Under these forms of reader-response criticism such a reading can be considered 'valid'. In the case of Free! a 'reader' can look at the 'interactions' of the teammates and assign them the meaning of 'sexual' and/or 'romantic' 'attraction'. As opposed to a text having an inherent meaning independent of outside forces. In some forms of reader-response criticism a 'reader' 'interprets' a 'text' and adds 'meaning' to it.
The 'gay' controversy surrounding this is a result of fujoshi hype and wailing combined with people mistaking man-service for yaoi.Įven though this topic looks like it's just a means to accuse people of being homophobic, under SOME schools of literary criticism this is actually correct.
