Naughty Girls and Gay Male Romance/Porn: Slash Fiction, Boys’ Love Manga, and Other Works by Female “Cross-Voyeurs” in the U.S. Academic Discourses

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: John Donne and “American Girl-on-girl Action” vs. the Strange Case of Female “Cross-voyeurs”

2. Theoretical Framework: Queer Theory Meets Feminism Meets Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

2.1 A “Deliberately Disruptive” Challenge to Heterosexism: Queer Theory and Its Key Concepts

2.2 Troubling Gender & Sexuality: Judith Butler “in the Interstices” of Feminist and Queer Theory

2.3 Technologies of Power/Knowledge: Using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

3. “Cross-writing” Female Novelists under Scrutiny: Mary Renault & Co. in the U.S. Academic Discourses (1969 – Today)

3.1 Gay Male Fiction by Women – An Inventory

3.2 From Victims of “Misfortune” to “Fag Hags” and the “New Couple”: Speaking about (Heterosexual) Women and Gay Men since 1969

3.3 About the Three Ways to Conceptualize Your “Faghagging” Novelist: Interpretations of “Cross-Writing” Women and Their Works in U.S. Academia

3.3.1 The (Heterosexual) Woman as Empathic Outsider and Mediator – Mary Renault and Patricia Nell Warren in Traditional Literary Criticism around 1970

3.3.2 About “Fag Hags” on “Power Trips” and Their Fake “Ersatz Works” – Bradley & Co. in the Writings of Gay Male Intellectuals and Academics since the 1970s

3.3.3 The Feminist and the Lesbian “Factor”: Interpreting Mary Renault & Marguerite Yourcenar from a Third Point of View in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s

3.4 Heresies, Girlfags, and “Faghagging” Novelists – A Conclusion Regarding the “Do’s and Don’ts” of the Academic Discourse(s) about Renault & Co.

4. Female “Cross-readers”: Talking about “Textual Poachers” and Slash Fiction in American Fan Fiction Studies since the 1980s

4.1 Snape and Harry Sitting in a Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G: Defining the Genre of Slash Fiction

4.2 A Fateful Encounter: Feminist Theory and Media Studies Meet Slash Fiction – The Beginnings of an Academic Debate (1985-1992)

4.2.1 “Pornography by Women for Women, with Love”: The Pornography Wars, Joanna Russ, Patricia Frazer Lamb, Diana Veith, and K/S Fiction in the 1980s

4.2.2 The “Guerilla Tactics” of “Textual Poachers”: Slash Fiction Fandom Meets Media Studies – Henry Jenkins, Constance Penley, and Camille Bacon-Smith (1988-1992)

4.3 “Let’s Talk about Slash, Baby.” Characteristics of an Academic Debate (1985-Today)

4.3.1 Shrieking Teens, Divorced Housewives, and Their Mediocre Fiction: Slash Writers/Readers as the “Other” Fans in Scholarly Accounts

4.3.2 Women’s “All-too-often Purple (Gay) Prose” – Genre and Gender Essentialism in the Academic Discourse about Slash Fiction

4.3.3 Subversive/Queer Pleasures? Explaining “Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking”

4.4 A Tale of Two Academic Discourses: Slash Fiction Fans versus “Cross-writing” Novelists

5. Boys’ Love for Women, Made in Japan: Yaoi and Shounen-ai Manga in the U.S. Academic Discourse (1983-2011)

5.1 Beautiful Men and “Rotten Girls”: Boys’ Love Manga in Japan and the USA

5.2 Female “Cross-voyeurism,” an Intrinsically Japanese Phenomenon? Yaoi and Shounen-ai in U.S. Scholarly Accounts since 1983

5.2.1 Robots, Samurai, and Pokémon: North America, Japan, and (Techno-) Orientalism

5.2.2 The Threat of “Tentacle Rape” and Those Poor, Oppressed Geishas: The Portrayal of BL as a Medium of Empowerment for Japanese Women

5.2.3 Queer Japan: Conceptualizing a “Strange” Sexual Culture, or the Benefits of Exoticism

5.3 An Exciting “Import” and Its American Counterpart – Discussing Boys’ Love and Slash Fiction in the U.S. Academic Discourses

6. Conclusion: Theorizing Female “Cross-voyeurism” in U.S. Academia – A “Vicious Circle”

Thesis Objectives and Themes

This master's thesis aims to investigate how female "cross-voyeurs"—women who consume or produce media centered on male homosexuality—are conceptualized within U.S. academic and intellectual discourses. By employing Foucauldian discourse analysis and queer theory, the study seeks to deconstruct the gendered stereotypes that categorize these women's erotic interests as aberrant or purely compensatory, while also exploring the power dynamics that define these scholarly accounts.

• Representations of "cross-writing" female novelists like Mary Renault and Patricia Nell Warren.
• The evolution of academic perspectives on slash fiction and its female fan base.
• The reception and portrayal of Japanese Boys' Love (BL) manga within U.S. academia.
• The influence of feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories on the study of female "cross-voyeurism."
• Critical analysis of the "double standards" applied to male and female consumption of homosexual media.

Excerpt from the Book

Summary of Chapters

1. Introduction: John Donne and “American Girl-on-girl Action” vs. the Strange Case of Female “Cross-voyeurs”: This chapter introduces the thesis topic by contrasting the normalization of male voyeurism towards women with the pathologization of female "cross-voyeurism."

2. Theoretical Framework: Queer Theory Meets Feminism Meets Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: This section establishes the theoretical foundation, combining Foucault's methodology with queer theory and feminist critiques to analyze power relations in academic discourse.

3. “Cross-writing” Female Novelists under Scrutiny: Mary Renault & Co. in the U.S. Academic Discourses (1969 – Today): This chapter examines the reception of female novelists writing about gay male relationships, highlighting how academic interpretations often rely on gendered essentialism.

4. Female “Cross-readers”: Talking about “Textual Poachers” and Slash Fiction in American Fan Fiction Studies since the 1980s: This part analyzes the academic treatment of slash fiction, focusing on the tension between feminist interpretations of the genre and its actual consumption by female fans.

5. Boys’ Love for Women, Made in Japan: Yaoi and Shounen-ai Manga in the U.S. Academic Discourse (1983-2011): This chapter investigates how Japanese Boys' Love manga is interpreted in U.S. scholarship, frequently through an Orientalist lens that reinforces Western preconceptions.

6. Conclusion: Theorizing Female “Cross-voyeurism” in U.S. Academia – A “Vicious Circle”: The conclusion synthesizes the findings, arguing that academic discourses remain trapped in essentialist binaries that need to be challenged to better understand female agency in sexual media consumption.

Keywords

cross-voyeurism, slash fiction, boys' love, queer theory, foucauldian discourse analysis, faghag, cross-writing, media fandom, gender performativity, orientalism, textual poachers, sexuality, feminist theory, heteronormativity, yaoi

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the core focus of this master’s thesis?

The thesis explores how U.S. academic and intellectual discourses construct and interpret female "cross-voyeurs"—women who consume or produce media about gay men—across three different fields: historical novels, fan fiction, and Japanese manga.

What are the primary thematic areas covered?

The work examines the intersections of gender, sexuality, and power in literature and media studies, focusing specifically on stereotypes regarding female interest in gay male culture and the academic tendency to "pathologize" this interest.

What is the central research question?

The thesis asks why female consumption and production of homosexual media are consistently treated as "abnormal" or "othered" in academic writing, and how conventional gender stereotypes shape these scholarly conceptualizations.

Which scientific methods does the author utilize?

The author primarily employs Foucauldian discourse analysis, which allows for a critical examination of how power and knowledge produce "truths" about gender, combined with queer theory and feminist analysis to deconstruct these power structures.

What does the main part of the thesis address?

The main part is divided into three sections: it analyzes female novelists writing about gay men, explores the history of slash fiction in fan studies, and evaluates the reception of Japanese Boys' Love (BL) manga in the West.

Which keywords characterize this academic work?

Key terms include "cross-voyeurism," "slash fiction," "boys' love," "queer theory," "faghag," "textual poachers," "orientalism," and "gender performativity."

How does the author define the term "cross-voyeurism"?

The author defines it as the act of men or women consuming or producing media texts about the opposite sex that feature homosexual characters, a practice the thesis argues is subject to gendered double standards.

Why does the thesis compare Western slash fiction with Japanese Boys’ Love manga?

The comparison is made to highlight the "Orientalist" bias in Western academia, which often treats Boys' Love as an "exotic" or "intrinsically Japanese" phenomenon, while ignoring the structural similarities it shares with the Western slash fiction tradition.