Fudanshikun no Honey Days by Yodogawa & Yuo
What? Yaoi doesn’t have any male fans after all? But I was so looking forward to meeting them!
Well, it turns out that if I do they won’t be “fundashi”, because (as I recently learned) the name for male fans of yaoi isn’t actually “fundashi” — despite the fact that you can search for fundashi on the web and find a multitude of pages (in English and Spanish, at the very least) where it’s defined as literally meaning “rotten boy” and used tongue-in-cheek as the name for guys who dig yaoi. That’s how I learned it, too. But it turns out that in Japanese, fundashi isn’t even a word, much less a fanboy.
will the real term please stand up
In fact, the term for male yaoi fans is “fudanshi” (腐男子). Yep, it’s almost, almost the same, just with the “n” having hopped to a different location in the word. Fudanshi literally means “rotten boy” and is the genuine article, the humorously self-deprecating term for yaoi fanboys.
Why do English (and Spanish) speakers get it wrong? Well, frankly, as a native speaker, I find fundashi easier to say. It feels more intuitively “right” as a word. Maybe that’s why?
Does using the right word really matter? Meh, you can decide that for yourself. Me, I like getting my terms right, so I’m going to try to remember where the “n” sits in Japanese’s “rotten boy”.
prepared for Yaoicon
Besides, I figured it was a good thing to get right before I head off to Yaoicon this weekend, a place where I might actually, in the course of normal conversation, find myself saying “fudanshi”. It’s never fun to toss out the wrong jargon and have people give you confused, condescending, or pitying looks…
oh, and the fujoshi’s ultimate fudanshi question:
“But why can’t I find a fudanshi boyfriend?!”
And would he look like this?
by Adriana
the joy of yaoi 
just wanted to note that they are called fudanshi and not fundashi xD
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Yes — exactly! That’s why I wrote the post… so many English and Spanish-speaking folks use fundashi instead of fudanshi… I learned fundashi from those sites, too, and only recently learned the right way to say it. Nice to get it right, ne?
I’m glad you found me over here!
We’re just heading out the door to yaoicon!! Hope you are having fun. I look forward to getting to look at your blog! 🙂
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Lol I do have a boyfriend who is a Fudanshi, he finds yaoi hot yet he’s straight. Yes I am one of those lucky peeps in the world xD
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Sooooo jealous!!! 🙂
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Don’t worry, those types of men do exist! XD *cough cough* //shot
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did you ask if he’s bisexual?
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I had no idea I had been spelling it wrong! I am also very envious!!!!!! Have fun at Yaoicon!
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Thank you for stopping by and commenting! I’m glad the post was useful — learning “fudanshi” was one of those funny “oops” moments for me.
Thanks — I just got back from Yaoicon and had a great time! 😀
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I’m m/bisexual, and I think it’s hot. I wish western comics would embrace Yaoi. /(ㅇㅅㅇ )\ I’d love to see a bat-seme, robin-uke. Mue, Mue, Mue.
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Wouldn’t that be lovely? In Western literature we have lots of m/m novels, but not enough of the comics.
Hmmm… what about mixing things up and having Robin be the seme? Too goofy? 😉
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fundoshi… jkjk
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XD
Yeah, I almost, almost included ruminations on that here. There’s a great chibi image in the author’s page at the end of Sumanai!! Masumi-kun, where the uke is wearing his fundoshi, and I was so tempted to use it.
But then I figured that’d just throw fuel on the spelling-confusion fire, so I made myself leave it out. Such a great image, though… I mean, maybe the fundashi is really a fudanshi wearing a fundoshi. 🙂
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fudanshi here, i’m perfectly straight but i sometimes fantasize uhehehehehe, wait…- there is a yaoi con!!! really, why japan
why don’t i get to be there
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