The Blog of Nang

I have both plenty to write and nothing to write at the same time, I will simply provide these links...

Make sure you check out the following links:

We Want Serena -- Because Serena is Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon CX -- A Sailor Moon screencap webcomic

I have a new favorite YouTube channel, one in which a very, well-informed man gives his analysis on comics, the Internet, games, and other pop-culture media.

STRYDENT - WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Be warned, many of the videos are long, so don't start looking at them if you don't have some time to set aside, but this guy's videos are full of awesome analysis and overwhelmingly astute opinions.

Forgive the evangelism, but I had to share this.

Gojira of the Sailor Moon Forum made the above picture, and he's right.

I am Nadia Oxford, woekitten.  I am a connoisseur of fail and a disgusting beast.  I generated the whole Tinsel Korey controversy to make a name for myself.  I make this confession to belatedly, after everything started to unravel.

At first, with two different styles and other help I could keep this charade going.  Just as something big would happen in Nadia's life, here, I as Nangbaby would pop us to stir up controversy and to play the heel.  This led to me getting bigger and better jobs and allowed me to pimp my shit in a way that would boggle even Stephen Hawking's mind.

Alas, I got greedy.  As people realized I lied, I fawned over Oxford less slovenly.  Sucking up couldn't keep everything running smoothly, though.  The time for truth is here.

I'm too sleepy to write a proper confession, having stayed up all night.  But I tricked everyone, from the Toronto Sun to 1up.com.  Nangbaby = Nadia...the first letters were the same.  How people couldn't see through this, I'll never understand.  You'll probably buy my book, too (out later this month, guys), because you're so stupid that you won't look to see who wrote it.  I don't care.  Now I can finally start putting the "u" back in neighbour.

Edit:  While I shouldn't have to put this disclaimer, I can envision a humor-challenged person reading this and misunderstanding it. tl;dr April Fools.

Oh, this is fun.  No, I'm not going to list every character that I channel or every alternate screen name I used because I would be here for days.  Besides, although Sailor Bulma is a character I've channeled repeatedly, I don't consider her an alternate personality of my own, except if I decide to talk about the soaps.

Nangbaby is me.  Well, you know me.  If you don't, you'd better start reading my entries.  Now for my other personalities.

Sailor Steeler, the Sailor Scout of the Steelers, has a positive attitude and even when she loses, always wins.  The Anti-Nang in many respects, except both share the same stubborn determination.

Luminara is an angry "evil" light entity, with a personality that is essentially Nangbaby with more misandry, although unlike Nangbaby does have a soft spot for kids.  Yes, my evil persona is actually less evil than me.

Margaret "Don't Call Her Maggie" Smith is the warrior woman who takes no crap.  When I'm feeling punchy, she's driving my words.

Princess Andrea Utopia is the immature princess of a faraway land.  When I get silly, she's usually driving my posts.   Ironically, this means the comic character I never did get is actually writing the comic...which explains why it's so bad.

And, of course, there's one personality people don't see...she's a secret one.

March 7, 2012 was the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon, the animated series about a crybaby, lazy girl who grows into a superheroine who stands for love, justice, and forgiveness.  Why are so many Sailor Moon fans still so prejudiced, hateful, and vindictive towards other Sailor Moon fans?

All fandoms are rough, to be sure, and Sailor Moon has been notorious for having different factions of fandoms, be it dubbed animated series, original manga, or even the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live action series.  However, I thought that the faux-taku element of the fandom had diminished and that prominent Sailor Moon fans had grown past the "Sailor Moon is wonderful, so Japan is wonderful" phase of their lives.  I mean, those who originally watched Sailor Moon on TV are now in their 20s and 30s, and you would think it would be a fondly remembered cartoon.

Sadly, this is not the case a contingent of diehard occidental fans.  It turns out they are still taking the show as a primer on how to live in Japan and think that because the show was animated in Japan, that Sailor Moon is the unambiguously best of Japan concentrated in 30 minute episodes.  If one does not like every single element of the show, there is something wrong with one's inferior values.

When Westerners compare and equate themselves to Japanese culturally and claim they understand what it is like to grow up in Tokyo, in their minds, that is not offensive to anyone but bigots.  When they see the relatively homogenous, light-skinned ethnicity as a "superior" Japanese value and saying ethnic diversity is of "lesser mind" and should be treated in "lesser" standing, that is what they call tolerance and respect.  When one mentions that it is cultural misappropriation to claiming to have experienced the same cultural events as someone from another culture and feel exactly what a person from that culture would -- that is what empathy is -- this viewpoint is xenophobic, racist.  If it is wrong to compare oneself to someone in an impoverished culture one does not originate from, it's wrong to compare oneself to one in a rich culture one does not originate from.  All cultures are different.

Of all the things that arose from that Twilight controversy I found myself caught up in a few years back, there was an unintended side effect. I do on very rare occasions read Rob Schmidt's blog.  Aside from our disagreement on certain celebrities, I find that his blog is well-written and contains a thorough examination of portrayals of Natives in popular culture.  He highlights why stereotypes are bad and how the "magical" attributes given to Native characters in media distract from real issues Natives face and actually dehumanizes them.  While there is a vast difference between the multitudes of known tribes and Japanese culture, the same "reverence" is at play with a lot of Sailor Moon fans and anime fans in general.  They treat Japanese characters with a mix of noble savagery and magical realism.  While it might seem like a fan such as that is praising a culture, in reality, it's a denigration, because the targets of this affection are still something other than human and such an attitude reduces people into an ideal.  Adding a layer of "empathy" based on an entire culture is no better than disparaging it outright.

But if believing they feel Japan's pain is what some Sailor Moon fans want to think, I can't stop them.  I just hope to communicate to the ones that aren't so shallow, and I hope they wished Sailor Moon a happy birthday.

Nangbaby, you are an honest, trustworthy, bold, intelligent, and unique individual who does not need to be propped up by accomplishments -- false, external measures of worth -- but perservere based on the strength of your own internal beliefs and fortitude.

If you're going to visit my journal, then please leave a note.  Your silent and glowering avatars are quite rude.

This entry is unscreened.

The same way I celebrate anything else.  By sleeping.

Four songs down, a fifth one halfway done.  Only 9(.5) more to go in 4 days.

I think I'm getting this song-writing thing down pat.  If nothing happens, I might just pull this off.

I cannot tell a lie.  I repeated a slur used against me which caused a member of the Sailor Moon Forum to start using woekitten 's picture and putting my name on it (implying we were the same person), and subsequent harassing me through Tumblr and Twitter and beyond.