Well no. Nobody is saying dark themes can't be showcased in fiction, you're putting an entire category in one jumbled mess to make it sound less bad. The main point is that these topics CAN be showcased in stories, but if it's written decently and correctly and in a way that explains why it's wrong and unacceptable. The problem with Dark yaoi slop is they it consistently showcases MLs that are rapists and their actions are either used as a fetish or glossed over for the sake of a generic molded trope in the story. fictional depictions of rape in BLs are mostly fetishized, glorified, or handled irresponsibly, even though no real rape occurred. So your argument of "it's fiction" doesn't defend anything at all.
Fiction can influence attitudes, reinforce stereotypes, normalize certain behaviors, or affect people who have experienced similar trauma. Unless you're willing to be educated on dark topics to be able to depict them in the correct manner and showcase how heavy they are, you shouldn't try to support that shit or defend it. Its how normalized these things are hat make you think it's okay to be added in a story, if someone was to make a story of the male lead being a zoophile, I'm sure no one would allow that and there would be many people against it, so why is rape different when both acts take away the innocence of unharming creatures?
Why is people in the question asking like comparing racism to rpe??
Once again commenting my peak ass argument:
Dark themes like violence, gore, murder, abuse, even depictions of rape in stories, games like GTA, series like Game of Thrones, or dark BL? These are just dark fiction, dramatic devices, plot conflict. They don’t target and harms real people. Its just fiction. Like if we argue about rpe then should we argue we shouldn't like evil murderer characters anymore. Should we never have any evil main characters who win everytime and never face consequences.
But racism (also homophobia too like gay lesbian to straight) NOT “just tropes”, NOT “just dark content”. These are systems of oppression, real‑world ideologies, and historical harm that were built to dehumanize specific groups. Its affect real people and discriminate people more