I have a nationality. I have an ethnicity. But it's anime fandom that's my culture.
I share more with a fellow anime fan on the other side of the world than I do with my classmates or neighbors. It is my background. It is my home. It is the audience for whom my own creative contributions are intended, although with sufficient background knowledge, their appeal is hopefully universal.
It is true that I share many of the negative traits which make “otaku” an insult in Japan, and certainly share the obsession, but that is not why I call myself one. I use it out of solidarity and because I know of no other term which can describe members of my community everywhere. “Weeaboo” is not only a stupid word born as an insult, but it divides us, it encapsulates the notion that there’s something fundamentally different between anime fans based on race and nationality, that when we’re watching anime, we aren’t all one big community. I reject that formulation completely.
I do not pretend my community is a utopia. All communities have their flaws. But if you try to denigrate my culture or shame me for belonging to it, I can react with as much contempt and vitriol as anyone else, and will treat you like the bigoted scum you are!~ ^_^
(Wish I was posting this somewhere other than a personal journal no one reads... and that I was more articulate about all this. But I need to say this somewhere.)
It is true that I share many of the negative traits which make “otaku” an insult in Japan, and certainly share the obsession, but that is not why I call myself one. I use it out of solidarity and because I know of no other term which can describe members of my community everywhere. “Weeaboo” is not only a stupid word born as an insult, but it divides us, it encapsulates the notion that there’s something fundamentally different between anime fans based on race and nationality, that when we’re watching anime, we aren’t all one big community. I reject that formulation completely.
I do not pretend my community is a utopia. All communities have their flaws. But if you try to denigrate my culture or shame me for belonging to it, I can react with as much contempt and vitriol as anyone else, and will treat you like the bigoted scum you are!~ ^_^
(Wish I was posting this somewhere other than a personal journal no one reads... and that I was more articulate about all this. But I need to say this somewhere.)