Mooooooooeeeee!
September 14th, 2008 by Lianne
Real life sucks. That is all.
I’m going to update a few times this week, since we, um, FELL BEHIND QUITE A BIT. Viz sent us a number of review copies of stuff right before our blogging blackout, so we’re currently making our way through those. Here’s the first of those reviews: Matsuri Hino’s one-shot pirate shoujo, Wanted. (Not to be confused with the other 6-10 other manga under that title.)
Also, there’s been a lot of talk on the blogosphere (note: kill myself for using that word) about “moe” lately, so I wanted to add an opinion.
Leave it be. Yes, it often spawns stories of little girls aimed at grown men. But the way I understand it, if those stories turn sexual, the genre changes to lolita. So calling moe sexual is unfair to the genre, since it’s oftentimes supposed to be specifically non-sexualized lolita. And for moe that can be interpreted by its readership as sexual? That’s like calling something slashable, and as we all know, everything is slashable. And saying moe has sexual undertones? That’s most certainly something one has to evaluate on a case-by-case basis, so punishing the genre for that isn’t fair, either. And saying it was created because Japanese men can’t handle mature, adult women? I’m sure that’s an interpretation, so here’s another one: Boy’s Love/yaoi means Japanese women want men to rape each other instead of them. Making broad statements about a culture that produces a particular type of popular niche media is a very, very dangerous game to play. And saying all media aimed at men has to be somehow sexual? Why, because men only care about sex? That’s pretty much the most unfair thing I’ve ever heard.
People have been making arguments one way or another (those are all examples of anti-moe arguments I’ve heard), but in summary, I think if boys want to bask in cutesy, they have the right to bask in cutesy. I’m not a big moe fan, but I’m not the audience. Live and let live. I don’t expect the boys to want to play video games that include boy tickling sims, after all. Why do some critics think a girl niche genre is okay but a boy niche genre isn’t? A lot of this reeks of misandry, and that ain’t feminism, I tell you what.
Based on the Internet’s unhealthy obsession with kitties, I think there’s one moe most people can get behind, at least. Lolz.
[…] Sentar posts some thoughts on moe at Sleep Is For the […]
Thanks for a great, rational, defense of cuteness. There’s an ugly, holier-than-thou trend going around these days, especially among teen girls, that compel them to post PEDO in all caps every time they see a character in a short skirt (even when they don’t seem to mind shota-esque yaoi). I think too many people are trained to be easily offended, and the Web especially encourages their habit of knee-jerk judgmentalism.