The More You Know...
13 March 06 in Found
I have to come clean here. You see, in junior high I fell in with a bad crowd, a group of multi-racial misfits who studied martial arts, collected manga and anime, went to comic-cons and traded duffel bags full of illicit hentai. Luckily for me I eventually discovered girls and thus spared myself a lifetime of collecting little figurines and living in my parents’ basement. Others weren’t so lucky.
It amuses me that years later the fodder for my adolescent fixations has suddenly acquired coolhunting cachet. We in America like to poke fun at the Japanese for their use of Engrish and their appropriation of the most ridiculous bits of American culture, but I’m quite certain they feel the same way regarding our fetishizing of “deviant” Japanese sexuality and otaku culture.
I heaved a wistful sigh and decided to share this little anecdote when I stumbled upon this guide to drawing manga characters (for the uninitiated, just think graphic novels—I know some purist living in his mom’s basement is shaking his fist at me right now). As you scroll through the illustrations pay close attention to the physical ideal that’s being presented here. Though I still consider myself somewhat of a manga and anime fan, the hyper-westernized, almost pedophilic character of the artwork never sat well with me. Clearly Asian characteristics are usually reserved for old folks or else very one-dimensional minor characters.
It’s perhaps not surprising that a society which perpetuates racism versus outsiders also struggles with internalized racism—this duality lies at the core of all forms of irrational discrimination.
[Via Sexoteric]
More: Asian, Japanese, Manga, Stereotypes, Racial Bias
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