34, THEY/THEM, USA

I think of BL like a big mirror. BL content in order to be popular at the time of its creation is going to mirror society at that same time. No one in non-Japanese BL fan spaces ever considers when the series was created. Problematic content you see in an older series? It was popular and somewhat normalized back then. With the exception that fiction does not always reflect the real world. All of this “discourse” about various relationship dynamics is usually reflective of something popular at the time. Many times it’s a dynamic being critiqued through another culture’s lens (non-Japanese), which you can’t do successfully. It’s what creates this willingness to appropriate because you think you know “enough” to form an opinion. An opinion that ends up walking all over someone else’s history, culture, or life.
— 34, They/Them, USA