Weeaboo?

This blog entry is not as 'serious' as most of my blog posts, but it's still something that can encourage bullying, so I suppose it its own way, it is kinda serious.

The use of the word 'weeaboo' (formerly known as 'wapanese') in the anime, manga, and otherwise Japan-centric community.

There are many definitions of this term, so allowed me to link you to Urban Dictionary for a variety of explanations; take your pick.

Aren't a lot of these things what a typical fan would do/know, too?

To sum it up, a 'weeaboo' is someone who is apparently obsessed with Japan/Japanese pop culture to such a degree that they often start to 'act' Japanese in an attempt to mimic the people/characters that they idolize so much.

This term is usually used by people who also like the things that a 'weeaboo' likes so, by using this demeaning word, they can easily separate themselves from them/make fun of them; it's like going, "I really really like this band, but I'm not a fangirl/boy."

I have used the word 'weeaboo' myself, I even made a video about it three years ago before I realized how stupid the whole thing was. Watch it [here] if you want, I'm probably gonna be deleting it soon.

If someone is really obsessed with a culture and ends up mimicking a lot of what they do, why does it matter? Let them do their thing.

Can it be annoying? Sometimes, yeah, but so what? Just don't associate yourself with people like that, then? A lot of people annoy me, but I just distance myself.

"But SJ, they've giving anime/manga/whatever a bad name." And? Who cares what people think of your hobby? People think you're an obsessive who wants to be Japanese because of these 'weeaboos'? Oh well. The important thing is that YOU enjoy your hobby, right?

I'm not going to bad-mouth certain fans of what I like to feel superior, to feel like the 'better' fan, the more 'worthy' fan, that's bullshit.

Animals vs. Humans; the meat debate

When you tell someone that you don't eat meat, let alone that you refrain from animal products entirely, the results vary but they tend to be on a similar level:

• But, why?
• Don't you miss things? Like bacon?
• I could NEVER do that!
• ...Why though?
• What do you eat?
• WHY

My answer to the most popular question (in case you didn't get it, it's 'why'), is, "Why not?" Like, why aren't  you vegan? Meat-eaters tend to get confused about why I'm vegan, but I am genuinely confused as to why they're not.

I've also been asked several times, "Why vegan? Why not just vegetarian?" Asking me why I'm not vegetarian is akin to asking a half-full animal shelter why they don't take in more animals. There is plenty of room for more animals, but because that shelter would need to have more responsibility, more compassion, they should just stop halfway?

There are many reasons why veganism is worth it, not just for the individual, but for the animals they're saving, the planet, the environment, other  people etc, and I could chock-a-block this post with all of these reasons but as someone with a short attention span, I don't expect anyone else to keep up with me after the fiftieth paragraph!

Therefore, I will quickly cover something that's pretty straight-forward - why do we treat animals as lesser beings?

I'm about to answer that question for you, with counter-arguments.

~

Some people hate this word, but as it's brought up in the book I'm going to reference, I'm gonna go ahead and say it: thinking less of animals because they're not human is a form of what some would call 'speciesism'.

The following quotes are taken from 50 Philosophy Ideas (You Really Need To Know) by Ben Dupré (page 106). I chose this book because these are the exact same questions that I've been asking myself/the world.

Speciesism is described here as: '[A] basic lack of respect for the dignity and needs of animals other than humans, no more defensible than discrimination on the basis of gender or race.'


This is a bit of a touchy thing to bring up - sexism and racism - but before you immediately write this off, the basis  of the idea is the same: changing the way you treat someone/something based on something that is a part of them, something that you deem inferior.

But hold up SJ, you may say, there's no way you can compare a human being to an animal, they're a completely different species, completely separate from us, no parallels.

I will get to that.

Should we only  be looking out for our fellow man? Why not look out for humans and  animals? Dupré says that lions for example favour other lions over say, warthogs...'so why shouldn't humans show a similar partiality?'

Because, some may say:

1. 'humans have a higher level of intelligence than animals (or at least the potential to do so);
2. predation is natural (animals in nature eat other animals);
3. animals are specially bred to be eaten/used in experiments (and wouldn't exist otherwise);
4. we need to eat meat (although millions of apparently healthy people don't);
5. animals lack souls (but are we certain that humans do have them?);'

He read your mind, right? But then he counters a couple of these thoughts:

1. '[I]f we decide it is superior intellect that counts, would we use this criterion to justify using a child or a mentally retarded person with a level of intelligence below that of a chimpanzee in a scientific experiment?'
2. '[I]f we decide that it is "nature's way", we soon find that there are many things that animals (including humans) naturally do that we might not wish to encourage: sometimes male lions follow their nature in killing a rival's offspring, but such behavior would generally be frowned upon in humans.'
3. I don't understand why this is an argument. All this says to me is, "If these animals didn't exist, they wouldn't be treated horribly and killed." Not existing v.s. a lifetime of captivity, pain, and death; that's a tough one.
4. No we don't. Many people have used the 'humans have canines like carnivores in the wild' argument so I'll get rid of that first off by linking to this short post and this picture for an easy comparison (I dare you to rip apart an animal with your little canines). What's in meat that isn't in vegan food? This lovely lady goes into it perfectly; stand-out quote: 'No medical condition requires someone to eat meat when there’s a plethora of edible plant life available; all of our nutrients can be easily gained through plant life.'
5. I'm not going to get into 'souls' because I'm not someone who believes in souls, animals or humans. Just like I don't agree with the idea that God put animals on the earth to be eaten.

This is only one side of it all - morality/animal rights aside, there are several reasons why a vegan diet is beneficial, reasons which will be covered another time but until then, Google is your friend.

Black in a White Society

It's been a while, eh? I've wanted to blog so often recently, but I didn't know what to write about. Now I have something, so I'll get to bloggin'.

I want to talk about commonplace racism towards people of colour, specifically black people as this is what the article I'm about to bring up has as its focus.

I go to Falmouth University in Cornwall, and it took me a while, but I started to realize something very different from the hometown that I've grown up in for 23 years straight - differences in racial diversity. My hometown in Berkshire is very diverse; actually, since coming home from uni for the summer, I've been actively seeing, for a laugh, if I can go a second without seeing a person of colour in the town centre. I cannot. Five seconds, tops? ;)

When I'm back 'home' in Cornwall, on a 'bad' day, I only see a handful of coloured people throughout the entire day. And when I say coloured, of course I mean people of colour, so this is inclusive of all racial minorities, not just black people....which actually makes this observation even more hard-hitting when it comes to diversity.

It took me a while to realize how 'different' I felt, even after I wrote and performed a - partly exaggerated - spoken word poem entitled I Am Different (based on Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, a book specifically about how negatively black people were treated in London after World War Two). Maybe I was in denial? Maybe I refused to even acknowledge it because I wanted to fit in in a new location?

Anyway, back to the article I found.

The focus of the article is actually about a black woman, Martha-Renee Kolleh, who has put a sign up in her cafe window 'warning' customers that she is black, lest people unwittingly come into the shop and find out for themselves.

Martha-Renee Kolleh

The reason? On several occasions she has had people come in, take one look at her, and walk back out again, presumably because they are faced with a woman who is black.

I felt like I identified more and more with this article as I read each paragraph, nodding my head with mutual understanding as incident after incident occurred against Lola Okolosie, the black woman responsible for the article titled, 'If you are allergic to black people, don't come in' – at first I balked …'

She mentions early on in the report: 'A few weeks ago, a trip to a popular Dales village reminded me of why being in all-white areas is increasingly something I am reluctant to do.' Then she recalls how she was ignored in public by ‘[t]wo white, middle-aged male cyclists’ after she asks them politely to move their bikes so she can park her car, yet when a white man in a sports car comes along and asks the very same, they easily comply.

They did acknowledge her presence, she was heard, they just brushed her off in favour of someone they thought was more worthy of a parking space.

She then goes on to say, 'I won’t even mention the number of stares I got just walking around the village and, no, it had nothing to do with my attractiveness or indeed lack thereof.'

That quote was what resonated with me most.
 
As Okolosie also mentions, it's difficult to 'prove' when someone is being racist, subtly or otherwise, without being accused of blowing it out of proportion, but then why do I feel that I'm being treated differently (because of my race) in a place where 96%-97.6% of the population is 'White British' (figure taken from a 2001 survey of select Cornish towns) and not in my hometown, which is about as diverse as London?

(This survey was taken over ten years ago, but the 2009 pdf says that 'the overall pattern of Cornwall’s population by ethnicity has remained essentially the same as in 2001')

It would be like walking through a town comprised of males and getting funny looks; I would then be inclined to blame my gender over anything else.

The horrible thing is that this commonplace racism is not only used by white people. I will openly admit that I've been prejudice against my own race because of the stigma that is attached to black people. It's awful, I feel disgusted with myself for the thoughts that are so deeply rooted in my skull because of the part of the world that I grew up in, the place that priorities people with fair, not dark skin.

The society that's telling people, telling children, to favour 'white' has in turn made me think less of myself and the way that I look.