bifauxnen

Bifauxnen, a portmanteau of the French faux (false) and the Japanese bishounen (beautiful boy), is a term used amongst American anime and manga fandom to refer to an androgynous female character who resembles a handsome young man. They feature predominantly in shoujo works (and occasionally shounen) where they are considered one of the popular fetishes of Japanese fangirls, and one of the archetypical roles in yuri fandom. Typically women are refered to in animanga fandom as bijin (lit. beautiful person but in practice beautiful women) if they are over adult age or bishoujo if they are near or below high school age, but these are usually connected with traditional concepts of distinctly feminine beauty. Bokukko is a term popularized in dating sims for slightly roughneck women, but this is usually preceived as a girl with only mildly tomboyish behavior. Bifauxnen was created partly from the lack of a universally positive descriptor for a sterotypically 'masculine-acting' female character. For example, butch is highly loaded slang, especially outside the LGBT community since it is still generally used as an insult. By contrast, shoujo manga and anime traditionally portrays both sexes as equally beautiful; describing a character having the traits of another sex is often a compliment. Bifauxnen are often popular even among straight characters because they embody many attractive traits found in males but have an obvious deep understanding of women. Bifauxnen usually embody a (positively) fetishized version of various sterotypical lesbian traits, such as a 'rough' or masculine manner of speech (esp. use of the pronouns boku and ore) and crossdressing. In yuri themed stories they are classically the aggressors in relationships due to greater confidence, age than their typically cute bishoujo-esque counterparts (who are usually themselves designed to be representations of the reader). They are sometimes designed to be included towards gracefulness and fine art. Lady Oscar and Haruka Tenoh could be considered typical examples of bifauxnen. Some fans feel bishie succinently includes bifauxnen and bishounen, but it is still mostly used to refer to male characters. Bishie has also been in a parodying fashion used to describe female characters who are not really androgynous, but display sterotyped characteristics of bishounen, especially from melodramatic shoujo stories.

Bifauxnen

See also