Parasocial relationships are the backbone of online culture. No matter what media critics and child psychologists and arbiters of the cultural zeitgeist might argue, it is the girls and gays of the internet who control the peaks of media, what and who are in and out. Harry Styles now sells nail polish for 20 dollars a bottle, because some teenage girls voted for his boy band on The X-Factor fifteen years ago. Sure, The Bear has awards under its belt, but would it have exploded on social media  if Jeremy Allen White didn’t do a skimpy Calvin Klein shoot?

But lately, there’s been a shift. It hasn’t been just about the girls and gays, and their bigscreen heartthrobs. Its now all about the girls and their gays. Luca Guadagnino films make money because girls like to watch boys kiss in IMAX. Do you think we watched Challengers for the tennis? No. Do you think we watched Challengers for the theatre darling Mike Faist and charming Brit Josh O’Conner making eyes at each other for two hours? Yes. 

The term for these girls is fujoshi (腐女子), which is Japanese for “women who enjoy manga, anime, and novels that feature romantic relationships between men” (Wikipedia), though it literally translates to ‘rotten girl.’ Fujoshi is also used in tandem with the Japanese term yaoi (ボーイズ ラブ), which translates to ‘boys love.’ While fujoshi was primarily used in anime and manga circles, it has more recently found a home on social media, primarily X (formerly Twitter), and with American media.

Some pieces of media that have garnered a fujoshi following include, but are not limited to: The Social Network, Challengers, Interview with the Vampire (TV), and Succession. But what’s so fascinating about the fujoshi craze  is that the affection lies not with the media but the actor(s) within it. What might have started as innocent attraction, swells into a full on obsession when queerness is involved.

A person of more sophistication might argue that the commitment, and talent which the straight man must capture to play a gay man is what makes the roles so explosively praised, or the teenage girls emphasizing the yaoi are simply advocates for queer representation in media. But the truth is that teenage girls, in their role as international media tastemakers, simply love to watch boys kiss each other.

Nowadays, being a male actor who is straight in real life but kisses boys in films is perhaps the best decision in every aspect: financially, critically, in terms of popularity and overall appeal. That, and one little gold hoop earring. It often grants said male actor both critical acclaim and sexual appeal.

Drew Starkey is a current case of this phenomenon. He’s been acting for years, and had fans from his breakout role in Outer Banks. But his big turning point, with critics and mass audiences alike? Bottoming for Daniel Craig in the aptly named Queer, from none other than Luca Guadagnino. Starkey is an undeniably good actor, and he plays the role so naturally you can almost forget it's scripted. So, of course, his young female audience flocked to it, the latest link the fujoshi chain.

The concurrent premiere of Outer Banks season 4 with that of Queer made for a particularly drawn out spell on social media. One might assume that the lengthy Netflix show would outlast the artfully driven William S. Burroughs adaptation, but you’d be sorely incorrect. Queer, and its brazen sex scenes, have dominated with Starkey’s fans. As soon as the trailer was released, fans clipped gifs and made edits, infatuated with Starkey and Craig’s intimacy.

If a homosexual role is not currently in the works, the indulgence of homosexual undertones, whether based or not, in a current film will work in lieu.

Take Paul Mescal, a devout gold hoop earring wearer, previous yaoi boy in All of Us Strangers, and a straight woman's dreamboat. During the press tour of Gladiator II, in which his character’s main motivation is avenging his wife, Mescal frequently cheered for gay innuendos made about the film. The film was released in late November, and just a week before, Variety published an article about Mescal’s producer credit on an upcoming film. He’ll be starring alongside Josh O’Connor (past queer roles, see: Challengers, God’s Own Country) in… a gay romance!

If homosexual undertones are not admitted to by the actors, then the teenage girls will take up the fight on their own time.

The Social Network, a 2000s film about the rise of Facebook and the complicated relationships behind it, has found reverence among teenage girls who so surely believe in a deeper homosexual tension between Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg). Yes, the girls think the Zuck is gay. And you know what, in the context of that film, they make a convincing argument.

While the canonical history of fujoshi is in anime and manga, its beginning in western media really picks up with, surprise, Brokeback Mountain (2005). The film centers around a decades long queer relationship between cowboys Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis (Heath Ledger). Now, Gyllenhaal was already somewhat established, so the fujoshi agenda falls somewhat flat on his part, but Ledger follows a trajectory that is also found among current young male actors.

Prior to Brokeback Mountain, Ledger had been in a smattering of shows and films, with a few (namely 10 Things I Hate About You) coming close to stardom, but none so much as the one in which his character was queer. Ledger’s career skyrocketed, he received critical acclaim and became a bit of a heartthrob. Even now, almost 20 years after its premiere, the film is still brought up as a point of interest within fujoshi.

2024 brings Challengers to the mix, the sleek tennis flick with the sexiest scene of the year. The scene in question? Tashi (Zendaya), Art (Mike Faist), and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) making out, though the scene is usually clipped to just Art and Patrick, for maximum fujoshi. This gif has gone platinum with female audiences, and is still doing numbers now.

O’Connor proved to be the breakout between the Art and Patrick pairing, most likely due to the more plausibly queer nature of Patrick’s sexuality. Though he did garner attention for his portrayal of Prince Charles on The Crown, O’Connor quickly graduated to queer roles: first, God’s Own Country (2017), then, of course, Challengers. O’Connor’s performance in Challengers has secured him spots on many ‘top’ lists of the year, and he has proved himself to be a generational talent.

Maybe the first legitimate heartthrob actor of my generation was Timothée Chalamet and his star debut as Elio in Call Me By Your Name (2017). Teen girls media consumption cannot be discussed without a Timothée mention, as he very well may be the figure responsible for how stan culture exists in media today. Another Luc Guadagnino film, who always seems to be at the scene of the crime. 

While the nature of the queer relationship in CMBYN is widely acknowledged to be problematic, the film still produced infamous scenes that are staples of the fujoshi community: by the river, in Elio’s room, and, of course, the peach scene. I won’t linger too much on the last one, but I will say that the fruit still haunts Chalamet and audiences alike. Past this, the film is beloved and obsessed over by many. Chalamet got his first Oscar nomination for his role, and has remained one of the busiest and desirable actors in Hollywood since its premiere. 

The phenomenon continues--- out of the 2025 series of Variety's Actors on Actors, 12 of the 24 actors were male, and 11 of the 12 had played gay roles (Ryan Reynolds being the only outlier). Of these 11, four are under the age of 35, and three of them are mentioned in this article: Mescal, Starkey, and O’Connor. Who will they fawn over now, and which straight male actor is in line to take on the next viral queer role? The answer lies with the teen girls of the internet, the fujoshis.