Weeaboo

[nesuphyn]

Japanaphile

Comments

[princesskraehe]

I've seen clever, funny, tongue-in-cheek anime parodies.

I have also seen this. :|

[nesuphyn]

It's pretty bad.

[sleepy_bird]

I think part of it comes from idealization of Japan--people who watch anime, then decide that Japan is "ultra cool" based on shows that are mostly aimed towards children or because they think they are going to be badass ninja masters because Japan has swords in it. Without going to the trouble of, you know, learning the language or trying to know anything else about the culture other than what they know from watching anime.* These people probably have bigger problems that predispose them to weeaboo-dom.

I bet people in other countries get annoyed when dopey fools are like "Burger King! America is freedom!"

* My favorite weeaboo-ism is "Japan is so tolerant of gay people!" Based entirely off watching yaoi.

[mysticfive]

"* My favorite weeaboo-ism is "Japan is so tolerant of gay people!" Based entirely off watching yaoi."

haha - direct quote from a Japanese person to a (male) friend of mine, upon hearing he was uneasy about going to an onsen: "Don't worry, Japan has no gays"

[nesuphyn]

But America is freedom and burgers. (but freedom isn't free, and the burgers are from mistreated American beef.)

[mysticfive]

honestly, it's the same anywhere. Closed-minded people take a *very* small slice of another culture and think that it's the entire culture. I can't even count the number of times I've shocked people simply by the fact that I don't like coffee. "But you're American!" they always say (ok, so not in English, but who cares). I've also been told by people after meeting me for the first time that when they heard I was an American they were expecting someone fat (ouch!). Also, although this (thankfully) isn't true in Elementary School where I am, a lot of the time people who are interested in America or other countries are looked upon just as oddly as "weeaboos" are in the States. Once at a movie theatre I heard, "Why do you want to watch that American movie? Aren't Japanese actors good enough for you?"
People everywhere can be closed-minded and idiotic; it's not solely an American phenomenon. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing...

[nesuphyn]

That's fair, I can't tell you how many times people were expecting to meet a white guy when they first meet me. Japan is just as guilty of unfairly generalizing about the US.

[joellehart]

I heard about this Miley Cyrus thing! This article by Eugene Cho in a blog that I read. (The "Nice White Lady" parody video I posted a while back also came from one of his blog posts.)

Here's another good post about racism from him. The last video is really good. But I have to ask -- what do you think about the first two videos, the commercials?