The Link Between Anti-fujoshi, Gender Critical Radfems, and Transphobia

[Find a Text Only page for archival purposes here]

CONTENTS:

  1. What Are Anti-Fujoshi?

    • Definition of Anti-Fujoshi

    • How Anti-fujoshi Connect to Anti-trans Narratives

    • Receipts: Anti-trans Pages that discuss Fujoshi, Yaoi, BL, Anime and Japan

    • How Anti-Trans Groups Disseminate Propaganda

    • Common Arguments & Dogwhistles Gender Criticals and Radfems use

  2. Image Archive

  3. Relevant Articles & Books Discussing Trans history in general as well as Anti-Trans, Gender Critical & Radfem origins and rhetoric

*This Archive was collected over 4 years and compiled to provide further context and evidence presented in East Asian Journal of Popular Culture's 2023 article ‘The influence of transphobia, homonationalism, and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms’,  https://doi.org/10.1386/ eapc_00119_1 
(*Google Drive Archive: Contains all anti-fujoshi posts including anti-trans posts)

  • Anti-Fujoshi are people who are actively against fujoshi (women who like BL media). "Are women fetishizing gay men?" is one of the most commonly debated questions in relation to BL media in Anglophone spheres, and while there has been abundant scholarly research and discussion on such controversial topics for decades in Japan, Anglo ('Western') fandom is still immersed in heated debate. So heated in fact that violent threats and claims of predation have been directed towards female and male fans of BL alike. Thus, queer Asian fans who use these native terms for their queer literature and fan culture are often treated as villainous degenerates who are purposefully harming the global queer community for using their own native language and terms.

    Additionally, it is not uncommon for anti-fujoshi Anlgo men who enjoy BL media to express distaste, disgust, or even violence towards women who interact with BL media. Those who feel this way largely believe only queer men may enjoy such texts and any women who do are fetishists. However, this becomes extremely ironic given that the majority of BL media such men largely try to keep women out of are pieces made by women authors; they will happily consume media made by women while expressing the belief that women are ruining said media.

    • Anti-Fujoshi in Anglophone fandom:

      • Most likely first began as an anti-trans movement in social media spaces (see screenshots and links below).

      • Often express misogynist, femmephobic and racist ideologies.

      • Demonize Asian BL fans and culture as morally impure and sexually predatory

      • Generally, believe BL/yaoi media to be bad for the LGBTQ+ community and overall either "bad representation" or not queer in the "right" ways.

      • Assume Fujoshi and BL/yaoi fans are all heterosexual cisgender women.

      • Likely due to anti-trans groups spreading the term "fetishizing" in relation to yaoi and fujoshi without the anti-trans context, LGBTQ+ Anglophones adopted their views, often unintentionally upholding transphobic and homophobic ideologies in the process.

    • Anti-Fujoshi in Japan:

      • Generally uphold traditionalist ideas of gender and sexuality.

      • Often anti-trans, misogynist and femmephobic at it's root (See Translated 'Hompig' 2015 (original Japanese page))

      • Fear that BL confuses women about proper gender roles and causes them to reject heterosexual ideology and develop "disorders" such as "female to male transsexualism." (further reading in: 2015- Boys Love Manga & Beyond - McLelland Chapter, & (2012) Nagaike (BL Resources page)

      • Gay men in Japan who value "hard" masculinity and dislike BL largely do so because it is media associated with women and effeminate men. They blame women's interests for supposedly softening masculinity in Japan with bishounen culture in the 90s and 2000s. They may also show open distaste for effeminate, androgynous, and "cute" idol men whom they believe are emasculated and act like women. (via 'Regimes of Desire'- Baudinette)

      • Read more here about gay Asian men's attitudes of BL and Geikomi

    Direct Quotes From Anti-Fujoshi/Anti-Fudanshi (More in Archive):

    • "Fujoshis have ruined people's lives"

    • "Yaoi corrupts, yaoi has implications that is damaging to a psyche and hurting people. You can't say lets forget it when it can cause serious problems in society"

    • "Yaoi is made only for women by women and seeks to commodify MLM identities and love while oppressing them and denying them their rights. “Fujoshis” are not friends of queer liberation."

    • "Yaoi and Bl is pretty harmful and a dangerous thing for the lgbtq community if we allow for it to grow."

    • "Fujoshis are violent and just as bad as +erf5 when it comes to attacking queer identities."

    • "China finally did something good by oppressing pedos and fujoshis hope you die *kiss emoji*" (a response to this article)

    • "I will curb stomp every fucking fujoshi on this shitty planet and no one can stop me!"

    • "Punching fujoshis is gay culture"

    • "the idea that we should just let cishet women have a fetish for gay men at the off chance they might be gay or trans is fucking insanity"

    • A: "When will fujoshis acknowledge that their """culture""" is inherently homophobic" B: "They will never. These are the people who think with their perpetually horny teenage vagina and have no shame over consuming harmful fiction"

    • "No fujoshi is a proper LGBT advocate. They are all straight women pretending to be bi."

    • "Fujoshis just started calling themselves non binary and gay trans men and most of you just fell for it huh?

    • "All straight women who fetishize gay men are fujoshis and homophobic even if they call themselves "trans mlm""

    • ""Trans mlm" are just fujos in denial"

    • "The original meaning (of fujoshi) isn't even valid anymore cause women are now allowed to read yaoi without persecution. Calling a women a fujoshi to invalidate her sexuality is not a thing that people even do anymore."

    • "I just dont see fujoshis as trans because they fetishize gay relationships"

    • "This just reeks of a typical anime weeb that read and watched too much yaoi growing up and now wants to be a real life pretty anime gay boy [...] women like this get porn sick via gay fanfiction"

    • "being a trans man doesn't excuse you from being a fujoshi!!! [...] being a trans man doesn't exempt you from having to analyze and put a stop to your own fetishizing behavior!!"

    • "Fudanshis and fujoshis don't exist you're just fetishists"

    • "Yaoi is inherently homophobic [...] Open your fucking eyes or keep your fucking mouth shut"

    • "Being a fujoshi/fudanshi isn't a good thing [...] this is a very real issue and people need to stop dodging responsibility for being gross. I've seen "it's a japanese term so you're racist by bringing it up" as a way to dodge being held accountable for their fetishistic behavior [...] and even "i'm queer/lgbtq so i can't be fetishistic" as if their status as not cishet excuses them from bad behaviors"

    • "[fujoshis] refers to specifically cishet women who only consume and create m/m content because they view it as something sexual because it is taboo and don't care about actual gay men, along with blatantly hating gay women [...] We cannot dilute what the term fujoshi means and the severe homophobia that mindset is rooted in."

    • "A fujoshi is SPECIFICALLY a woman who projects yaoi dynamics on irl people"

    • "Literally any person that I've had the displeasure of talking to who self identifies as a fujoshi is an abuse/incest loving freak who's also probably a pedophile"

    • "If you're a "fujoshi" [...] just because you transitioned doesn't mean it's not still gross"

    • "Girls literally convincing themselves they are gay boys on the inside because they love gay fiction"

    • "I am a gay man, thats a straight woman who has a fetish for gay men, homophobe"

    • "Lots of the trans movement amongst women is the [...] desire to be a character in BL media"

    • "If you're part of the pedophilic fetish culture that the fujos partake in [...] you can go fuck yourself and have your lights knocked out with a kick in the face"

  • Visual examples such as screen shots and other documentation of these connections are available below and at these links:

    *Google Drive Archive: Contains all anti-fujoshi posts including anti-trans posts

    *Archive of screenshots on IMGUR (Anti-trans posts only)

    Excerpt from: Aburime, Samantha (2024), ‘The influence of transphobia, homonationalism, and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms’, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, https://doi.org/10.1386/eajpc.[https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/eapc_00119_1]:

    • “Some of the earliest anti-trans posts found targeting BL media and fujo shi appeared on Tumblr around 2015 (Anti-fujoshi 2023) and much of this demonization appeared deliberate, as one of these (now deactivated) anti fujoshi blogs ‘purge-anti-antis’ explained:

      When anti fujoshis were just a handful of Tumblr folk […] [w]e knew how many LGBT fags read yaoi. I hate fujoshi but we’re even more astounded how [social justice warriors] [took] our statements as some pro-LGBT agenda […] [and] swallowed our thinly veiled gender critical statements […]. We’re ‘transphobic’.

      The term ‘gender critical’ refers to the ideological belief that there are only two genders, male and female, and a person’s gender solely aligns with their assigned sex at birth and cannot be changed (Ovarit 2020). To gender criticals, transgender identities are the result of fetishes, paraphilias and mental defects (Blanchard 1991), and trans people are often portrayed as misguided at best, and mentally ill sexual predators at worst (Anti-fujoshi 2023). For example, gender criticals believe that transgender men who are attracted to other men are deluded heterosexual women. Due to gender criticals viewing any gender identity outside of one’s assigned sex to be illegitimate, transgender men who were also BL fans were referred to as heterosexual women in these spaces. Thus, gender criticals then referred to trans men and trans masculine BL fans as fujoshi, and over time ‘fujoshi’ became largely synonymous with trans men in anti-trans online fandom spaces (Anti-fujoshi 2023).

      Further linking gender criticals to anti-BL sentiment are their core anti-porn beliefs. The online subreddit ‘GenderCritical’, founded in 2013, housed approximately 64,800 members with a reported 27,333 daily active users (Reddit Statistic 2022). Before being shut down in 2020 for promot ing hate speech, GenderCritical at the time was affiliated with the following subreddits: ‘Radical Feminists’ (radfems), ‘Anti-Kink’ and ‘Anti-Pornography’ (GenderCritical 2020). As is evident with the previously listed affiliates, gender critical and radfem groups are also critical of pornography and sexual expression which they believe to be intrinsically linked to the development of transgender identity. UK-based gender critical organization Genspect (36,800 Twitter followers) published an article by one author (22,800 Twitter followers), which claimed ‘early exposure to hardcore pornography’ and BL consump tion are likely causes for certain trans men transitioning (Mondegreen 2023). Another Genspect advisor (51,300 Twitter followers) was observed publicly deriding trans male BL fans numerous times, labeling them delusional heterosexual girls who transition to attain a gay anime fantasy (Figure 2). [...] gender criticals believe that pornographic and taboo sexual depictions in fiction not only damage people’s minds but also encourage sexual abuse in the real world (Ziv 2015; Paasonen 2020). Trans people are often referred to as being ‘porn addicted’ or ‘porn sick’ (NewMa 2021) by gender criticals, terms these groups use to categorize people they believe have a distorted view of reality due to having a (presumed) obsession with pornography (‘porn sick’ 2018). Gender criticals often express the belief that the human brain has ‘trouble differentiating fiction from reality’, making it easy for people to be ‘indoctrinated through pornographic fiction’...” (to finish reading request copy here)

    How Language and Anti-trans Narratives are Weaponized to Control the Perception of BL and Fujoshi:

    • "Understanding how fujoshi as a term came to be both conflated with trans identity and anti-LGBTQ+ ideology in western English-speaking fandom is a key point of understanding the anti-BL phenomenon. The claim that BL and fujoshi are sources of fetishism in western English-speaking fandom is intrinsically linked to anti-trans ideology. Two common phrases cited in fandom discourses disparaging BL is ‘BL fetishizes gay men’ and ‘fujoshi fetishize gay men’ (Anti-fujoshi 2023).

      The argument that fetishism is directly related to trans identity has been around since at least the 1970s. American-based author Janice Raymond’s (1979) novel The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male targeted transgender women specifically by claiming that they were ‘fetishistic males’ who ‘[seek] to escape into a faux stereotypical feminin ity’ by transitioning (Weiss 2004: 7). Raymond argued that trans women, by their mere existence, ‘rape women’s bodies by reducing the […] female form to an artifact’ (Raymond [1979] 1994: 104). Raymond ([1979] 1994: 30–32) claims the act of fetishization has two aspects: sexual objectification and an obsession with or ‘worship’ of the subject in question. Gender criticals in fandoms apply Raymonds ‘fetishism’ framework to BL and transgender men as well. Due to western English-speaking anime and manga fandoms having a general lack of information surrounding the etymology and cultural context of fujoshi and BL, the original definitions of these terms became easy for anti-trans groups to misrepresent.

      Under gender critical ideology, trans men in fandom are treated as ‘hetero sexual female fujoshi’ who consume too much ‘sexual gay male content’ only to later ‘come out as “gay trans men”’ (Anti-fujoshi 2023). Gender criticals refer to trans men (and by extension fujoshi) as ‘homophobic’ due to their belief that trans men are heterosexual women forcing their way into authentic (i.e. cisgender) gay male spaces (Anti-fujoshi 2023). Over time, gender criticals attached negative emotional language to fujoshi, BL and other related terms which resulted in ‘evaluative conditioning’ (Jones 2010). Such conditioning has been used to demonize LGBTQ+ people for decades in the United States and elsewhere. Letting go of prejudice is much harder when there is a negative emotional component (Aronson et al. 2018) and propagandists consist ently use language which evokes fear and disgust alongside benign subjects to their advantage. Under the guise of protecting children, conservative anti-gay activists in 1950s America conditioned the public to associate homosexuality with paedophilia (Mogul 2011: 33). Under the guise of protecting women, lesbian separatists in 1970s America branded transgender women ‘infiltrators’ and ‘rapists’ (Stryker 2008: 131). Under the guise of protecting both women and children, identical conditioning methods persist with the modern day ‘groomer’ panic incited to push anti-trans legislation in the United States and United Kingdom (Chaves 2023). This very same negative emotional component is applied by gender criticals to both fujoshi and BL under the guise of protecting the LGBTQ+ community (and gay men specifically) from ‘fetishizers’ and abusers.

      The following excerpt from a 2015 gender critical Tumblr blog displays such conditioning methods at work by also utilizing language which evokes perversion and disgust in relation to BL and trans men:

      The vast majority of ‘trans women’ who previously lived lives as straight men are actually heterosexual males who fetishize women and lesbi ans, and like to fancy themselves ‘real women’ in order to aid in their sexual fantasies […]. However, there is a growing minority of ‘trans men’ who assimilate into trans status out of fetishizing gay men and homo sexuality as straight/bi women […]. Many of these young women get their intro into modern trans identities […] from anime and manga communities […] Yaoi manga communities […] a female produced gay porn/romance erotica […] that objectifies gay males from a very stereotypically feminine perspective and typically involves themes of statutory rape, and male-on-male pedophilia […]. These yaoi-bois[,] ‘gay trans men’ […][,] want the long eyelashes, long hair and slim build of a teen boy that looks like and behaves like a stereotypical girl […]. The typical yaoi-crazed [female-to-male] wants […] gay men with simi lar effeminate qualities to see them as male. She wants for gay men to date her [sic] because she [sic] wants to recreate this yaoi fantasy.

      - (Tumblr blog, Scarlet-void 2015)

      The author, Scarlet-void, applies charged terms such as ‘pedophilia’, ‘rape’ and ‘fetish’ to BL while associating trans men with language evoking mental illness such as ‘crazed’, only to further infantilize and invalidate trans men’s autonomy by referring to them as ‘boys’ who are ‘assimilated’. Repeatedly associated with homophobia, fetishism, paedophilia, hyper sexualization and heterosexual privilege, BL and fujoshi rapidly acquired anti-LGBTQ+ notoriety. As time passed, the anti-trans ‘fetish’ origins of anti-BL and anti-fujoshi discourse became further obfuscated..." (to finish reading request copy here)

  • "Many gender criticals have resorted to covert methods to be heard which often involves diluting and misrepresenting their messages to appear more acceptable to outsiders. The group Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) wrote a 2022 article explaining how avoiding terms like ‘deluded’ and ‘mentally ill’ when discussing transgender people allowed them ‘unbarred’ access to media outlets to grow their platform. They emphasized that drawing the support of ‘left-leaning4 media outlet[s]’ would take time and needed to happen ‘carefully’ and ‘strategically’. Their members spent ‘years’ ‘thinking about how to get through to the media, […] schools, […] therapists, and […] politicians’ and they even ‘have a trans person on [their] advisory board’ so that activists are unable to claim PITT is transphobic (PITT 2022). This method of self-censorship can be referred to as ‘Crypto-TERFing’ (MissMenses 2022), with TERF being a contentious acronym for ‘ trans-exclusionary radical feminist’. As explained by self-proclaimed crypto-TERFs, ‘crypto’ stands for hidden and means someone who is ‘secretly gender critical or a [radical feminist]’ (MissMenses 2022). One ex crypto-TERF, Ky Schevers described how members ‘intentionally moderate’ (2021) their anti trans and anti-porn views to appear less threatening and reach the largest possible audience. They work to infiltrate trans accepting groups and ‘spread the idea that trans identity […] could be motivated by trauma and internalized misogyny’ (Schevers 2021). Crypto-TERFs among Schevers would joke about ‘running psyops’ in online groups with young LGBTQ+ adults ‘to change what ideas were acceptable to talk about in those spaces’ (Schevers 2021). Other gender critical message boards revealed how members with trans friends or family made conscious efforts to instil doubt in their minds about their identities" (to finish reading request copy here)

    Excerpt: Aburime, Samantha (2024), ‘The influence of transphobia, homonationalism, and anti-Asian prejudice: Anti-BL attitudes in English-speaking fandoms’, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, https://doi.org/10.1386/eajpc.[https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/eapc_00119_1] (request copy here)

    ​CryptoTERFs self-describing how they disseminate propaganda:

    • Often referring to men and women as ‘males’ and 'females' in regular conversation. 'Adult Human Female' is an anti-trans dogwhistle.

    • The Human Brain Doesn't Mature Until Age 25: An argument to deny specific adults autonomy and healthcare (generally trans and autistic adults)

    • Usage of 'Groomer': Framing people who help trans & queer youth as child predators

    • Negative view of 'Fetish': Anti-trans groups believe Trans identity to be a mental illness and fetish. Their "official" terms are 'autogynephilia' (AGP) and 'autoandrophilia' (AAP). They will claim trans people 'fetishize' the bodies of women and men.

    • No Kink at Pride: This is once again a talking point used by trying to make gay men appear to be child groomers. Fear of children being exposed to sexuality is the center point, despite PRIDE riots being pioneered by sexual minorities (and workers) since stonewall.

    • Homophobic Straight Women: A term used by cisgender gay men who are against trans-men. They see trans men as infiltrators of their spaces who are trying to "trick" gay men into being in relationships with them.

    • TRA (Trans Rights Activists): Negative connotation and not a term used by actual trans activists

    • Their term for trans men: TiF (Trans Identified Female)

    • Their term for trans women: TiM (Trans Identified Male)

    • LGB (Drop the T): An alliance of Largely Gay men and Lesbian women who reject and exclude identities outside of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual (although bisexuals are not largely supported by them either)

    • Clocking: The idea of being able to tell who is trans and who is not by physical appearance and behavior.

    • Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD): not an accepted clinical term "coined in 2016 to describe an alleged epidemic of youth coming out as trans 'out of the blue' due to social contagion and mental illness."

    • Gender Essentialism:

      • Claims men are biologically predisposed to be predators:

      • Claims anyone who identifies with maleness or masculinity (or looks the part) (including queer men, nonbinary or ‘masc’ people!) are inherently predatory, abusive oppressors

      • Claims that gay men are perverse, impure or gross compared to women (because they see ALL men as sex-driven and ‘porn-brained’)

      • The belief that women are incapable of being sexually abusive; Believe no male person (of any age!) can be sexually abused by a woman; which also leads to not taking women sexually abused by other women seriously (“That’s something men do”).

    • Anti-Intersectionality:

      With Gender Essentialism naturally comes racism:

      • Suddenly, BIPOC men & boys are incapable of being victims which allows White women in these spaces to deny their racial privilege and the institutional racism they historically participated in and still today benefit from.

    • Banning Media over Prioritizing Education & Awareness:

      • Ultimately believe banning fiction will prevent abuse; fail to address the fact that abuse was and still is happening in places where certain “problematic” media is inaccessible, and before mass media (film/television/comics/adverts/etc) became the standard less than 100 years ago.

      • Instead of prioritizing resources educating teen girls & women on consent and healthy real-life relationships, censoring fiction is seen as the solution.

      • Instead of prioritizing teaching young boys and men how to be good partners, understand consent, and have healthy real-life relationships, censoring fiction is seen as the solution.

      • Leads to Infantilizing & demonizing women: Women are framed as too foolish and stupid to know reality from fantasy and thus have to be protected from themselves “The novels are poisoning their fragile woman minds!”

      • Leads to Victim blaming: People doing this insist women who write ‘bodice rippers’ or erotica are contributing to their own and other women’s abuse. “What was she wearing?” Becomes “What was she writing?”

      • Leads to Giving Predators an Easy out: “Well she writes non-con fanfiction or erotica, I thought that meant she was into being sexually abused” “The porn made me hurt them, I didn’t make conscious and deliberate efforts to be abusive. In a way, I too am a victim of degeneracy.” (This is like saying music or a horror villain made someone kill people)

      • Leads to literally re-inventing the 1930s Hay’s Code made by religious, racist White men

      • Mentions of Porn Addiction or being Porn Brained: Often used to shut down constructive dialogue. Instead of discussing sexual topics with nuance they’ll just call people porn addicts to belittle them as simple ‘perverts’.

    • Fascist Buzzwords:

      • Unabashed use of ‘Degenerate’ or ‘Degeneracy’: Literally Nazi concepts. For example, doing a search for these terms on Twitter, dozens of first results were from White Nationalist, Anti-LGBTQ+, Conservative and Nazi accounts. Unsurprisingly, these terms are also often found being used among racists & on anti-porn accounts.

    • Being Anti-Porn & Moving Goal Posts:   

      • (See entire above section)

      • The Anti-Porn stance is inherently connected to conservative & religious groups that also prioritize banning media instead of educating. “Porn” as an idea is vague and can be considered anything (i.e., gay characters existing is ‘porn’, discussions of uncomfortable racial topics is ‘porn’).

      • ‘Porn’ as a concept in TERF spaces becomes synonymous with always taking place in real life, being inherently abusive and inherently heterosexual; Something only used by men to subjugate women. While there is definitely a constructive dialogue to be had here in terms of historical commodification of women’s bodies, misogyny, hyper sexualization in media and advertising etc. The arguments in these spaces are shallow & flawed as they aim to suppress iterations of what could be considered erotic or pornographic wholly ignoring the fact that queer pornography and porn women make for themselves are already systematically censored & suppressed. These groups are not protected but instead vilified.

      • Sex Negative: This largely leads to ultimately controlling how women express themselves sexually and horseshoes back to conservatism. Women who like porn/erotica or defend its existence are considered less intelligent. ‘Porn’ is a frightening and evil presence with a mind of its own that people must be protected from (Again removing agency; “I know what’s best for you”).

    • Communities built around trauma bonding:

      • In these spaces use discretion. While violence & abuse against women are extremely important to acknowledge and completely valid to be angry about, many TERFs focus on trauma bonding; Instead of focusing on uplifting other women they focus on feeding anger and building resentment.

      • While by no means is every instance of this bad or ulterior, TERFs weaponize women’s anger and trauma to get them on board with more extreme points of view. Keep an eye out for the other points mentioned in this Red Flag list in these spaces. Without fail, every time I would come across posts like those on Twitter, digging into the account owner and who they were following; there were always TERFs sprinkled in.

    • Demands for women to "De-center Men" / ​Complaints of women 'Centering Men':

      • The application of this idea of de-centering men in real life can be genuinely beneficial as it is meant to encourage women to be self-reliant, and prioritize their own lives and happiness; not sacrificing their autonomy, dreams and goals for the men in their lives (e.g., A girl who drops her life (school/job/family/friends/etc.) to move far away with her boyfriend for his new job. Or women who frequently give up their own dreams to be housewives).

      • However, many times these groups misuse the concept, instead wielding it as a bludgeon against other women, demanding women give up men completely. This even includes in fiction: Women shouldn't write fiction about men, Women shouldn't draw men, Women's favorite characters or celebrities shouldn't be men, etc. It does not even matter if a woman is married to another woman. Objectifying fictional male characters to empower herself is still viewed as bad because just the concept of a man (even if she has humiliates him or shapes him to be her ultimate fantasy) is bad because she is giving any concept of male-ness attention.

      • Additionally this demand may also be used against bisexual women by Lesbian Separatists who feel bisexual women to be traitors for dating men.

Image Archive of Examples:

Full Archive

Texts Explaining Trans History, Transphobia, and Anti-Trans Groups

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