Goggles, not Labels – Feminism and Good Writing in [Anime]

The following questions were taken from my Ask.fm page, and in both of them the question is posed in a way that seeks to apply a certain label to anime, and I answer that it’s hard, and not all that fruitful. The reasons in each case are different, but I think both answers work well together as an exhortation to look at how we look at things, and to identify that as more important than the result itself.

Which anime works would you consider feminist?

I’ve seen some good tweets on the matter last week, let’s start with those:

The long and short of it is that, often, answering such questions (and also, “What’s a libertarian work?” or “What’s a socialist work?” when dealing beyond outright manifestos) means something sort of weird, because all these things are ideological goggles to view other things throughout, rather than labels that apply to things per se. Even “Libertianism” which I said Mahouka espouses the ideals of. It’s mostly that these works contain some of the things these things aim for, or the ideas they use as basis.

Media and Social Commentary – The Shows and the Fans

The following two answers had been given on ask.fm. I sometimes answer questions off of the blog and I think they’d make for good pieces. Specifically here, as following my almost infamous piece on how Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is an “Ode to Meritocracy” I was asked or accused of condemning fans of the show for liking it. So I think this answer will be useful. The second question looks at a specific example of a show and whether it has subtext, and what it means if it does.

Do you think that, when making an evaluation of a piece of media, you are also (at least in part) making some statement about those people who enjoy that piece of media? e.g. thinking that Mahouka promotes a toxic message – does that mean you made a negative evaluation of it’s fans, on some level? Maybe sometimes somewhat?

Look. We are what we consume. Sometimes we realize what it is and ignore it. Sometimes we realize what it is and embrace it. Sometimes we don’t realize what it is and we’re affected to varying degrees.

Liebster Award Round 1: Otaku Lounge.

This is a blog, and while most of the entries aren’t centered around myself, I think getting to know some trivial bits and pieces about my life couldn’t hurt, and it could even be fun, heaven forbid ;-)

Anyway, Liebster Award is one granted by bloggers to other blogs whom they think deserve more attention. I thank Artemis who nominated me here, back on December 17th (how time flies. I now see a post I promised to reply to within a week is a month old in a couple of days!). Artemis’ blog, The Otaku Lounge, is interesting, well-written, and worth your time. Aside from answering questions, I’m not going to actually nominate more blogs, because they’ve all been nominated and I dislike nominating people. Ho.

1. When did you first start blogging, and do you realistically see yourself still blogging in, say, 10 years from now?

14th March, 2002, back on LiveJournal, a personal blog, some prose, some micro-fiction, RPG related thoughts, etc.

Will I blog in 10 years? I’ve had 4 blogs, about 4 very different topics, but I do tend to not blog when I get busy, and I prefer chaining my interests. I’ll probably write, in some form. When I was heavily into league, I wrote some thoughtful posts on the league forum, when I played a miniature wargame I had a stickied post on the official forum where I wrote strategy guides and different ways to /think/ as you played the game.

So maybe I won’t “blog”, but I’ll probably still write masses, of some form, in some manner.