Humanity has always embraced household gods
July 20, 2016 4:55 AM Subscribe
Haha, he managed to find time to seek out and quote a stereotypically disaffected foreigner (and why didn't the writer talk to the guy's wife, who is actually Japanese? Or maybe they're divorced, one reason for his sour outlook?):
“Kawaii is sickening,” says gallery-goer Stefhen Bryan, a Jamaican writer who lived for a decade in Japan and married a Japanese woman. “Kawaii is especially babylike. If a woman acts like an adult in Japan, it’s an offence. Their self-esteem is nothing in this country. It’s all under the aegis of culture. It’s low self-esteem en masse.”
posted by My Dad at 5:58 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
“Kawaii is sickening,” says gallery-goer Stefhen Bryan, a Jamaican writer who lived for a decade in Japan and married a Japanese woman. “Kawaii is especially babylike. If a woman acts like an adult in Japan, it’s an offence. Their self-esteem is nothing in this country. It’s all under the aegis of culture. It’s low self-esteem en masse.”
posted by My Dad at 5:58 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter: ranging from earthquakes to mayonnaise and Satan
I only hang out with Satan on Sundays.
posted by mayonnaises at 6:04 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I only hang out with Satan on Sundays.
posted by mayonnaises at 6:04 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Some related links:
The Ten Most Terrifying Yuru-kyara
Mary Cagle, teaching English in Japan has a comic on her town's yuru-kyara. (There are more following that comic.)
posted by Hactar at 6:35 AM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
The Ten Most Terrifying Yuru-kyara
Mary Cagle, teaching English in Japan has a comic on her town's yuru-kyara. (There are more following that comic.)
posted by Hactar at 6:35 AM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
That was a fascinating and interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
posted by Kitteh at 6:47 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Kitteh at 6:47 AM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Cuteness has not yet emerged as an independent scientific field
Waiting for the first university to offer a PhD in kawaiiology.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:01 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Waiting for the first university to offer a PhD in kawaiiology.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 12:01 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah that guy sounds like a real prize My Dad: "In his controversial memoir, Black Passenger Yellow Cabs: Of Exile and Excess in Japan, Bryan tells tales of his abusive Jamaican childhood and sex addicted adulthood in Japan"
From Amazon: "Bryan immigrated to Japan solely to indulge his extreme fixation on East and Southeast Asian women."
posted by thefoxgod at 1:10 PM on July 20, 2016
From Amazon: "Bryan immigrated to Japan solely to indulge his extreme fixation on East and Southeast Asian women."
posted by thefoxgod at 1:10 PM on July 20, 2016
(And I mean, thats literally from the blurb text on his Amazon book, not some reviewer)
posted by thefoxgod at 1:11 PM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by thefoxgod at 1:11 PM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Beneath this thin veneer of cuteness, there are some aggressive and nationalistic shinto, bushido and meiji ideals lurking and when they surface things can get ugly. Shinzō Abe has been able to exploit these ideals and as a result we're seeing Japan that isn't always so cute.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:37 PM on July 20, 2016
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:37 PM on July 20, 2016
From Amazon: "Bryan immigrated to Japan solely to indulge his extreme fixation on East and Southeast Asian women."
Oh jesus christ almighty.
posted by My Dad at 2:01 PM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh jesus christ almighty.
posted by My Dad at 2:01 PM on July 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
what we're seeing Japan that isn't always so cute.
Abe, while a neocon, is not responsible for gender disparity in the Japanese workplace. His cabinet's plans to increase workforce participation by women is not great either, since they're also expected to look after children and aged parents.
And whoever writes on Japan for the Guardian is a total lunatic. Lives on a different planet. Or maybe is a time-traveler from 1940 or something.
posted by My Dad at 2:03 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Abe, while a neocon, is not responsible for gender disparity in the Japanese workplace. His cabinet's plans to increase workforce participation by women is not great either, since they're also expected to look after children and aged parents.
And whoever writes on Japan for the Guardian is a total lunatic. Lives on a different planet. Or maybe is a time-traveler from 1940 or something.
posted by My Dad at 2:03 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Japanese politics and nationalism seems like a better fit for this open thread on that exact subject.
Unless the idea is there is a specific link between what this article is talking about and that, which I don't see.
posted by thefoxgod at 2:10 PM on July 20, 2016
Unless the idea is there is a specific link between what this article is talking about and that, which I don't see.
posted by thefoxgod at 2:10 PM on July 20, 2016
"Japanese women still live in a culture where single women in their 30s are sometimes referred to as ‘leftover Christmas cake’, meaning that after the 25th – of December for cake, birthday for women – they are past their expiration date and hard to get rid of. "
I learned this expression back in the early 1990s, before moving to Japan. I haven't used it much, but on any occasion where I have used it (not, of course, to refer to someone as a Christmas Cake, but making a pun or talking about feminism or whatever), nobody has ever understood it. Not once.
"If a woman acts like an adult in Japan, it’s an offence."
Man, what kind of crowd did this guy run with? I've never seen this phenomenon. I'd say that the difference is that in the US if you're a grown-ass adult and act adult, that's fine. If you act cute, that's an offense. In Japan, if you act adult, that's fine. If you act cute, that's also fine.
posted by Bugbread at 7:00 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I learned this expression back in the early 1990s, before moving to Japan. I haven't used it much, but on any occasion where I have used it (not, of course, to refer to someone as a Christmas Cake, but making a pun or talking about feminism or whatever), nobody has ever understood it. Not once.
"If a woman acts like an adult in Japan, it’s an offence."
Man, what kind of crowd did this guy run with? I've never seen this phenomenon. I'd say that the difference is that in the US if you're a grown-ass adult and act adult, that's fine. If you act cute, that's an offense. In Japan, if you act adult, that's fine. If you act cute, that's also fine.
posted by Bugbread at 7:00 PM on July 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Man, what kind of crowd did this guy run with?
He's a super creepy racist. I can't believe the author quoted him without putting who he is into context. Its like if I wrote an article about Eastern European culture and quoted Roosh V's opinion on the women there.
posted by thefoxgod at 12:40 AM on July 21, 2016
He's a super creepy racist. I can't believe the author quoted him without putting who he is into context. Its like if I wrote an article about Eastern European culture and quoted Roosh V's opinion on the women there.
posted by thefoxgod at 12:40 AM on July 21, 2016
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posted by Gelatin at 5:45 AM on July 20, 2016 [3 favorites]