“Normally people wouldn’t think of rebelling if they aren’t satisfied with society. Characters in One Piece and Naruto are fighting for their dreams and goals, so even though manga going toward dreams are absolutely necessary, if all manga are like that, some readers might think “well, where should I go if I don’t have any dreams?” Or “what should I do if I didn’t do my best every day?” Then, they read Gintama and see everyone in there is living a lazy life, they’ll feel more at ease. Even if you’re lazy, you can still walk down your path of life, and you need to live well, like that.”
I don’t see enough people talking about the fact that if people stopped giving reposters notes and follows, they would be much less likely to steal art
with some people there seems to be an attitude of “oh well it’s already been reposted so it doesn’t hurt to reblog it” but all that’s doing is giving the art thief positive feedback and encouraging them to post more
by reblogging reposts you’re also increasing the circulation of the art, thereby taking it further out of the artist’s control
please don’t reblog art that’s been posted without permission because in doing so you’re just as bad as the art thieves themselves
Sourcing Art Is Not Enough
- It is illegal to repost artwork without the artist’s permission.
- The artists don’t like it.
- Don’t post or reblog art that doesn’t have the artist’s consent to be on Tumblr.
- Let’s work together as we did for sourcing to get everyone to do the right thing :)
"I am insulted that this anime did/didn’t do a thing with race! POC deserve respect! I want them to change it to be more like I want!"
The Japanese have a completely different racial and social history, so it may be that they are making it based on their own experiences. Are you basing this idea on Western ideas of race and racial relations? Wouldn’t making the Japanese make media that reflects a Western idea of race be cultural imperialism? Here’s a good way of knowing if you are informed of Japanese racial politics:
Are you aware that Okinawa was not originally a part of Japan, was conquered, and is often referred to as the Ryukyu Islands? That it has it’s own ethnic minority with its own rapidly-dying language, and Okinawa also has by far the largest concentration of detested American army bases? Here is a photo from the 19th century of a Ryukyu Island native, taken by a Japanese man to sell “ethnic photos” back on the mainland.
Did you know that the “Japanese” we know of are not technically native to the island at all, but arrived sometime in prehistory to displace the original inhabitants? This would be the Ainu, and genetic studies have shown they’re actually more closely related to Caucasians. They now mostly live in Hokkaido, most of their land having been taken and many been killed due to historic wars and slavery.
Did you know that countless ethnic Koreans and Chinese have lived in Japan since the colonial period, often because of having their land ownership and livelihoods forcibly taken and moved to Japan? That they were forced to not speak their native language and had to go by Japanese names? That even though many of them have lived there for generations, they could not obtain citizenship until 1980 without getting a Japanese name? That there were hate crimes committed against Korean schoolgirls as early as the late 1990’s?
And the ultimate taboo, did you know that Japan had its own class of “untouchables” like India? These are known as Burakumin, or at least that’s the nicest word for them. They were often relegated to “unclean” professions like tanning and butchery, and in premodern Japan someone could literally cut down a Burakumin in the street in broad daylight and receive no reprisal. While they are legally no different from anyone anymore, socially is a different story. If you have Burakumin ancestry, chances are, you live in certain districts—because no one else will rent or sell a house to you. Employers use your address to openly discriminate against you. If you marry, your family may hire someone to trace your family history to make sure you have no Burakumin ancestors. To many, it’s taboo to even discuss them. Below is Jiichiro Matsumoto, a burakumin and considered to be the father of burakumin liberation.
There’s more, of course, but you get the idea. Most people outside of Japan are simply considered gaijin—whether you’re a black gaijin or a white gaijin. You’re a foreigner. Sure, due to imperialism, a Japanese is going to think of a white English-speaker first and there are some differences within the category, but know that this is the category the rest of the world has been placed in. We’re a goofy novelty sure, but there are random gaijin of all colors being the “talento” of Japanese television. Outside of the extreme Japanese right, we’re not very controversial.
As you can see, the Japanese are racial-ideology-wise far from perfect. But for someone to come in with no knowledge of this long and complicated history and insist that having more Hispanic/Black/POC(a meaningless term in a country full of POC) characters in anime, it’s saying that American racial ideas and politics are more important. Sure, I love when anime has diversity of any kind. But if you think an anime with a “POC” is more progressive and ignore something like Samurai Champloo—which has both a Ryukyu island native main character and several episodes devoted to the Ainu—then I’m sorry, but you’re being culturally ignorant and contributing to cultural imperialism. That yet again, the gaijin should be the star. And the West has a very, very long history of imposing its own sense of morality on everyone else. I can find way more foreigners of any color portrayed in anime than any Ainu, let me tell ya. I have no right to tell a foreign industry to stop making media that reflects them and their racial identity and instead make stuff that looks like an American sitcom.
This doesn’t mean let Japan off the hook. But that means that if you want to have your own opinion, if you want to be taken seriously, and if you want to promote social justice without doing the exact same white man’s burden act we’ve always done, then you have a responsibility to educate yourself.
So here is the rough draft for my “Anime and Feminism 101” panel that might be happening at San Japan.
A few notes:
- This is obviously not a transcript, but just the ppt slides. I’ve timed myself going through them with the commentary I want to add, and it takes about 30 minutes to go through it.
- It is subject to change between now and San Japan.
If you have any suggestions/corrections, PLEASE add them!
Edit: Reorganized the slides to take up less space on dash.
I disagree with so much of this. I am getting fed up with Western audiences in general but especially with anime (since I am Japanese). This is culturally imperialist, white feminist drivel (but it’s not only white women that do this) and it reeks of hypocrisy - you can’t preach this kind of stuff when the West is also sexist. If you are not Japanese then you don’t have any right to decide which parts of our media are definitely sexist or feminist. I can’t believe you were trying to “educate” people on this topic at a god damn panel.
Hell, the Western market contributes to less than 1% of the anime industry and Westerners are probably one of the worst things for the industry. The majority of them practise piracy and don’t spend a cent yet continue to complain about the quality of anime, demand that studios produce xyz and even whine when their free fansubs aren’t released on express. I once saw some people on a Hourou Musuko post recommending that everyone use KissAnime instead of Crunchyroll because Crunchyroll didn’t have a large selection (since it was legal and was a pay-to-use service created to support anime producers)…just how spoiled are you people?
There is no such genre called “Girl Coming of Age” and the “Magical Girl” genre was a huge contributing factor to the popularisation of moe (fanservice through infantilsation). Funny how you have Madoka and Sora no Woto listed as “feminist series” when they are both moe shows aimed towards adult males. Many people were discussing how Madoka was pretentious lolicon but no one on tumblr thought about the social context until Urobuchi’s interview spread over to tumblr. Misty/Kasumi from Pokemon is still sexualised, she was often used for fanservice scenes (which may not have appeared in the English dubbed versions) and Pokemon’s primary demographic is young males. This kind of “innocent fanservice” is very common among kodomo anime but again, you won’t realise anything without being raised in the culture.
I’m also rolling my eyes pretty hard at how you want anime to subvert gender roles but also believe anime is feminist for presenting girliness as a strength. Japan is a very conservative society and girls being encouraged to be feminine through children’s TV is a way of keeping gender conformity. That’s not a feminist message. There is so much pressure in Japanese society to follow these gender roles. A tomboy is seen as lacking in submissiveness and feminine charm and will often be told in her life that she will be unworthy of marriage and will never be a “real woman”.
The standard for a “girly girl” is much higher in Japan and girls that don’t reach it are viewed as “manly” since masculinity is the default. This was largely a result of Western imperialists threatening Japanese men (wow what a surprise) after the Meiji era. These Japanese men decided that they would have to become tougher and that they had to stop the “feminization” of their culture by instilling stricter roles onto the Japanese population.
This is reflected in video games such as Persona 4 where Naoto pretended to be a boy because she wasn’t as feminine as society told her she should have been. She wanted to be a detective but to do that she would have to avoid being seen as a weak girl and to gain respect by posing as man. All you tumblr anime feminists went off to interpret her as a trans man and continued to piss on anyone that tried to tell you otherwise. Chihiro from Dangan Ronpa is another example of the problems with these strict gender roles. Don’t project your Western values onto Japanese society.
Often times tomboy may not be considered masculine from a Western perspective, and in fact very feminine instead. Many Japanese feminists are arguing for an abolition of gender roles on children’s TV, they don’t want presenting either masculinity or femininity as a strength. Japan is a traditionalist, homogeneous society with a deep focus on collectivism. If boys and girls were encouraged to focus on their own traits rather than doing just what their gender expected them then that would be pretty damn feminist.
You are applying Western politics onto Japanese media while practising cultural imperialism and you don’t give a fuck how actual Japanese people feel about it, you just want to boost your ego as you post long-ass essays about anime onto tumblr to prove how much of a “feminist” you are. Why did I never see anyone call out Hayao Miyazaki on his bullshit in “The Wind Rises”? He was glorifying the designer of the Zero’s Engine, Jiro Horikoshi. It was a fighter aircraft that was built with Chinese and Korean slave labour, then used to massacre these peoples. Nah, you were too busy crying over his disdain for otaku and wondering whether Kill La Kill was a metaphor for puberty.
Here’s the post with the powerpoint presentation for those that are seeing the version without it (I don’t know why tumblr user morubito removed it when they reblogged it).
I want to clear up some points:
- Do not send fandomsandfeminism any hate mail but I do want you to all to be more critical of these tumblr “feminists” and the weird essays they write about cultures that aren’t their own
- I never said trans or queer headcanons were bad but a lot of people believe they are actually canon and shut down anyone that disagrees by calling them homophobic or transphobic. Chihiro and Naoto (and now Robin Newman too), are not trans. The gender system in Japan is much more rigid and these “gender-blender” themes (this is actually a genre btw) are critiques of strict gender roles. If you think “gender noncomformity = transgender” then you are probably sexist, and kinda racist too in this context. I personally think Naoto and Chihiro are terrible characters to heacanon as transgender ugh.. Especially Naoto in the original Japanese version of the game.
- I can’t believe anti-social justice and anti-feminists are reblogging this. This post is not for you, I am not your ally. I want you to stand 3984398439482309 feet away from me. I believe social justice is great and I am a feminist. I also happen to be a queer (bisexual) Japanese trans woman (born intersex but assigned male at birth).
- You are free to interpret anime how you wish but performing a “feminist analysis” over it? No, don’t do that. Feminism is very political and it is deeply rooted in Western thought. Also Japanese feminism exists and I recommend you to read up on that.
- Femininity isn’t revolutionary and weaponized femininity is bullshit. Men all over the world want women to be feminine, it keeps them in their place. This is more pronounced in places like Japan. Women should be allowed to make their own choices but must also recognise that the choices they make don’t just happen in a vacuum.
- I would really like to hear other Japanese people to contribute to these discussions more. East Asians such as the Chinese and Koreans due to our shared histories and cultural ties with Japan should also be prioritised, along with nations that were affected by Japanese imperialism (which includes China and Korea again), as well as the voices of people of colour in general. Hearing white people voices all over anime is a nightmare.
Things I’d like to see more of in media
characters wearing medical alert bracelets
characters taking medication with their meals
characters mentioning that they have a therapy appointment
characters with reminders to eat in their phones/calendars/planners
characters using stim toys
characters asking if an event is accessible
characters using noise cancelling headphones
characters who are disabled all the time, not just when the plot “calls for it”
characters who are disabled all the time, not just when the plot “calls for it”
marulaoil sent
please don't use third world (i think it's considered derogatory) and use developing countries instead
“Developing countries” is a neoliberal euphemism which implies that poor countries are poor because they just havent developed a proper capitalist infrastructure yet. The phrase “third world” comes from the “Three Worlds Theory” of Mao Zedong which divides nations into categories based on the patterns of exploitation they fall under (with “third world” nations being colonized and exploited).
“Third world” identifies oppressed nations as being colonized and exploited, “developing” implies that they have failed to adopt neoliberal policies and open themselves to foreign capital.
honestly im surprised you couldnt choose to let your mabari fight loghain in the duel i mean thats probably the most ferelden thing you could ever do. it should be canon
dont tag art with your mild disappointment, with your opposing headcanons, with your complaints, with generally obviously unwanted opinions dont do it
dont do it
Artists read every tag on their art. I don’t care if it has 25,000+ notes, the artist is going to at least try to read every single comment and tag.
If you wouldn’t say it directly to the artist, don’t say it in the tags. It’s rude.
Track
Novocaine
Artist
Fall Out Boy
Millennials Are Less Tolerant Than You Think — Science of Us
"The fact of the matter is that millennials who are white — that is, members of the group that has always had the most regressive racial beliefs, and who will constitute a majority of U.S. voters for at least another couple of decades — are, on key questions involving race, no more open-minded than their parents. The only real difference, in fact, is that they think they are."
I use these skills myself, and I felt it would be nice to share them so others can use them as well!
If you are Muslim, DO NOT go on Buzzfeed, the Charlie Hebdo cover is the first image on the homepage.
