Daily reminder BL emerged as a sub genre in the 70s as a response to rigid societal constraints and the lack of freedom of (sexual) expression for Japanese women.

Also, manga characters aren’t real. https://twitter.com/shipperinjapan/status/1249041002129743876

The western “fujoshi” discourse is completely devoid of knowledge and understanding in regards to history, context & social norms in Asia.

Instead some enlightened 18-year-olds think manga characters are real people that need to be “protected” from the perverted female gaze.

For the record, I am not an expert on the forementioned fields, I just wrote my thesis on BL as an expression of female sexuality.

It’s an interesting topic that lots of (Eastern and Western) scholars have written smart stuff about, I can only recommend checking it out.