The length of the appeal to stay at home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic has created an increasing demand for the diversity of entertainment content that can be enjoyed by the public, from the increasing demand the Boys Love genre finds an increasingly widespread market. Boys Love genre content can be found on various entertainment sites in Indonesia, such as the BL genre series entitled 2gerther The Series which has always been a trending topic on Twitter in Indonesia at every broadcast, even recently the topic about Boys Love fans was raised in a news show in one of the news outlets one private tv channel. The Boys Love genre (here in after written as BL) itself was popularized through manga as a part of Japanese popular culture. BL fans made with Fujoshi have been around for about 40 years in Japan. Currently, not only in manga, things that contain the Boys Love genre can be found in dramas, films, manhwa, manhua, anime, novels, and others.Â
SINCE 2000
In Indonesia, the BL phenomenon stems from the yaoi manga, which was first published in Indonesia in the early 2000s, namely Ghost!, this manga was legally published by Alex Media Komputind, (it could have been started long before this, because there is no definite record of when the BL genre began circulating in Indonesia, judging from the condition of the Indonesian people towards the LGBTQ+ phenomenon). In general, BL is divine into two groups, there are yaoi and shounen-ai. However, yaoi refers to sexually explicit material, while shounen-ai or commonly called BL refers to sexually implicit or nonsexually romantic relationships between men. Because the distribution of BL manga in Indonesia is still very limited, usually a prospective reader starts getting acquainted with BL manga through a friend who has become a fujoshi first. Fans took advantage of the manga circulating in the media on online sites, which at that time the manga had been translated into English.
The First Drama
In 2007 appeared the film Love of Siam, which originated in Thailand. The film, which made a profit of two million US dollars, covertly tells about the romance between two teenage boys during high school, in Indonesia at that time this film was only known among BL fans  and was still quite difficult to access. By seeing the success of Love of Siam, Thailand again brought another BL genre in the drama Love Sick the Series (2014). This drama is also the culmination of the globalization of BL culture throughout the world, including Indonesia, as can be seen from the great success of Love Sick The Series as a series is measured by 3,753,178 views on YouTube. Two years after that came another drama entitled, Addicted from China. The show is gaining ten million views per day after its initial release via streaming iQiyi (one of China's major entertainment media). Although it was later withdrawn by the local government due to the country's political factors, fans later uploaded the full episode with various language translations to YouTube and other similar sites. It doesn't stop here, then many series and BL genre films produced by various countries appear that are quite easily accessible from Indonesia, including Doushitemo Furetakunai, Seven Days, Ai no Kotodama, Takumi-kun Series, Cherry Magic from Japan. 2Moons, SOTUS the series, Love by Chance, Together with Me, Dark Blue Kiss, 2gether The Series are from Thailand. Frozen Flower, Two Weddings and a Funeral, Just Friends, Where Your Eyes Linger, Color Rush from Korea. Dark Blue and Moonlight, HIStory Series, Because Of You, We Best Love Series, Craving You from Taiwan.Â
It's bigger and bigger!
Along with its development, some fans make a websites that are specifically used for
BL genre things. These sites provide BL genre entertainment, be it movies, dramas, manga,
manhua, manhwa, or doujin which have been translated into Indonesian, and can be accessed
for free. After that BL fan groups in Indonesia are growing and getting bigger, so it's quite easy
to find their presence. Fans that were originally only among women have also expanded, now
not a few men are interested in it. In the past, the majority of BL fans in Indonesia chose to cover up their identity as BL fans to their family or people outside "their" environment because of the public view that still regards homosexuality as a taboo and disgusting thing. Currently, many fans of the BL genre admit that they are connoisseurs of the genre, this is evident from the content on social media that shows that they are BL fans. Nowdays, dramas and films of the BL genre are not only enjoyed by the fans, but also people in the cloud often enjoy them, because the stories bring a new atmosphere to the audience.
The fact that we should know.
In this world everything has two sides, this also applies to the BL phenomenon in Indonesia today. Many BL fans admit that they have become more open-minded in dealing with homosexual issues no longer considering that sexually-oriented people who are deviant should be shunned and treated like a plague. However, we still have to be careful in dealing with this ongoing phenomenon, because if things like this are consumed in excess and uncontrolled, it may affect the sexual orientation of the fans themselves. Moreover, if you pay attention to the fans who show their "identity" there are minors who are in the stage of an identity crisis, not a few fanfiction writers of the Indonesian BL genre who are still in junior high school and also members of the couple's fandom in BL stories who are only 12 years old.Â
In dealing with a phenomenon like this, the role of parents will be very important, compared  to forbidding their beloved sons and daughters to "hide" from this phenomenon or relying on  the government to control it better to train them to have a strong character, besides instilling religion, faith, morals, and attitude, do not forget to teach them about sex education nicely.
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