters in homoerotic settings. The genre itself is derived from the Japanese word for the lily flower (百合), which symbolises feminine beauty and purity. The name can be considered apt for the genre, as the relationships in yuri media are not necessarily sexual, but instead focus on the general intimacy of social relationships between women. Obviously, western fiction has been doing this before the introduction of anime (as the writing of the lesbian vampire novel Carmilla will tell you), but the popularity of this genre seems to have taken longer to get off the ground.
I will not get into the rich histories behind yaoi and yuri within their original context of Japan, but I should note here is that yaoi and yuri are written with a primarily heterosexual target audience in mind. Yaoi is generally targeted towards straight females, while yuri has its appeal among both straight men and women. Essentially, these two genres serve as ways for Japanese people, particularly young people, to explore their sexual desires by proxy of these characters. For yaoi, the appeal simply boils down to “hehe two hot guys are banging each other and I like to imagine myself as one of them.” Meanwhile, the appeal of yuri for straight men is probably the same, but is also linked to a rather…un-progressive Japanese social belief that girls engage in homosexual relationships as teenagers in order to train themselves for heterosexual marriages later on. Yikes?
Of course, yaoi and yuri are ubiquitous in current fandom and are seemingly inseparable at this point, even in fandoms where the fans are old enough to have existed before the Internet. You basically cannot run away from this stuff. Even in, say, a band fandom where all the band members are straight (or gay and married to someone else outside the band in cases like *NSYNC & Westlife), the fans will continue to write slash fics of them banging each other despite these “boys” now being in their 40s and 50s (as I have learnt from gazing into AO3 and its large repository of *NSYNC and Backstreet fanfics).
I don’t know that much about yuri fans and their perception/impact save a few anecdotal critique from lesbians, but fujoshis (ie girls who are into yaoi) are definitely very visible and have been discussed at length. If you were ever into anime, you probably came across at least one fujoshi in your lifetime, whether that be one of your high school friends or random cosplayer girls at a convention. The stereotype at least appears to be that they are rather creepy and irrational, screaming and frothing at their mouths when they see two male characters (or real life people) they ship together interacting in a capacity which people perceive as a manifestation of that relationship being true. Basically, many fujoshis are seen in a rather critical light, even among other fans.
An interesting phenomenon has emerged in recent years where fujoshis become influenced to start a gender transition upon sinking knee-deep into slash fics. Katherine Dee briefly noted this in her article discussing the phenomenon, as well as many detransitioned women who openly share these stories like Helena, Grace and Laura.
Helena described how this process worked quite succinctly in her appearance on the Gender: A Wider Lens podcast (skip to around 41:14).
In short, many girls are into slash because it allows them to explore their sexuality in a safe, imaginative space. For straight/bi girls, it’s a way for them to explore their attraction to men without feeling the perceived extra burdens of being a girl in a relationship with a guy, like not being sexualised or having a deeper characterisation in the setting of fiction (I imagine it’s different for lesbians who are into slash). For Helena and these other detrans women, this interest turned onto themselves and they wanted to be like those male characters they were writing/reading about. Sexologist Ray Blanchard describes this phenomenon as “autohomoerotic gender dysphoria”, where women become fixated on the idea on transitioning into a gay man. This was combined with social justice discourse that compelled a lot of these young girls to identify out of their sex in an attempt to escape the supposed “stain” of being a “cishet white girl”.
However, as noted within that episode of G:AWS, the perception of males within the context of yaoi is nothing like how gay men typically act. The dynamics of yaoi relationships seems to still rely on stereotypical heterosexual dynamics, with one character being the dominant one (or seme, to use the actual terminology) and the other being the feminine submissive one (or uke). Moreover, most “fujoshi” FTMs don’t want to become Buck Angel or just a typical masculine guy, but rather “twinks” who are basically how a teenaged girl would imagine a boy to be like.
TLDR: yaoi and yuri are important facets of fandom and I think people involved in the gender transition discourse should try to understand the full extent of this phenomenon if they want to understand what actually is going on.
Whew, that was a list to go through. I hope many of you found this dictionary helpful in explaining various fandom phenomena and how this affects various aspects of the culture war discourse. I probably will come up with a second list down the line, but I hope this covers it for now. Let me know what terms I missed!