Skip to main content

WHEREIN JFRO LEARNS A NEW WORD . . .

While perusing the Achewood discussion boards, which actually contain witty and smart people and very few trolls (although some of the avatars are the animated-GIF equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard), I came across the term "weeaboo", which apparently someone who is unhealthily addicted to anime and manga. Meanwhile, at nearly the very same time, The New York Times was featuring some of the trolls that mock anime fans as weeaboos (also cause epileptic fits, issue death threats, etc.) on the very board in which the term was spawned.

Of course, living in a fantastical, anime world all the time is not healthy, just like living in a video game, fantasy baseball league, science-fictional TV series, or (my favorite) the world where 15th-century Europe was a land of fairies, wizards and non-stop orgies even for people who forget to bathe, all the time is not so good. But then, in the very act of trolling, their critics indicate they have no life as well, or why would they care so much? Wheels within wheels! Nobody ever says, "Sorry honey, I can't make love to you on a pile of money right now, I have to tell the guy on the anime photo-sharing site he has no life." Hating someone for having execrable taste is more acceptable than hating them for something like race or sex which they have no control over, but it tends to bounce back on the perpetrator. Who has such perfect taste that they can't be made fun of for what they like?

I also don't like the implication that one should only like entertainment that issues from one's own race and/or nationality. To me, that brings up the image of a Neo-Nazi realizing that all American music has either African-American or Jewish connections, and retreating to his bunker to listen to Wagner all day. Fun!

I don't understand people who only like one type of entertainment in this world where global options are easily available, but it doesn't bother me. I haven't met any Japanese-only entertainment chauvinists yet, though, probably because I'm too old and that kind of extremism is mostly for the young.

Comments

JethSeux said…
Maybe "Weeaboo" will end up being adopted by anime fans as a positive self description, a homegrown version of the word "Otaku"!
How could one go wrong adopting the culture of a magical island of giant monsters, secret midnight assassins and 365 year a day thrift store street fashion shows?
But I would be willing to bet that these misguided cultural chauvinists eat pizza . . . .would they be equally as likely to embrace random sidewalk pinching, and movies full of oatmeal faced zombies and muscle men in ski goggles and bandolier straps? These people need to pause for some serious self examination!!

Popular posts from this blog

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

 The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant.  That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens.  I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity:  swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra

STILL HATING ON MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTIONS

Jason had an insightful post on newspapers in the Internet Age on his blog wherein he suggested we donate to keep the watchdogs of the press going. In an aside, he mentioned subscriptions for music: To be honest, it's the same thing with music downloads. I've been screaming for monthly subscriptions for years now, and they're still not here. (At least not on the scale of an iTunes or Amazon.) Of course, I had to respond. Jason: I'm sorry to hear you've been screaming for years--you must be very hoarse. I believe the service you're looking for is called Rhapsody . I don't know what counts as "the same scale", but they have ads on TV. I don't know why anyone would pay $12.99/month to rent music, though. I want to own my music, I don't want some company to be able to take my access away or jack up the price at a whim. Rhapsody's main market must be people who don't own much music, have a lot of electronic devices but no interest in l

TOP MUSIC GENRES FOR YOUR CYBERPUNK GAME

So I guess cyberpunk is hot again. I don't play those newfangled video games, but all this fanfare made me remember my old Cyberpunk 2020 days, when I was Jael Furoshiki, Japanese/Jewish survivor of of a destroyed South China Sea pirate pack trying to make a living in the Minneapolis Red Zone as a bodyguard/food delivery technician (yes, both a pirate and an ninja).  Later she got ported to Interface Zero , which got rid of some of the anachronisms and C2020's crazy-high fatality rate (there used to be a page dedicated to players' favorite deceased characters, sadly now lost to even the Wayback Machine). Anyway, one time I made up musical genres my character would listen to--can't find my old character sheets, but this gives you the idea... TOP MUSIC GENRES FOR YOUR CYBERPUNK GAME: Cambo-Punk Robo-Funk Post-post-post-post-post Punk Really New Wave Black Klezmetal Danish RaiZulu Techno-Jive Country & Western & Gabber Lo-NRG Goan Garage Garage