If you want to know a civilization, just watch their culture. There is a reason why culture is always researched; it allows people to understand the dreams and ambitions of the people of said civilization. Since this popular culture is one of the few that is exported in massive amounts (Around 120 million dollars in 2006, hat tip: Wikipedia) it is necessary to wonder about the message that it brings. This one in particular is disturbing because of a common factor, no matter what the piece is:
Men must submit to women
There are so-called herbs in Japan, and this message that is disseminated from childhood isn’t helping much. The skeptic or the fanbois will say “You are full of BS, where does it say that?”
Damn, how do I start?
First, this stuff is read mostly by nerds in Western countries for a reason. If you want to see totally batshit insane stories that have less sense than American comics (and that’s something), then by all means go ahead. If, on the other hand, you want something that teaches manhood and how not to be a loser, then look somewhere else, because you won’t find it there.
Disclaimer: All these opinions are sponsored by internet translators and online readers, because both are scared of lawyers, not because paying for this stuff is retarded. Say hi to them.
I could say that all this stuff promotes the idea that women can physically attack and otherwise harass men and leave it at that, but let’s be more specific: the poison that is fed through all kinds of magazines has many varieties.
- Shounen (Young boys):
In this falls the typical boys series, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto (barely) and One Piece for example. It promotes the value of friendship, loyalty and courage by having children and adults fight a lot versus all kinds of villains. So far so good. What irks me is the fact that no matter how strong and powerful the male protagonist, he is always getting manhandled by the designated female tamer, I mean, “romantic prospect.”
Come on, these guys fight and beat all kinds of WTF villains and save the female tamer of said villains, but still she punches them through a wall? Am I the only one that doesn’t see the logic in it? (yeah, I ask for logic in a work of fiction).
- Ecchi (Pervert):
This one is for boys when they get to the teen years and realize that: a)They won’t save the world, b)Girls make their dicks hard, and c)They are losers, but don’t know why (mainly because they let women walk all over them). These are basically stories about a guy (who looks AND acts suspiciously like the author) who, for some reason, either lives and/or studies with a lot of girls that are attracted to him because of his kindness, but they are just shy and express it by beating the shit out of the guy or having catfights for him. Also known as Harem (heh).
It shouldn’t be a surprise to regular readers of this site, but, for starters, Nice Guys ™ repulse women. The male protagonist does good stuff out of the kindness of his heart, but the real Nice Guys ™ just do it because they are begging for vag. And women know it, and are repulsed by their lack of testicular fortitude.
Second, quoting Roissy “The paradox of femininity is that it is often, both the ultrafeminine and ultramasculine women who have racked up big numbers of men.” Perhaps in Japan their families have tighter control over them, but shyness isn’t something that you usually find in any woman who is the center of attention or who occupies an extreme position on the gender balance.
- Shoujo (Girls and Women):
These are written by women, and are love stories between an ordinary girl (that, once again, looks a lot like the author) and the most dominant alpha male, with whatever bullshit story that they cram in the middle.
Haven’t seen one that cannot be reduced to this:
*Girl goes around.
*She finds alpha male.
*He treats her like any other of his conquests, but he tries to go too fast with her (true alphas don’t do that).
*She walks away or is saved by an unimportant character and goes complaining that “he is such a jerk”. Well, chicks dig jerks, so it’s pure rationalization.
*She finds herself in a tough situation (kidnapped, bullied, attacked, etc).
*Alpha male goes to the rescue (don’t know why).
*She’s about to give herself over him, but then she starts to feel like a slut and she screams at him or hit him while he just takes her shit (again, no true alpha does that).
Same stuff over and over (with different junk crammed in the middle) until finally she gives herself to him before making him take her shit. So it is basically an overextended Twilight, just with more rationalization.
- Hentai (Porn):
Here’s a couple of links (NSFW, obviously. Courtesy of Google) in which you can see a lot of them. Go and then get back.
Ok, back? What we remember (besides the hard-on):
*Disproportionally huge genitals and tits, lots of body fluids and porn actress screams. I know that it needs to look interesting, but these just scream that whoever produced these comics has little experience with sex.
*Most of it concerns a regular boy (or boys) finally growing a pair and screwing a hot girl (or girls). Basically the classical “No, no, no, yes, Yes, YES!!!” false rape that is a typical women’s fantasy.
Like all porn, let’s remember that both men and women watch it.
Ok, those cover the usual ones. Now the really messed up stuff.
- Shounen-ai / Shoujo-ai (Gay comics)
First, reading something about guys with other guys is icky. Need to say it.
Second, both are written by women. Both have divorced parents and/or and strict upbringing (in the ones for teens and adults) and prostitution, alcohol and drugs (in the ones for adults) way too many times to be a coincidence. The kind of women who write this stuff would be in a LGBT PRIDE parade in a Western country, so there’s a correlation in there. Put that with the usual shoujo story with both protagonists of the same gender and bam, there you got it.
- Seinen (Male Mature)
These ones, represented by Neon Genesis Evangelion, are usually fucked up stories with a lot of existentialism questions covering a lot of emo. Also, if I wanted to see a bunch of teens and adults with deep psychological traumas with no capacity whatsoever of trusting another human being, I would go to the closest rape therapy group.
- Josei (Female Mature):
Drawn versions of drama series, with the same usual quality of drama series. Nothing to see here (but couldn’t put it anywhere else).
Well, the guys in this stuff are as fancy as the typical Japanese herbivore, so they copy that motif. Unfortunately, just like women who believe that a career makes them attractive to males because they are attracted to males with a career, males believe that the appearance is what attracts women to the protagonist when it was their social dominance. Appearance is secondary.
However, what kind of social dominance can have guys that are brainwashed since children to believe that women like chumps? The lack of preparation for a free sexual market is often cited as a cause for low birth rates in Japan, but I would bet that this set of expectations held by both men and women has something to do with it.
