Not a bad piece.

RL has intervened to keep me away from here for the last couple of weeks, but I subscribe to Compact and the article you discuss had of course caught my eye. I agree, it's an interesting piece, although the writer got some things wrong – there has been more attention in the Western media than he indicates; e.g., an interview in Teen Vogue with the director of a show the writer discusses, Ticket to Heaven (which I also mentioned over on OC), a piece by Bloomberg a few weeks ago on the boost to the Thai economy from Boyz Laabu as I call it – and from GL (Girls Love they call it) – the writer completely ignores GL shows which I gather have become important (not that I've watched any, ha ha!). He also says nothing about a run of very successful Chinese and Korean BL shows. He claims that the authorities in China are blackballing actors, but the leads in last year's hit Chinese BL program Revenged Love are now superstars in China – how does he explain that?. He seems to be pulling punches – maybe he felt he had to. Among other things, the very name for these stories is a direct translation from the Japanese shonen-ai which means love OF boys, not love BETWEEN boys (or between young men which, as you note, the genre overwhelmingly portrays. ) Still, it's good to see something like this and I like the writer's final point – the way the genre tends to undermine categorization of people by erotic urges, to use his words. To that end, yes, I can see how that fits with the observations by Katz which you posted – and which I have now read and found very interesting. Thanks! More of those please! SR