Boys’ Love: how fictional gay romance empowers women and sexual minorities in Asia

In the 1970s, a group of young female manga artists in Japan shook up the norms of heterosexual romance for their teenage girl audience by starting a new genre that depicted love stories among young, beautiful boys. This episode of Cultured takes a look at how the unique genre of gay fiction has been credited with liberating women and breaking gender stereotypes in Asia, and the complicated relationship between Boys’ Love fans and the real-life gay community.