Recently I had some trouble sleeping. At four or five my night suddenly stops and I am sitting in my PJs on my couch not knowing what to do at this time of day. So I started scrolling through twitter again and boy, this is really nothing for the faint hearted.The amount of conflicts and discussions you see is really flabbergasting. As an old school BL fan most of my social media algorithms are very zoned into BL. Which is awesome as I get all the important infos and stuff. But recently it also showed me more and more of a fandom that seems to be growing so rapidly that it feels like we are losing our core values somehow.
You know the whole “women loving kissing men on television” is not a new phenomenon. It doesn’t matter where in the world you look. This has been going on for centuries really, with the last 50 years gearing up into this frenzy we are used to now. Everything has ramped up within our fandom it feels. The amount of productions coming out right now.. It makes following everything pretty much utopic. It’s not like it was before when a proper fan could say they have literally seen EVERYTHING out. I was also able to say that up to a certain point, but even I, with my absolute crazy obsession to consume as much as I can, had to admit defeat at one point in 2021.
It’s just so much content that it feels like we are building tiny little fandoms within our big fandom and while that’s absolutely okay this definitely bears some issues. You know before, when our community was smaller (and I don’t just mean BLDA here. I mean the entirety of the BL fandom), we were able to keep up our unwritten rules. The newer members were taught by the older ones how to behave, how to ship and slash properly without overstepping the bounds. We were mainly “hiding in the shadows” anyway as publicly announcing you were a kissing men fan (not saying BL fan here as the word didn’t exist back then) could have major repercussions for you. So it was more hiding behind a nickname and secretly writing about actors, musicians or famous people in general, hoping they will never get to see it.
But why did we slash or ship different people or actors to begin with? Where did all this even come from? And for me the answer to this question is rather easy. Because I totally believe that shipping and slashing came mainly from the point of desperation. I am not sure if a BL fan from today can even imagine the drought we went through some years ago? We had maybe ONE show at a time running and we had to wait MONTHS for subs or even for a platform to even release series to begin with.
Yes, we worked a lot in the dark. Yes, we did pirate our series and shows and yes, we shared them between us in illegal ways. But again, why did we do this? Because the times were so different and there are NO legal ways to watch our things. So here you can already see how much times have changed. We have TONS of ways to watch our series, legally and in a lot of cases still for free. But I am not here to preach about legal services. I just want to use this as another example of how times have changed.
We are not in this desperate situation anymore where we need to literally collect the few scraps that are there. We don’t have to go to these immense lengths anymore to just enjoy a show. The access is easy and as I said before the amount of current releases is so different from what we were used to, it’s literally crazy.
Since 2020 we have roughly 160 new releases per year. This includes series, movies, short movies and specials. So this definitely proves we have more than enough material to find something we absolutely love. These days there is literally something for everyone. And in these 160 releases I haven’t even counted all the behind the scenes footage and all the extra shows our actors are doing for us. Stuff like OffGun’s Fun Night Out or Safe House are bringing us so much content about our actors as a bonus, that literally NO FAN in the world can say anymore that there is not enough stuff out there to consume.
So what about fanservice? Is it really still necessary after all those years? Shouldn’t we move on from these extreme cases of fanservice and just enjoy what is there for us to enjoy already?
I am sure we all know that fanservice is a tricky thing. I am definitely an old school BL fan and yes, I love fanservice when done correctly. Fanservice at its best is a joke everyone (actors, their surroundings and us fans) is in on. At its worst it’s harassment and has even forced good actors away from the fandom.
Sometimes I wonder if this is due to the sheer size of our fandom now. You know, back in the day we also had people who would go too far. Who would go after our actors and would take pictures in the wrong moments or would make up stories that were just not true. But with our community being a bit more hidden and not so out and loud it felt easier to contain people like this. Like we would know that this specific individual would be a nutcase and if they overstepped, the community would deal with it, mostly so early that the actor and the production company would hopefully not even notice.
Yes, we had cases where things went way too far back than as well. But with the community being smaller… it just didn’t feel as bad as it’s right now. And again it always felt like back in the day people were more initiated in these unwritten slasher rules. Like famous people would say that they don’t want real person slash written about them and it was okay. The authors would mainly accept it and just move on. And again this whole slasher community was a bit of a hidden society as most people involved had no interest in making their hobby known to the world.
But things have changed in the last couple of years. The fandom has grown so extremely quickly to a size that is not manageable anymore. New people have joined who have no idea about our past unwritten rules. New people have joined who don’t even give a crap about the history of the fandom. They are just here to consume and that’s okay as well I guess. But it also makes the relationship between actors and fans a bit tricky.
The amount of time people have overstepped the boundaries right now is really shocking. Fans are following their actors, taking secretly pictures of them or are pretty much stalking the actors to find out every tiny little information. And then we have the other side as well. These fans who are so into their ship or their actor that they are searching for dirt on any other couple or actor who might be a threat to the success of their favourite actor.
And in all this we throw fanservice. The illusion that these actors are more than they are. The illusion that the series has continued in real life. Before, this service made sense to me. Because there was hardly any content out there. We really were dealing with the tiniest scraps. We were working with any loaded stare, any lingering hand and every smile that could be interpreted as cheeky. So of course fan service was something awesome for us. Because it gave us this little bit of extra material. This little extra that would make us dream and spin our own stories. Because back then there was just nothing.
But now the situation looks different. We have all the content we could ever wish for and MORE. We don’t need this little bit of extra anymore. And with the fandom being so big and not being able to regulate their own craziness anymore like we were when things were just smaller… maybe fanservice should just be faded out. Maybe it’s just part of the fandom that we don’t need anymore. We have grown, we have evolved.
We are at a point where we are not hiding in the shadows anymore. We are pretty out and proud these days and we can be so grateful for all the fans that came before us who made this possible. It’s been a long way and I think at one point we just need to accept that things need to change. Our relationship with our actors needs to change.
We are hurting our actors by being this overbearing. We are driving good talent away because of the way we as a fandom are behaving. It feels like we have too many members these days who can’t find the fine line between reality and the wonderful fantasy our actors create for us. And if we can’t assure anymore that our boys are protected by us from these extra crazy fans then we need to find a solution for the issue.
And I for one definitely think that fanservice should be a thing of the past. We need to make it clear that these guys are actors, who are paid for this. They are doing a creative job they hopefully love and they don’t owe us anything. They can have a partner, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, whatever. They can choose to act with a different partner than their original ship. They are free people, with a free mind and a free body and they can do whatever they are pleased with.
Yes, I am well aware of the amount of money fans spend for their stars. I know the crazy gifts actors receive, I know about the advertisement places fans buy and I know about the huge bouquets of literally cash money fans give to the actors. But still all this doesn’t give you any right to these people. They are still free humans. We are not getting back to some form of perverted slavery where these men owe us something because we gave them a gift.
Being a fan should not come with these expectations. If you want to cheer for your favourite actor, then do so. You want to buy an expensive gift? Yes, by all means, do so. But always remember it’s a GIFT. And a gift is just a gift if it comes with no strings attached. And the same goes for our love and admiration for the actors. This all comes from us and we should give it freely and without any conditions.
So yeah, now I have written an awful lot and I am not 100 percent sure it makes sense. But it has been going around in my head for a while. The current situation of our BL fandom is really worrying me. This fandom has been my home long before BLDA even existed and I know this is the same for a lot of people here. And it’s sad to see all the conflicts and fights going on and it hurts even more to see “fans” literally stalking our actors and behaving in a manner that is just embarrassing to be connected to.
Within all these changes and developments it just feels like fanservice is not something that is necessary anymore and that causes more hurt, drama and conflicts than it should.
Fanservice was always something tongue in cheek. A joke, everyone understood and enjoyed. Something that made us all laugh and gave us joy. But these days, it’s just not anymore. It turned into something quite ugly, filled with entitlement, overstepping boundaries and wrongly assumed privilege.
So let’s just scrap it. It was nice while it lasted, but fanservice just went the way of all niche things getting discovered by the mainstream. Just like a lonely waterfall in nature being discovered by tourism. Just like that, fanservice just doesn’t work anymore.
First posted on BLDA
Your Heart's Content 