Review of Related Literature

Bautista and Villaverde (Aileen Bautista 2019) stated that boys love has become increasingly popular

over the past two decades and is rapidly becoming a global media phenomenon around the world.

Seeing that the Gen Z enjoys this type of content, BL became one of the most popular drama series that

Gen Z’s enjoy to watch. Having this topic in mind, they stated in their paper “The Role of Gay Men as

Reflected in the Philippine Advertisements” as to see that how media influences the drama series BL,

Philippines is known to be a Christian country depicting that they standup for their faith and beliefs.

Therefore, having a hard time for several Gen Z’s openly watching BL. With this in mind many Filipino

Gen Z’s then have the idea of BL and would start seeing articles about the concerning actors as

“clickbait” or we’d rather call Queer-baiting. (Katipunan 2020)

“Yall let straight actors take lgbt roles as if lgbt actors don’t exist... truly shows that it ain’t for

representation but for capitalism” -jason dhakal. In the context of studying fandom culture, queerbaiting

is to convince anyone that some writers, directors, and even business people have homosexual

relationships in what they read and see. The style to use. Some scholars and researchers have further

expanded their meaning and shared a more specific perspective. Eve Ng, states that if literature or

spectacle does not correspond to the standard expression of the LGBTQ+, it can be considered a

queerbait, Judith Fataler (Fataler 2015). In the Philippines, there is a great need to strengthen the

representation of gays and lesbians, especially to this day - their space is still limited. A 2017 Human

Rights Watch report found that even when the country enacted its 2013 Anti-Bullying Act, it still failed to

address its overwhelming record of mistreatment of students in the LGBT community. Additionally, only

15 percent (15%) of the total Philippine population lives in areas with laws prohibiting discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In Huffpost's Dominique Mosbergen article, the

Philippines is one of the "queer-tolerant" countries throughout Southeast Asia, but in various branches

of the heterosexual and LGBT communities (gay, transgender, asexual). Queerbaiting forms a vast castle

of illusion. It gives false hope to the eyes of a Filipino queer that they are there to give them a voice.

Even in reality, these capitalist creators have no intention of revealing concrete bias and constructing a

true representation of the sociopolitical condition of their community. Until the end, they are just pain

and part of the reckless capitalization of whatever can be earned. (Uy 2020)

CNN Philippines article about Boys' Love in Philippine Television, expresses about a classification of

fictionalized media that highlights homoerotic connections between male characters, has reached

standard Filipino cultural society awareness. In any case, it also feels off base to claim that it hasn't been

taken into account. Because the Philippines has a large number of viewers in web-based streaming

locales for BL. This practice has enabled the organization to amass a sizable global following, including a

Filipino gay men viewers. " I don’t have hard data to prove that a lot of Filipinos are indeed watching

these shows aside from anecdotal evidence." (Chuck 2020). Filipinos influence about BL because of

numerous recommendations from friends and endless virtual entertainment posts of people adoring

these Thai gay stories and their adorable male stars.

This study is relevant to the present because it dealt with the issue of queerbaiting in Boys Love media.

It primarily discusses BL type that is concerned with describing gay sentiments, specifically the delights

and disarray achieved by young gay love. However, it isn't generally concerned with telling a reasonable

depiction of the gay experience from web-based streaming locales, for example, Netflix.

References
Aileen Bautista, Allan Villaverde. 2019. "Out of the Closet: The Role of Gay Men as Reflected in the
Philippines." https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/pdf/conferences/research-
congress-proceedings/2019/lccs-I-005.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR0qx6Tjsf3SUdYixOsxWHdBE6NyvnZ8bPKfcEyQsd55q4VDKcXD8ihCLM8.

Chuck, Smith. 2020. "Why Philippine TV doesn’t have ‘Boys' Love’ shows like ‘2gether: The Series’."
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/life/entertainment/2020/4/8/2gether-the-series-filipino-
soaps.html?fbclid=IwAR243mzooqT9MZpB6VI-2maumaV6aZ871euKokm4HBrvI4wLETIm39rUC-
s.

Fataler, Judith. 2015. "Authenticity After Cock Rock: Emo and the Problem of Femininity."
http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/-(e95b19de-39a8-409d-8b62-
16abe5d49ee2).html.

Katipunan, Cholo. 2020. "In BL We Trust: An Adage and Call for Proper LGBTQIA+ Representation at the
Height of the Phenomenon." https://www.rankthemag.ph/perpectives-bl-phenomenon-adage-
proper-representation/.

Uy, Chandrea Elise C. 2020. "Analyzing the Depictions of Queer Struggles in."
https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Media-and-Philippine-Studies.pdf?
fbclid=IwAR3SUUb_9ZUIDPlACVGQCbCcH3ky8c3ItqcMzWwOk4XrO3boH454VyFI3Ww.