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INTEREST: Variety Show Discusses 'Boys-Love-ification' of Real-World High School Students


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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 5:08 pm Reply with quote
Guess it would depend on what was being done and the context of the situation. Binge drinking could also make many things possible..
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Arale Kurashiki



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 744
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 5:27 pm Reply with quote
wow I can't believe they finally invented gay people in real life!!

Or in serious terms, Japan is as usual seeing homoromanticism as a genre of fiction and considering real life to be a reflection of it rather than the other way around. (Though straight boys can hold hands too of course.)
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:01 pm Reply with quote
2 of the 3 are just innocent bromance, the pocky game, well that';s BL as it's too close to kissing distance and looks romantic.
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PsychoPearl



Joined: 27 Oct 2016
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:41 pm Reply with quote
So this "trend" is just straight friends doing gay things for fun?
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Fenrin



Joined: 19 Dec 2015
Posts: 693
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:44 pm Reply with quote
Some of these have got to be actual couples (c'mon, they're wearing matching outfits for gods sake, gay people exist Japan) and some are just good friends poking fun at BL stereotypes. I've seen numerous Japanese vines of guys doing the kabedon on their friends for laughs. I don't know why this show poses this like there's some ulterior motive going on lmao.
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Fenrin



Joined: 19 Dec 2015
Posts: 693
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:48 pm Reply with quote
Kadmos1 wrote:
How long before we have a new manga of this? ANN, don't give fujoshi any new ideas. The same goes for GL stories.

Too late, I've already read a BL doujin where two guys have a shtick where they fake BL scenarios to entertain there friends, until suddenly it's not so fake anymore Laughing
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4564
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 10:16 pm Reply with quote
Most of this sounds like it's on the "old man yells at cloud" level.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 3945
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 10:33 pm Reply with quote
IMHO it's simple displays of affection between friends.
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EmpyreanBlaze



Joined: 14 Jul 2017
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:16 pm Reply with quote
ブロマンス - Apparently the Japanese equivalent of "Bromance", thanks to Google.

I personally won't do any of that (excluding wearing the same shirt) openly in public except with the closest of friends... Though definitely not the Pocky game, especially in a serious manner whilst thinking straight. But who knows what the future brings LOL.
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manapear



Joined: 02 May 2014
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:33 am Reply with quote
When I was in Osaka (like, a decade ago), it was very normal for the guys to be very touchy-feely with each other. It actually took me by surprise (but I really appreciated that they were comfortable enough to be that way in public).

I don't know things might have changed in the last decade or how that compares to the rest of Japan, but I wonder how much of this phenomenon is people just now getting intrigued by it/making something of it (with all the fujoshi content on the rise), or even if it's really ramping up.

It also just sounds like some of the guys involved. . . probably are dating, but they can take advantage of the phenomenon.

Fenrin wrote:
Some of these have got to be actual couples (c'mon, they're wearing matching outfits for gods sake, gay people exist Japan) and some are just good friends poking fun at BL stereotypes. I've seen numerous Japanese vines of guys doing the kabedon on their friends for laughs. I don't know why this show poses this like there's some ulterior motive going on lmao.


Right? Like, matching outfits pretty much makes a statement there. (Which friends can do, but c'mon.)

But yeah, also teens having fun with tropes and things going on. It's funny when media starts highlighting it as some kind of mystery; quite the universal thing.
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lebrel



Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 374
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:33 am Reply with quote
Matching shirts and handholding; yeah, whatever. Most of the world is not as squeamish about demonstrations of affection and physical contact between guy friends as the Anglophone countries.

The Pocky thing on the other hand... I'm pretty sure girls doing that would also get the "maybe not just friends" reaction, unless it was explicitly on a dare or something.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the "faking it to get attention from girls" option. I have seen guys try that in real life, with varying degrees of success.

On the other other hand, there was a small informal survey of straight guys who read BL at Comiket a few years back, and apparently one of the major draws for this audience is that they enjoy how the emotional/sexual dynamics of BL differ from conventional heterosexual expectations of men (especially the squishy feelings, more open emotionality, and the ability to be more passive / responsive). So maybe these guys just relate to BL...?

And yeah, maybe some of these guys are actually gay/bi and using "playacting BL" as a cover story.
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Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:03 am Reply with quote
Holding hands -- at least among adults -- strikes me as a sign of two people being in a closer relationship than "just friends" regardless of whether the two are the same gender or not, so yeah, it does come across as gay-ish to me in that picture.... in that I'd assume they were two people in a gay relationship. At the same time, I'm at least aware that it might be a cultural thing, so I wouldn't be 100% sure whether I'd be right in that assumption.

At the same time, if I ever saw something like that, I'd probably just shrug and not dwell too much on it. What two people whom I don't know do -- especially if it's not hurting anyone -- is no business of mine.
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kamui85



Joined: 02 Oct 2006
Posts: 267
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:05 am Reply with quote
lebrel wrote:
Matching shirts and handholding; yeah, whatever. Most of the world is not as squeamish about demonstrations of affection and physical contact between guy friends as the Anglophone countries.

The Pocky thing on the other hand... I'm pretty sure girls doing that would also get the "maybe not just friends" reaction, unless it was explicitly on a dare or something.

I'm surprised no one mentioned the "faking it to get attention from girls" option. I have seen guys try that in real life, with varying degrees of success.

On the other other hand, there was a small informal survey of straight guys who read BL at Comiket a few years back, and apparently one of the major draws for this audience is that they enjoy how the emotional/sexual dynamics of BL differ from conventional heterosexual expectations of men (especially the squishy feelings, more open emotionality, and the ability to be more passive / responsive). So maybe these guys just relate to BL...?

And yeah, maybe some of these guys are actually gay/bi and using "playacting BL" as a cover story.



LOL OMG pretending to be gay-trendy so they can really get away with it, what have we come to. But it totally makes sense in this context hahaha.
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MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 7:00 pm Reply with quote
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chaccide



Joined: 16 Aug 2016
Posts: 295
PostPosted: Fri Aug 18, 2017 7:28 pm Reply with quote
Jesus. It's whatever those boys want it to be. We don't get to label gay or trans or straight people the way we want to see them, we don't get to define what those labels mean as far as their relationships go, and we most certainly don't get to define their relationships.
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