The Genshin Impact the community can’t seem to stop harass his voice actors. A few days ago a strange one Genshin the voice actor made a negative tweet about “fujoshi,” a term most commonly attributed to heterosexual women who consume anime media about gay men. The resulting firestorm of online bullying not only ensnared them, but also one more Genshin voiceover. It also showed how dangerous it is for queer people to stand up for themselves on the Internet — especially as the public faces of a video game with millions of players.
“Fujoshi” was first used to denote young women who translated relationships between fictional men through a romantic prism. The term was originally derogatory, but became more neutral as explicitly gay works became more popular among the general public in Japan. Even the anime industry has begun to cater to this population because of this high spending power. Anime news site ANN claims that the fanservice was indispensable to Shonen JumpGood luck. But there always has been full of tension in the anime community about whether reading stories about gay Japanese men is inherently fetishistic.
On January 31 Genshin voice actor Joshua David King tweeted that people who identify as “fujoshi” should “seek therapy.” Tons of anime fans were upset by the characterization of the subculture. The good reason: a lot trans male and non-binary people were able to come out of the closet after reading the “boys love” media. Many of them were called fujoshi transphobes who feel that their gender nonconformity is fetish.
King recognized this trajectory as valid and said that he was mainly picking on non-queer fans by turning BL works into fetish content. Like gay man which is also trans, that’s a perspective King has every right to. Unfortunately, Twitter has a way of flattening any opportunity for nuanced discussion. Fans rushed to his account to accuse him of misogyny and ignorance regarding East Asian popular culture.
King published a Twitlonger who apologized for “casting a wide net” on who could be considered a fujoshi. But he also took a stand on how BL gave some heterosexual fans the leeway to fetishize gay relationships. “I am not a puritan. Weird stories come in all shapes and forms, and there’s no “right way” to tell one, but it’s annoying when half the [representation] I hear over-sexualized bullshit,” he wrote. “As much as racy stories deserve to exist, we also deserve to have safe spaces for people who aren’t interested or ready for that content.” He also mentioned that the backlash was blown out of proportion to what he saw as a sarcastic tweet . my city reached out to King for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
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Another Genshin the voice actor was harassed during the fujoshi controversy. Shara Kirby is the English voice actor for Candice, a playable character released late last year. Kirby tweeted in defense of King, just in case Genshin fans of turn against her as well.
“This is the first time I’ve had so many people harassing me, calling me so many -isms and like calling for my firing. I didn’t think I’d spend the first three days of Black History Month like this!” Kirby, who is black, wrote in an email to my city. “I don’t regret defending my friend. They are black transgender and queer people who have rightfully called out a section that uses a generic term that, while probably well-intentioned, has been tarnished by a subset who use it to get away with fetishizing BL and MLM content. She said she doesn’t have a strong opinion about fujoshi, but she sees mostly non-Japanese people harassing King.
Even if Genshin the community expressed disgust at other fans’ responses. Some pointed out that other voice actors had not received similar vitriol for controversial positions and usage insults. others were upset that two black actors were harassed on the first day of Black History Month.
Genshin it was number one most tweeted game since last year, so their voice actors face massive public scrutiny on the platform. my city reached out to Hoyoverse to ask what resources they provide for voice actors who are the target of online harassment, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
“At the end of the day, a lot of you are ashamed and will jump on a real trans, black and queer person because you want to live in a fantasy world,” tweeted King. “Do better.”