31–40 of 147 posts
What struck me as odd in Asia were all the skin whitening products. Even regular cosmetics had "Whitening" plastered over it.
A distinction needs to be made. Most of the Asians using whitening products aim to get the skin to #ffffff, not the color of caucasian skin. Caucasians are a few tints darker than #ffffff.
Just out f curiosity, what kind of people are asking this question? I've been an anime fan for years and this question has legitimately never crossed my mind despite being cynical and critical of almost every single factual inaccuracy I come across. Interesting article all the same!
The funny thing is that Scott Pilgrim [+] looks Japanese to me even though he is a very Canadian hero. [+] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Pilgrim
Oddly enough -- in 2001 some test footage from Wind Waker was released, showing a Link with some very almond-shaped eyes. The appearance of Link was retooled so they look less almond-shaped and more mukokuseki.
Just out f curiosity, what kind of people are asking this question? I've been an anime fan for years and this question has legitimately never crossed my mind despite being cynical and critical of almost every single factual inaccuracy I come across. Interesting article all the same!
Never thought of it this way, either, and I'm not white.
I think I read once that Asian people pay more attention to the eyes than other facial features when they are reading emotions. The hypothesis was somehow based on the fact that the emoticons Asians use tend to mostly show the eyes. Since it's difficult to show emotions on a cartoon, perhaps drawing big eyes started as a way to make it easier for the artist to express anger, happiness,... on what they drew. They migh…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not racist as in kkk-style, overt hatred of another race, it's more like culture-blindness, or ignorance, or a misplaced belief that one's culture is dominant in an area where it is not.
I'm not complaining about the type of racism, but the general trend of presupposing that all arguments against you will be of a certain misguided type and therefore illegitimate. Like if I said "Mac is better than PC, and if anyone disagrees with me, it can only because that person is a pedophile". Obviously that example is unrealistic, but you see the issue.
If someone counters that Japanese definitely draw white people because Japanese people think Americans are awesome (and there are some arguments of this type floating around out there), then it's a culturally myopic, borderline racist stance.
This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
I found the article very interesting. I'm not white. I was raised in and live in a white culture, and interestingly, I make the same assumptions the author attributes to American social conditioning.
It's sad to reject useful or interesting information just because it's not well cited, or perhaps because the author used the dreaded "R-word."
Simple because paper is white?
This "article" seems to be very light on basically anything. Especially facts. How much karma does it take on HN to vote things down?
I was okay with it until here: "Some Americans, even some scholars, will argue against this view of anime. They want to think the Japanese worship America or worship whiteness and use anime to prove it. But they seem to be driven more by their own racism and nationalism than anything else." It's a red flag when you preemptively declare all of your opponents racists before they've even had a chance to respond. Maybe s…
Because it is such an inflammatory statement, it should be better supported, if that was the author's main point, or omitted, if it wasn't.
There's something else at work, though. I think that as soon as many readers read "racist", they mentally shut down as a defence mechanism.
"B ... b ... but it's an axiom that I can't be racist, so any argument that might cast me as racist must be wrong, without further consideration." It's the same thing you're arguing against.