How not to not sound like a racist troll on Japanese related topics
- Thread starter anotherdamnwatanabe
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Even the Reki-jo (for the uninitiated, women with an obsessive interest in Japanese history) are paedophiles? Oh dear...anotherdamnwatanabe said:
OK, I speak passable Japanese with a Kanto accent (if you call it an accent), but I speak English like Stephen Fry...BlueMage said:
Next!
Actually very nice to see an insider's perspective, and it was nice to know sort of a general view on what anime and types of anime Japanese people like. I have actually always wondered about that, so thank you, and welcome to the Escapist
Pretty sure someone said this already, but stay out of the basement, etc.
Pretty sure someone said this already, but stay out of the basement, etc.
I'm Australian and I quite like anime but I don't like anything with major sexual content. The most sexual anime I've ever seen would have to be The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and that's just because some of the characters wear bunny costumes a lot of the time and talk about boobs. However, I do understand where you're coming from.
The problem is that the more explicit subcultures that come out of Japan, however small a subculture they are, are so diverse from the main culture of the Western world, they seem so different and thus so large by comparison. In short, the more wierd it is, the more westerners will attribute it to its country of origin's main culture. As a result, some people actually do think things like lolli are a common thing in Japan. However, most would (hopefully) know that they're stereotypes and just be having a laugh.
Remember, any subculture like this goes through phases: discovery, meme status, stereotyping, realisation that stereotype is wrong, humour that uses stereotype. Most people have already moved to the final phase with Japan but some stick with the stereotype. I have no idea why and it's certainly not the majority but I suppose until we can install emotions into what we type on forums we'll just have to guess how people mean what they say about these sorts of things.
The problem is that the more explicit subcultures that come out of Japan, however small a subculture they are, are so diverse from the main culture of the Western world, they seem so different and thus so large by comparison. In short, the more wierd it is, the more westerners will attribute it to its country of origin's main culture. As a result, some people actually do think things like lolli are a common thing in Japan. However, most would (hopefully) know that they're stereotypes and just be having a laugh.
Remember, any subculture like this goes through phases: discovery, meme status, stereotyping, realisation that stereotype is wrong, humour that uses stereotype. Most people have already moved to the final phase with Japan but some stick with the stereotype. I have no idea why and it's certainly not the majority but I suppose until we can install emotions into what we type on forums we'll just have to guess how people mean what they say about these sorts of things.
I'm really not the kind of person who hates on Japan for no reason. I've been there, I used to study the language and culture full time. Most of my favourite films, authors and artists are Japanese.
But I have no problem saying that I see something fundamentally wrong with a culture where women would rather dress up as Coke machines than call the police, or where a major university can set up a fucking rape society to go around and gang-rape female students in the full knowledge that they will be too ashamed to even tell anyone. Of the sample of about 20 Japanese-born Japanese women I know, every single one has been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. None of them even attempted to prosecute. It's likely none of them could have done.
It would be fantastic if all these things could be attributed to Otaku culture, but there are wider problems with the way most Japanese people deal with sexual politics and consent. Beyond that, homelessness, LGBT issues and mental health are, in my experience, treated with similar disregard or denial. There is a culture of silence and shame around these things which leads to real people on the ground being genuinely isolated, excluded and harmed.
Pointing that out is not being racist. Suggesting a correlation between that and the visual media is not racist. It's not like us enlightened Western folk do these things perfectly, of course, or can speak from a position of unqualified superiority, but cultural respect does not have to mean cultural relativism. There is no obligation to offer respect to the widespread acceptance of sexual violence simply because it's 'a part of Japanese culture'.
In short, while the visual media may be enjoyed by a relatively small proportion of the population, there's a reason it exists, and there's a reason it hasn't been curbstomped out of existence like it would if you tried to release similar things in most other developed countries.
But I have no problem saying that I see something fundamentally wrong with a culture where women would rather dress up as Coke machines than call the police, or where a major university can set up a fucking rape society to go around and gang-rape female students in the full knowledge that they will be too ashamed to even tell anyone. Of the sample of about 20 Japanese-born Japanese women I know, every single one has been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. None of them even attempted to prosecute. It's likely none of them could have done.
It would be fantastic if all these things could be attributed to Otaku culture, but there are wider problems with the way most Japanese people deal with sexual politics and consent. Beyond that, homelessness, LGBT issues and mental health are, in my experience, treated with similar disregard or denial. There is a culture of silence and shame around these things which leads to real people on the ground being genuinely isolated, excluded and harmed.
Pointing that out is not being racist. Suggesting a correlation between that and the visual media is not racist. It's not like us enlightened Western folk do these things perfectly, of course, or can speak from a position of unqualified superiority, but cultural respect does not have to mean cultural relativism. There is no obligation to offer respect to the widespread acceptance of sexual violence simply because it's 'a part of Japanese culture'.
In short, while the visual media may be enjoyed by a relatively small proportion of the population, there's a reason it exists, and there's a reason it hasn't been curbstomped out of existence like it would if you tried to release similar things in most other developed countries.