#but i just kept feeling weird whenever westerners would make value judgements on BL

[kurosawa-sun]

This rant has been sitting in my drafts for a good week, and after having some conversations with people in my cherry magic discord server, I might as well publish it since I still stand by the points I made here.

This is just a personal rant but like I notice quite a lot of people like to shit on yaoi/BL for being bad queer rep, and I get why especially since I’m queer myself. At the same time however, you gotta understand that the culture is very different in Asia and straight women reading BL is one of their few ways of exploring their sexuality. Like I remember reading and watching BL stuff way back when I didn’t know I was queer and assumed I was a cishet girl, and it was such a great space for me to explore my sexuality. And it just so happened that it was through BL that I realized oh I was maybe not straight at all and like oh maybe I don’t quite vibe with my assigned gender at birth. And sure you might say something about the problematic content but like for me who is a sex-positive advocate from a very sex-negative Asian society, I don’t like making value judgements on what gets people turned on (unless it’s super illegal shit, let’s make that clear).

I’m not saying that you should like BL, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. But like at the same time maybe don’t say that they’re all inherently bad and shame the people who happen to enjoy the problematic content. People have different reasons for enjoying the content, and so long as it isn’t directly harmful or bigoted, I really don’t see why not. And like I personally criticize the shortcomings of BL and its straight female audience (I’ve had to deal with this annoying straight girl say that Magnus Bane from Shadowhunters was gay when he was goddamn bisexual). But at the same time I don’t make blanket value judgements of BL and its straight female audience as a whole, since I understand the context surrounding why the genre came about, and like I’ve watched many a show that is considered good queer rep by Western standards and I’ll still take issue with some other stuff they would portray in the show. 

Like I used to watch Junjou Romantica and it was definitely one of those shows with super problematic content, but I remember me watching and it was one of the many things that allowed me to explore my sexuality and my gender. and was a stepping stone to me realizing that I’m very bi and trans. Like I guess what I really want to say is I just feel weird whenever Westerners criticize BL, which had a Japanese origin and gained a huge fanbase in Asia, which has a very different cultural context. Like I can clearly see that you’re viewing it through a very Westernized framework which doesn’t allow for much nuance.