Japanese Actors Do Not Look Like Japanese!?? Part1
The other day, I had an argument over this subject on some movie discussion board.
One guy wrote that he thought actors did not look like Japanese when he started to watch Japanese films such as Kurosawa's and Ozu's.
So I stated that actors in Japanese films did not look like Japanese to him because he was not used to seeing nice looking Asian/Japanese as he had not seen them in any American media. For Americans, Asian are not supposed to be good looking. Therefore handsome actors in Japanese film did not look Japanese to this person.
In American media, you do not see many Asians. And when you see them, usually they are very very stereo types. Simply nice lookig Asian men do not exist in American media. Well, a few exceptions maybe. But basically, in American media, Asian men are geeky ugly gumps, And Asian women are exotic play-things who love to serve White men. Casting directors do not chose handsome Asians because they think good looking ones do not look Asians enough.
Here is a good example.
Mashi Oka from the hit TV show "Heroes"
As he hated this accusation about the racism againt Asians in American media, he just did not want to admit it. I understood that. So he started to write about Japanese propaganda films in Korea during pre-war era, which were nothing but ridiculous justifications of Japanese occupation over Korea. I guess he wanted to say that Japanese media could be very bias too.
Anyway, after this argument, I started to wonder if what I wrote to him was right or not.
Just look at some handsome guys in current Japanese media.
Kenji Sakaguchi (Actor)
Hiroshi Abe (Actor)
Tomoya Hase (Actor/Musician)
Takeshi Kaneshiro (Actor)
Kazuki Kitamura (Actor)
Ken Hirai (Singer)
Satoshi Tsumabuki (Actor)
Hidetoshi Nakata (Soccor Player)
With the exception of Nakata, they all have large eyes and tall nose, which are not Asians facial characteristics, even Nakata has a relatively tall nose as an Asian. Does this mean they do not look like Asians? Well, at least I can say the majority of Japanese men do not look like them, that's for sure.
Hmmmmmm......
If I sit by the window of Sturbacks in New York and keep looking outside, people walking down the street, do I see many of those who look like Hollywood Stars? "NOPE!" But at least, I can say many White people do have large eyes and tall nose relative to Asians.
So if the beaty standard of media in Japan is "large eyes and tall nose", probably it came from America or any European countries as most of Japanese do not have them.
< Black Lizard > (1968) Starring Akihiro Maruyama(Miwa) Japan's most Famous Drag Queen
Some Gaijins are surprised to see some, not many but more than a few, gay or gayish TV personalities on Japanese TV shows. Some of them are comedians, some are actors/singers, some are commentators, some are critics, some are choreographers, some are flower srrangement artists yes, you see them much more than on American TV shows.
However, this does not mean that they are more liberated than in U.S., not at all.
A few years ago, I was watching Ed Sullivan show on PBS and shocked to see a female impersonator was doing "Judy Garland." Even today, you rarely see any drag queens on a primetime network TV show. Then how could that be possible in '60s before the '70s gay movement?? I was puzzled, but eventually I realized that he was not a drag queen but a female impersonator.
This guy was introduced as a female impersonator, and impersonated Judy Garland, surprisingly he sang well, not lip-synched as today's drag queens. He was a man who had a special skill to impersonate Judy Garland, not supposed to be a drag Queen, therefore his sexuality was not question. That's why he could be on the National network show in '60s.
Despite of the fact that there have been so many protests to improve their situations from gay community throughout '70s to the present day, there are a very few celebrities who came out as gay and a network TV do not have much gay themes shows and they are usually comedies if you find them, like "Will and Grace."
Why are comedies Okay? Because if they are funny, someone you can laugh about, it is easier to accept them than a strong, intelligent and handsome, who can be threatening to a mojority who is White in this society. In other words, you better be a novelty if you like to be accepted by the majority.
Peter aka Shinosuke Ikehata
Easily I can count 13-14 of them, who sell "bing gay" in Japanese showbiz. And all of them are either drag queens or very feminin types I do not say all of them are sell-out but most certainly they are stereo types and that's why they are accepted. They are mosdef novelties, they are not the people who can threaten the Japanese traditional value of family and social structure.
I have to mention that this does not include Onnagata of Kabuki which is a Japanese traditional theatre, where men do female roles. Probably one reason some drag queens can be accepted by Japanese media is that Japan has a long history of gender bending in their showbiz. Yet, asking them about their sexuality has been a big taboo. They can do that as long as their sexuality is not in question.
There are many Japanese male celebrities who got rumores to be gay, and as they are musculine types, they will never come out because they know that would be ends of their career.
Tamasaburo Bando The biggest star of Onnagata, Kabuki's actor who specialized in female roles
In every aspect, well, probably besides issues of recycle, Japanese have a very low awareness on any social issues compared to Americans. And when it comes to a gay issue and a woman's issue, they are more than 30 years behind. Why? Because almost nobody protest about them. I do not say nothing because I do remember some womanlib activities in late '70s in Japan. Also I heard there was some gaylib activity in '90s as well, which probably was inspired by AIDS activism of U.S. However, they faded away eventually just like any American trens Japanese love to immitate.
Carousel Maki She was even in a '70s str8 porn film. Who saw it?, who knows!
In Japan, violent gay bashing does not happen very often, but being gay is something you rather hind in order to fit in. Actually, if you are a gaijin, you are already different because of your skin color, being gay does not add much more, especially Japanese have a stereo type images of the western countries filled with gays, which means they are not going to fall off from their chairs if you tell them you are gay. However, you still better not say about it if you become a teacher, especially in rural areas.
I used to go to a Japanese salon to get my hair cut till I had a career crisis. After that, I thought it was too expensive for me and I, who did not have stable income anymore, did not deserve such a lavish treatment. Well, it cost about $50. However, I could not accept the idea to go to a regular barber because I had gone to a salon since I was 18 years old. So I started to go to the chain hair cut place called "SuperCut" which looks kinda like a salon with a barber shop price. It turned out to be a place for newly graduates from hair cutter schools. And they come and go very quickly as I guess they do not get paid well.
So each time I go there, I have to explain to a new person what kind of hair cut I like. I usually say "I like choppy hair cut, shaggy kinda one, lots of layers and zig zag lines, short back and sides just touch my ears, top should be a little longer, and bangs, longest ones touchs my eyeblows."
But still some of them gave me a very wierd hait cut, like every lines were so straight. Once a young Black woman gave me such a strange hair cut that I could not help saying to her I could not walk outside with my hair like that.
As it really puzzled me, I asked some Japanese I know if they had any similar experience like this. And some of them said yes. Then I realized this is some sort of stereo typing about Asians. Asians are supposed to have very weird straight line hair cut. I do not know where this stereo typing came from.
Well, this is another stereo type image I have to accept or coop with if I live in U.S. especially as a poor one.
This time I like to talk about this subject from the aspects of Biology & Sociology.
"Romance is a game for fools" I used to say A game I thought I'd never play Then you passed by And here am I Throwing caution to the wind
So why do fools fall in love? Why are people attracted to each other? Well, just one word "Sex"! It means "for reproduction." All mental, emotional and physical joy and ecstacy of love, romance and sex are for reproduction. Without them, people lose the interest to have a baby.
Okay, boys and girls, now, I give you a lecture of the basic biology about sex. What do women really want from men? Two things, the one is the good gene to ensure the success of offsprings. As the number of babies women can bare is limited, women are always looking for men with good genes. It means that women are looking for qualities of men. phyical beauty and superiority are good indication of what kind of gene that men have. Another is the support from men, financially, phisically, mentally and emotionally for raising children becauce it takes a long time for human babies to reach adulthood. Though men say women always look at men's wallets and cars, it is very natural and rightfully for women to do so in order to find a man to give them enough support to raise kids. And men with money means men with a talent to make money as well if he made that and that gene can contribute to her children's future success. Also men with brave and sweet personality can offer good protection and care to women. So those are the qualities of men that women are looking for.
On the other hand, men do not have to bear a child, which means men are looking for not only good qualities in women but also quantities as well. Men want have sex with many women to spread his genes. That makes men cheaters and also women can be cheaters too because they always look for men with a better sperm even after she got a one with a good sperm. Then why do they get married? Because it is better to do so in order to help each other to raise childen. That is why human being have very contradictory sexual behaviors. You got that, boys and girl? Goooood!
Okay, so let's apply this theory to the subject, "Are Japanese girls are really sluts?" When a Japanese girl come to New York city, she sees any kinds of men from all over the world and naturally she compare one with others, especially Japanese men with White men and Black men. Then she finds what White men and Black men got, hight, broad shoulder, thick chest, long legs and big penis...... Well, naturally she is attracted to White and Black men. On the other hand, for White men and Black men Japanese/Asian girls are not paticulary attractive becuase average Japanese/Asian girls have flat faces, small breasts and shorter legs, those are not appealing physical features for men. So in order to get the attention from White men and Black men, what do Japanese girls have to do? They have to be sexually agressive, which means being slutty. Is that means all Japanese girls become sluts for White men and Black men? Well, not all of them, not that simple.
Now I like to talk about the other aspect of this. Still interracial relationships are the hot topic on American media time to time. And most of the times it is about White and Black relationship but the reality is, even in the city like New York, you do not see many White and Black couples. Instead, the most common interracial couples are between White men and Asian women. Not only Japanese women but also many other Asian women like to date with White men as well. But not as much as Black men though some Japanese girls love Black men. I will talk about that some other time. One Asian woman told me that they are tend to be attracted to White men becuase Asian men do not have any glamorous images in American media. That is so true, there is no Asian men who is cute, handsome or sexy in American media.
When Japanese media found Mashi-Oka in "Heroes", They got quite excited because it is very rare to see any Japanese character in American hit TV shows. So I wrote in my article "Japanese media are so ignorant and stupid, Mashi-Oka is nothing but a stereo type." Japanese/Asian men are supposed to be Chinky, Gooky, Geeky, Nerdy, Dorky, ugly and super uncool men. The reason you do not see attractive Asian men in Americna media is exactly same as you could not see many attractive Black men in American media till '70s. In this White dominated society, the most attractive men are supposed to be White men. So White audience did not want to see attractive Black men because attractive and sexy Black men can be threats to White men. but Black people have changed that by protesting. As the result of that, you see Black star like Denzel Washington now. Asians have not done much for that kind of change.
Japanese have been in love with the Western cultures for a long time. And they have tried to immitate so many of them and along with loving and admiring the western cultures, Japanese have been admiring Whites physical beauty as well. That is why you see many White models in Japanese media. And that probably makes Japanese sort of White wannabeis. If you grow up in Japan, you can be brainwashed to believe Whites are the most beautiful peole. And that's why all manga and anime characters do not look like Japanese/Asian.
And that's not only for girls but boys as well. As a matter of fact, many Japanese men like to date with White women too. But they can not, why? Because White women do not pay much attention to Asian men because Asian men do not have enogh physical qualities White women are looking for. Some White women like to date with Black men even Black men are in the lower social racial hierarchy than White women because many Black men have many good physical qualties and strong sex appeal. For White women, Asian men are not only much lower in the social racial hierarchy but also do not have much physical qualities, which means there is no reason for them to be attracted to White men.
I know, I know you are saying you have seen some Asian men & White women couples. Yes, that can happen because people are attracted not only for physical qulities but also good personality, intelligence and others as well. But the differece is that you can hunt Japanese girls in the street or in clubs if you are White or Black men. For Asian men, in order to date with White women they have to make freinds with them in environments like offices or schools, then develop that to the more serious relashionships. Asian men can never hunt White women in the street or clubs. And no matter what they try, majority of White women never consider Asian men as subjects for dating, sex or marriage.
White women do not open their legs to Asian men for exactly the same reason that the sluttiest Japanese girls in New York do not open their legs to the certain groups of men who they consider socially lower than them. I do not say who they are but just guess. That's the way women are programed biologically. So who is the losers of this game, of course, Japanese/Asian men.
Last month it was about Korean community in New York, And this month I am writing about Chinese community. Though I did not want these two articles to be too similar, they are becoming very different naturally. After all, they are very different immigrant communities. Chinese immigration are the one of the more traditional sense. As they are mostly poor in their own country, they come to U.S. for the financial opportunity. Of course, Koreans come to U.S. for the same reason as well, but the most of them are from the middle class, or maybe the lower middle class, I guess. Japanese do not come here as immigrants of the traditional sense because Japan is no longer poor just like Irish and Italians do not immigrate to U.S. any more with a massive number. Since I had wondered why Koreans kept coming to U.S., I did not hesitate ask them why.
And this is what they said.... 1) Although the country of Korea itself may be no longer poor, Korean society still has a big gap between rich & poor and even lives of the middle class are not very stable socially and financially. 2) Korean parents believe in their kids' education religiously. As in Korea, passing the entrance exam of good schools is even harder than in Japan, affluent parents send their kids to U.S.. The families cannot afford that, they move to U.S. as immigrants.
But unlike '80s and early '90s, when Korean small business owners thrived in U.S., moving to New York no longer guarantees financial success to them because of the steep rise of the residential and business rent in this city.
On the other hand, the Chinese immigration has exploded in New York city. Now along with the ones in Manhatan and Queen, we have a new Chinatown in Brooklyn as well, the picture above is the Chinatown in Sunset Park of Brooklyn.
Well, for the last and this month, I have talked to many Koreans and Chinese. The one thing I have learned from that is something very simple, the mutual communication is the most important. If you talk to people you do not know very well, you can tell they are the same humans just like you are. yeah, you say of course you know that. But the reality is that we are so segragated by the race, the language, the religion and the cultural background. Even in the city like New York where people from the all over the world live, knowing someone outside of your own community is very difficult unless you are very very interested in other people for one reason or another.
And we tend to see other people with stereo type images. But why do we do that??? There are many reasons why. As it takes too long to explain everything, I am not going to do that here, sorry, some other time. However, the one thing I can say is that stereotyping is dehumanizing.
Criminals dehumanize Victims because if they think the victims have the same emotions and feeling like theirs, it is much harder to harm them. Think about it when you see other people with stereo type images next time.
People in Chinatown do not look like Japanese not because of the race but because of their economical conditions. We just do not have the massive number of underclass people like them in Japan. And the poor immigrants do not paticulary look good. Time to time, I go to Chinatown to get fruits, veggies and some fish, but I never had made much conversation with them becuase they hardly speak any English. I have to admit that I had been seeing them with stereo type images.
I talked to the guy in his '20s, who came to U.S. about 6 years ago from the small town of China because he did not want have a life like his dad. he paid $60.000 to the smuggler and worked 12 hours a day as a waiter every day to pay off the debt. Now he is happily debt free. Well, I could not help asking him how he had done that. Because he worked for a long long hours and lived in a tiny dormroom with his roomies for years. Now he likes to improve his life by going to school but his long shift hours prevents him to do that. He was a young guy just like any other in Chinatown but I felt very close to him after listening to his story. I de-dehumanized him...... And that made me feel good.
This is so awful, just awful! I just watched it for the first time. This show is about the stereotype, Japanese are supposed to be super wackkkyyyyy. Needless to mention about something like these contestants staying st the house with the RED TORII Shinto Shrine gate, which is rediculous enough, Japanese audience in the studio were obviously instructed to laugh very loud when American contestants failed even if it was not very funny, which can make some American TV audience think Japanese are cruel and horrible. Yes, the concepts of those Japanese shows are about laughing at someone getting a public humiliation, which is pretty horrible, but the most of the time, contestants are people in showbiz and they know these show are supposed to be funny and they do that to get laugh, so does audience. But that concept is not well translated as these American amature contestants appear to be doing this so seriously in the Reality TV format that they make a comment like “These Japanese people must be crazy, they are killing me”. I am sure these Americans know what they are doing and acting, but because the usual concepts of American Game shows are that someone challenges the game seriously and audiences praise, the seriousness of these contestants can confuse the hell out of American audience. Yeah, yeah, of course this is what Amercian TV likes to see, the Good Old Stereo Typing. Sigh….
Almost NEET(Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Trying to enjoy seeing how my mental state deteriorates.
Since I do have the other Blog, Probably I will not update this one very frequently.
I love animals, especially cats and Shiba inus. I love flowers too. Not having much reason to live, this depressive solitary nerd is too lazy to die. I think I would become a ghost and keep looking for my cats after my death.
