Thread by @raikamudapon

Ok so,
One of the biggest differences of how I see Japanese people digesting media and how Americans digest media is the ability to separate oneself from the topic.

https://twitter.com/raikamudapon/status/1115073850432036864?s=19

Japanese people are used to living with duality. The culture of Japan is all about honne and tatemae, and while a
lot of Americans think of tatemae as situational lying, it's a specific form of communication that adds a buffer of space between people. Sometimes that buffer is

helpful and sometimes it isn't but that's not what we're discussing today.
In the same vein, Japanese fans consume media with that buffer space, and you see the difference in fandom spaces very keenly.
For example, Japanese cosplayers don't tend to roleplay. I feel like the

community discourages it, especially in public spaces because the idea is that you are not acting as a character or placing yourself in the character, you are borrowing a character to temporarily express yourself. In america you see encouragement of becoming the character and

more closely associating with them in a way you don't really see in Japan.
With cosplay, a lot of original outfits with characters isn't as widely accepted, and people are encouraged to add warning tags to heavily modified designs or non-cannon outfits. There's often a buffer

between self expression and character expression, and Japanese people in general tend to have a clearer cut between fiction and reality.
Americans go the opposite direction, and put themselves personally in to their fandoms. Any criticism or portrayal of a character isn't about

the character, it's about *them*.
Bl for many fujyoshi is a way to explore various topics about sex and gender, and have that safety barrier of "this is fiction that has nothing to do with reality".
Theres even a famous phrase in bl circles of Japan, which is "BL is fantasy."

People arent consuming bl content because they want to it be realistic.
With this genre, a lot of American's first exposure to this culture is through groups that carry these Japanese ideas, especially that fiction is not about reality.
There's a strong culture in fujyo circles

in Japan to keep fujyo media hidden from from minors and uninterested people. This isn't because gay adjacent media is shameful and should be hidden, but because aside from keeping 18+ content away from minors, the content is inherently not for the benefit of non-fujyoshi, or

people looking for canon content. Bl is a fantasy exploration of pre-established media, an additional step away from reality. And you see this influence in american bl fans as well. Most responsible adults discourage 18 under people from interacting with 18+ content. It is going

to be much rarer for 18+ bl content to be presented to minors with no prior warning then for het media or media that explicitly sexually objectifies women.
And I think in conversations about this topic is where you see not just misogyny and sexual policing of woman come in, but

a lot of conversations and ideas revolve around how "gross" and "strange" and "foreign compared to woke Americans" the entire culture of fujyoshi is.
Trying to insist that Americans determine what definitions of language around a culture not originating or centered in America

and sentiments about bl are "appropriate" is colonizing attitudes. It stems from the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to another country. And treating the norms of a foreign sub-culture that was not only established in Japan but continues

to flourish and be the center of media produced by that subculture as gross or strange is honestly tinged with Orientalism of the "sexual far east". It's hard to say that the image that all fujyoshi are women does not influence these ideas as well.
So let's delve in to relations

between Japan and America for a hot second.
Japan and America have a very unique relationship, especially for countries that are separated by the biggest ocean in the world.
Without examining the entire history of the two countries, I want to focus on two points that I think

shape the way Americans interact with Japanese media.
First, America with it's "black ships" was the one to end Japan's Sakoku policy. They forcefully demanded Japan end it's strict regulations concerning interaction with other countries, start trading with various countries,

and to open up to western influences. This *greatly* changed the structure of Japan, and honestly the unequal treaties and inability of the Tokugawa shogunate to manage their relations with the west lead to the end of 264 years of governance. (The Meiji restoration is exciting,

please read about it.)
The second topic you don't see many people discuss is the occupation of Japan by American(and English) forces from 1945–1952. While a lot of modernization and things that benefited common people occurred during this time, there was also wide spread

instances of violence and rape. You still see generational hurt and mistrust in places like Okinawa, Sasebo, and Yokosuka where American navy bases were placed(and still exist today). If you can stomach it, I would recommend looking up statistics and reports, but I warn you the

occupation was nasty business for women.
So what does this all have to do with modern fujyoshi?
So in both of these time periods, prostitutes and courtesans were an essential part of political interactions. Many Americans gained their stereotypes about Japanese women through

these encounters. Specifically these interactions were sexual or tinged with the sexual availability of these women, and looking at the increased rapes during the occupation once American GI focused brothels were abolished, you can see how this lens shaped Americans opinions of

Japanese women. The story of madame butterfly is only unusual in that it gives the woman in it any agency in their interaction with american men.
So with this in mind, I think it's easy to see where a lot of stereotypes, specifically sexual stereotypes about Japan and Japanese

women come from. America is used to looking at Japan as "the weird strange place of loose morals and loose women of strange sexual proclivities." This is shown how strong the influence of Japanese women as "geisha girls" is to this day, and it tints any conversation of about

women and sexuality in Japan.
In modern day, you can see this carry over in to how people look at Japanese idols and women in anime. I would even say that it's evolved to infantilize Japanese women and the view of how Japanese women are expected to behave.

A lot of other people have written literature and reading about fujyoshi and how it relates to the sexual liberation of women(without necessarily involving men or gay men) so I won't go in to that here, but there will be links at the end of the thread.
What I want to talk about

is how historically America is used to putting itself front and center about any topic about the culture of Japan, and how the views Americans have about morality is considered to be "better" and more "woke"... even without context or how those sentiments shape the ideas of

foreign people and foreign based media.
But we also have to address how Americans have a huge problem with not being the expert voice in any conversation.
Over the last week, a significant number of Americans have been extremely comfortable in putting the power to decide what

Japanese words mean and what Japanese sub-cultures are in their own hands, sometimes even attempting to remove my Japanese voice and background from me in an effort to center their own opinions.
And honestly this isn't anything new.
Americans are so comfortable with thinking of

Asian voices as less influential then their own, that it doesn't stop people from thinking they are the experts about a topic that *does not come from their culture*. You see it with food, you see it with fashion, you see it with everything from equating Asians to *white lite* to

assuming that Asians don't exist as mixed people but simply as a monolith.
There are so many people who were comfortable with placing themselves as experts in a sub-culture of Japanese origin that they knew nothing about, simply because they assumed it corresponded with one

aspect of themselves. And it is hard to say that the confidence that these people placed themselves and their ignorance in the middle of the topic did not stem from Americans feeling of ownership over everything they enjoy. The people supporting these people may have thought they

were being good allies by blindly supporting them, but I saw very few people bothering to further their knowledge past the loose collection of stereotypes and horror stories I saw from the internet.
Some of these feelings of superiority probably stem from the fact that these

people assumed that all fujyoshi or bl content consumers are women. Misogyny isn't just the expression of hate towards women, but also the idea that non-women inherently have a more valuable opinion then woman, or that women's ideas are inherently less valuable then anyone elses.

I saw a lot of misogyny this week, both internal and external.
There was hate from many people, for the idea that people they assumed women were thriving in a sub-culture that does not involve real gay men. I saw people who could not imagine that men were not at the center of a

subculture created and supported by both women and queer people.
I even saw examples of women bringing up their experiences as a gender they do not identify with in order to raise their voice against other assumed women.
But the voices that attempted to de-legitimize assumed

women grew even louder once they were speaking against Asian people, because there is an inherent assumption that their views are qualified, their opinions more valid, their morals better.

And honestly, this isn't just an issue with white and eurocentrific supremacy, this is an issue of American supremacy.

And that is certainly something we need to talk about.

Anyways, I wrote you 10 thousand words dont @ me unless you've done some deep dives and educated yourself on like, all of these topics that I brought up here.

Ok actually feel free to @ me if you have any literature to share or any sensible threads of your own you want to post or any comments/suggestions in good faith.

Clown memes and insults are getting 0 effort from me.

https://twitter.com/futekiya/status/1115277409136156673?s=19

https://twitter.com/dionysiaca/status/1117976184657203202?s=19

https://twitter.com/dionysiaca/status/1118496051135225856?s=19

Oh and if you want to look at some of the racism mentioned above

https://twitter.com/raikamudapon/status/1116545842003841024?s=19

Also since I've had a few people ask, I've made a ko-fi and I will definately use this money to buy ice cream and coffee.

ko-fi.com/raikamishiro