On tumblr for the past few days, there has been an increasing obsession with Olympic figure skater, HANYU Yuzuru. Hanyu, a 19 talented year old athlete, was being compared to the likes to k-pop artists and anime characters.
Let that sink in for a bit.
A young athlete that qualified for the Olympics, a world class sportsman, is being compared to a couple 2d characters and some Korean idol singers. The only thing he has in common with any of them is that they are Asian pop culture icons.
Many dismiss his immense talent at entering the Olympics, winning the short figure skating event for his overwhelmingly "kawaii-ness". The fact that these girls are likening him to things that have little relation to him proves how Asians in popular culture are a fetish and how
Asians are caricatures rather than individuals.
I enjoy watching figure skating since Kim Yuna became popular. I'm not particularly interested in the technicalities of ice-skating but I appreciate the work, the talent and the overall performance given by these professional athletes.
And that is where we discuss weeabos (or Koreaboos). Weeabos do know the Japanese culture and show an invested interest through manga, music and dramas. Though they see Japan through a limited, skewered scope which means they lack true understanding. Instead they throw around words like "Kawaii" in mid sentence (while speaking English), add honorifics like "-chan" or "-kun" or freak out when they meet a Japanese person while proceeding to ask if they've watched the latest Anime purely on the basis of being Japanese rather than knowing whether they share that common interest. It's the same as someone approaching an American and assuming they are sexually promiscuous and fetish-izing them for the fictional behavior they see on tv.
Many weeabos may even claim they're part Japanese and have fetishes for anyone who happens to be Japanese without looking at them as normal individuals. Not every Japanese guy is a bishounen and not every Japanese girl is a submissive, chipmunk sounding Anime girl.
I guess I'd hate to say this but a delusional love/fetish for Asian cultures really puts you at the spectrum of, well... being racist. You see you have two extremes of being a racist, number 1 is absolute disdain for another culture while putting your own up on a pedestal and the other is an obsessive adoration which leads to you putting the another culture on a pedestal while believing others are less superior.
Let
free dictionary explain it:
rac·ism
(rā′sĭz′əm)
n.
1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
-freedictionary.com
So there you have it, my take and opinion weeabos. What's your opinion of weeabos? Are you sometimes guilty of these behaviour? And hey, if you know a weeabo, give them a hint and send them this post ;)
All comments are greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: This is my perspective of people fetish-izing Asian culture. Though I am not Japanese, being Asian, I've had similar experiences and share my personal view on things. Though it's just an opinion, I fully acknowledge I'm responsible everything I say and an opinion is not an excuse. Instead let's have an intelligent discussion for a better understanding of things :)
.jpg)
