For bafflingly hypocritical reasons, social justice warriors’ beliefs on cultural relativism stop at the borders of Japan. While they would never dream of judging a Muslim country by Western standards, they love to deem Japanese cultural exports “problematic” and “misogynistic.”
The latest example of this lack of self awareness comes from The Mary Sue, the internet’s headquarters for witch hunts of imaginary sexism. A Mary Sue writer found cute anime characters problematic and called on the Western readers of the blog to “fix it.” Cultural imperialism at its finest.
The article centers its ire around “moé” (pronounced moh-eh), or cutesy anime girls designed to form empathic attachment with male viewers and sell waifu pillows. Male characters can also be moé, but they are conveniently not mentioned in the article because who cares if men are objectified, right?
“As a woman keen to see increased representation of female characters on screen, I find moé alienating,” the author writes. “Moments of cutesy clumsiness or misunderstandings only believable from a five-year-old are so far away from anything I experienced as a teenage girl with female friends my age that it is impossible for me to relate to those characters.”
Perhaps moé is problematic — but, if so, that’s mainly in regards to Japan’s plummeting birth rate in that it gives anti-social “otakus” a mental equivalent to real female companionship. Either way, it certainly isn’t the job of a white Western culture critic to sort out the issue. Who cares if some people have cat-eared anime girls as girlfriends in their head canons?
The article pissed off so many anime fans that a protest hashtag, #OperationMoe, is gaining traction on Twitter.
MarySue, did you diss an entire culture cause you angry they like cute things? #operationmoe https://t.co/RCt6Hgb6vK https://t.co/YpsqRBPL5Y
— Deplorable Grummz (@Grummz) September 7, 2016
FIGHT FOR YOUR WAIFU!#OperationMoe pic.twitter.com/jnEUmNvmOF
— Ford Freestar (@I_AM_IRON_VAN) September 8, 2016
No. of Moe robots in space: 1
No. of Mary Sue "journalists" in space: 0Checkmate Atheists#OperationMoe pic.twitter.com/3pVFs9JqKh
— Rock Lobster (@rockest_lobster) September 8, 2016
The Mary Sue’s war on all things problematic will not end until the entire world bends to their will and all forms of art are humorless and hamfisted with gender issues. But if they keep pissing off geek fandoms with dumb articles, maybe someone will have the strength to save all the kawaii anime girls from the evil cultural imperialists at this feminist blog.
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