Women- Can't Live With 'Em....

By Jonathan "Underfaker" Lindsey

I decided to write this editorial over something about DBZ villians and responding to my viewer mail because of some things I saw on the internet about the traditional anime taboo. And that of course, is women that watch anime. I think i'll need another shot of Jack before I start off.

During this, i'll use my sister as a general model because she is highly intelligent, witty and a very open person. I'll also use her for a scapegoat, har har.

Throughout the anime world, there seems to be a sort of hymen against women and anime. Women are constantly viewed as not enjoying anime and should not watch it. Is this true? As in all things, there is usually a gray area. This certainly falls into it. Not to blow my own horn, but I have had many woman friends over the years. And they all shared the same sentiment about cartoons- They are for kids. Granted, anime is not the same thing as cartoons. But since I like playing the role of devil's advocate, comparing cartoons to anime with non-knowing people is like comparing Ford to Chevrolet. They both do the same thing. They both have four wheels and move. But to the knowing fan, anime is so much farther away than cartoons in the same respect that Ford mounts the starter soilenoid on the firewall, while everyone elses is on the starter. Confused? GOOD.

My sister loves cartoons. She hates some anime. My sister is 26 years old. Problem? I've tried to change my sister to enjoy anime. She has watched anime with me, from Dragonball Z to Vampire Hunter D to Fist of the Northstar to Tekken to Kodomo No Omocha (Child's Toy) to Rurouni Kenshin. And everytime she watches it she tells me the same thing. Its either too disgusting (Fist Of the Northstar) or too silly (Child's Toy). So I showed her the "happy medium" of DBZ and Kenshin. Then she debuts "its too silly at times". Bear with me, this will have relevance soon. And yet, she will watch Tom & Jerry with me for hours and laugh at almost every episode. Now to tie this all together, take my sister, multiply her by a few million, and you have about 98% of the woman population.

Ask almost any woman if they watch cartoons or anime. They look at you like you fell off the moon. This is why, you 2% of the woman population, that most men think that only guys watch anime or develop sites about them. Nothing against women, of course, its just a stereotyped view of things that EVERY person has experienced. And don't you DARE say that you have never stereotyped something before. Everyone is guilty. I know that every woman has stereotyped men for at least one thing, whether it be driving, our "toys", immaturity, infiedlity or any number of things. Men, in retaliation, think that whatever most women don't like means that ALL women don't like.

Lets see a show of hands- How many men here have watched anime or cartoons and had a woman criticize them because of it? Lots of hands! Now, How many women have watched anime or cartoons and been criticize about it? Equal amount, I see. I have always loved anime and cartoons for their sheer ability to unify men and women under the same banner. Video games we grow out of, vehicles never have a common bond, but cartoons and anime...whoo.

Now why do most guys think that women hate anime & cartoons? Its because its all we have ever heard, except on VERY rare occasions. Its the same percentage that women like to work on vehicles. My mom is nearly a full-pledged mechanic and makes time for her soap operas. Bizarre, no? When I laugh outrageously at Child's Toy my sister looks confused. Why? Simple answer.

Its because we don't know any better. And that is the reason that the woman/anime stigmata continues. And maybe we can all do our part to fix that problem and make the world a little better for everybody. And this is a shout-out to woman webmasters for ANY page- Keep up the good work. Thanks to those of you who don't blast men in our infinite ignorance (stereotype!). Thanks very much for your honesty to us and the gumption to stay in the internet business. And please, if you get another letter not believeing you are a guy...laugh out loud, 'cause you see, when my mom walks into an auto parts store, they STILL call her sir. So don't feel like the Lone Ranger.

From Texas with love,
Jonathan "Underfaker" Lindsey
*******



Women- Can't Live With 'Em....

By Jonathan "Underfaker" Lindsey

"I decided to write this editorial over something about DBZ villians and responding to my viewer mail because of some things I saw on the internet about the traditional anime taboo. And that of course, is women that watch anime. I think i'll need another shot of Jack before I start off."

I don't even drink and I wanted a shot of Jack AFTER reading this.

"During this, i'll use my sister as a general model because she is highly intelligent, witty and a very open person. I'll also use her for a scapegoat, har har.

Throughout the anime world, there seems to be a sort of hymen against women and anime. Women are constantly viewed as not enjoying anime and should not watch it. Is this true? As in all things, there is usually a gray area. This certainly falls into it. Not to blow my own horn, but I have had many woman friends over the years. And they all shared the same sentiment about cartoons- They are for kids. Granted, anime is not the same thing as cartoons. But since I like playing the role of devil's advocate, comparing cartoons to anime with non-knowing people is like comparing Ford to Chevrolet. They both do the same thing. They both have four wheels and move. But to the knowing fan, anime is so much farther away than cartoons in the same respect that Ford mounts the starter soilenoid on the firewall, while everyone elses is on the starter. Confused? GOOD."

I began to grow really offended at this point, as did my co-page owner, Jade. There is a hymen against women and anime? Please go look up the word hymen before using it, even in a metaphorical sense, because that's just....ewwww. And I resent being shoved into a "gray area" by this guy. As soon as I was introduced to anime, I fell in love with it. And the same with Jade. A lot of women I know what it, so where is this "gray area" exactly?
You want to know a fun fact? My friend Mike, who I mentioned in a different editorial rebutting Underfaker, used to watch DBZ all the time. One day, it was the summer of 99, I was at his house waiting for my sort of b/f (long story, don't ask) to come over so we could go out. So I was perched on his couch watching DBZ with him. I had never seen it before, but had been interested for awhile. The episode was "Time Tricks and Body Binds." I had no idea what was going on, of course, so naturally I had questions. Through my friend, I learned that Karkarot was Goku's last name, Vegeta was his brother, Krillin was Gohan's best friend.......you get the drift I'm sure. After my next question, I was promptly yelled at to shut up and watch the damn show. I went home that night and typed "Dragonball Z" into a yahoo search. The next morning, I knew far more about the show than my friend did, and had a thirst to watch more of it. It wasn't until a month later, upon stumbling across Chris Psaros' DBZ Uncensored that I even knew there was a difference and wanted to watch the original as well. About 3 months after that day at my friend's house, I was hooked on DBZ and Sailor Moon, and really liked Tenchi Muyo and Ronin Warriors. A few months later Cardcaptors debuted, and the rest is history. The reason for this rant was to point out that my male friend knew less about the show after watching it for awhile than I did in a few hours.
I'm sure he had a lot of "woman friends." Inflatable doesn't count (I know that's mean, but I'm angry). I also don't like people who call anime cartoons, so boo to the lady friends. I even yell at my sister when she calls anime "those dumb Chinese cartoons." As for the Ford/Chevy thing......I had an ex who used to spout out that crap every available moment of the day that wasn't spent blabbering about NASCAR or spending the rent money on useless window tint and "Fear This" stickers for his car, so this just makes this guy seem worse to me. And yes, I was confused, and why is that a good thing exactly?"


"My sister loves cartoons. She hates some anime. My sister is 26 years old. Problem? I've tried to change my sister to enjoy anime. She has watched anime with me, from Dragonball Z to Vampire Hunter D to Fist of the Northstar to Tekken to Kodomo No Omocha (Child's Toy) to Rurouni Kenshin. And everytime she watches it she tells me the same thing. Its either too disgusting (Fist Of the Northstar) or too silly (Child's Toy). So I showed her the "happy medium" of DBZ and Kenshin. Then she debuts "its too silly at times". Bear with me, this will have relevance soon. And yet, she will watch Tom & Jerry with me for hours and laugh at almost every episode. Now to tie this all together, take my sister, multiply her by a few million, and you have about 98% of the woman population."

Everyone has their own points of view. So your sister likes cartoons and hates SOME anime......you never specify which ones she doesn't hate.....so what? Your sister is 26.......again, so? I'm 23. I like cartoons and anime. "I've tried to change my sister to enjoy anime".......putting aside the grammatical problems with that sentence, you cannot make someone like anime if they hate it. The only anime I have personally seen on his list is DBZ, so I don't know how disgusting or silly the others are. I did however have to raise an eyebrow at the fact that she laughs at Tom and Jerry and calls DBZ too silly. But oh, well, that's not really the issue. The issue here is that this guy is using his sister to judge every other woman on earth. How do you figure that if we multiply his sister by a few million, we get 98% of the woman population? That makes no sense at all. Saying that is like saying "Hey, do you see that cat over there that is missing a leg? Well, if you take that particular cat and multiply it by a few million, you have 98% of all the cats in the world, and only 2% have all 4 legs." See how it makes no sense?


"Ask almost any woman if they watch cartoons or anime. They look at you like you fell off the moon. This is why, you 2% of the woman population, that most men think that only guys watch anime or develop sites about them. Nothing against women, of course, its just a stereotyped view of things that EVERY person has experienced. And don't you DARE say that you have never stereotyped something before. Everyone is guilty. I know that every woman has stereotyped men for at least one thing, whether it be driving, our "toys", immaturity, infiedlity or any number of things. Men, in retaliation, think that whatever most women don't like means that ALL women don't like."

Ok, some women do look at you like that, but again, it's not 98% of the women on earth. I have yet to meet a man who thinks that only guys watch anime. In my experience, it's more that guys are more surprised by the fact that I like Dragonball Z than the fact that I like anime in general. And on the same note, I'm usually impressed by a guy man enough to admit he likes Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura.
I'm not even going to touch the stereotyping thing right now. If it were a different time in my life, I most certainly would, but with the relationship that I just got out of a year ago, I'm the queen of stereotyping. It's unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.


"Lets see a show of hands- How many men here have watched anime or cartoons and had a woman criticize them because of it? Lots of hands! Now, How many women have watched anime or cartoons and been criticize about it? Equal amount, I see. I have always loved anime and cartoons for their sheer ability to unify men and women under the same banner. Video games we grow out of, vehicles never have a common bond, but cartoons and anime...whoo."

I can't speak for every woman here. I personally have never criticized a guy for watching anime. I've sometimes snubbed the anime they watched, but never them. I have to agree with the second comment, but the only people who actually criticize me for watching anime are members of my family who think I'm too old for anime. And I will never grow out of video games because I am going to college to become a video game designer. Maybe I'll make a game all about this guy and we in the DBZ cult can attack him by throwing fan subs at his head! Anyone on board with that? (I'm just kidding by the way. Wouldn't want to waste perfectly good fan subs.)


"Now why do most guys think that women hate anime & cartoons? Its because its all we have ever heard, except on VERY rare occasions. Its the same percentage that women like to work on vehicles. My mom is nearly a full-pledged mechanic and makes time for her soap operas. Bizarre, no? When I laugh outrageously at Child's Toy my sister looks confused. Why? Simple answer."

I would really like to know where this guy lives that all he ever hears is how women hate anime and cartoons. Does he live in the Pennsylvania Dutch area of the US? If so, that's only a few hours from me. I would be the rarity in his world, lol. His mom is a "full-pledged" mechanic, which I don't remember hearing that mechanics had to take a pledge, but whatever. I don't think it's weird at all that she likes to fix cars and watch soap operas. It's not the 50's there anymore, and women can do anything they want to, even if it's looked at as a "man's job" and still be girlie. And at this point in the editorial, his sister is starting to frighten me. I shall have to see this Child's Toy anime and see what she is confused about.


"Its because we don't know any better. And that is the reason that the woman/anime stigmata continues. And maybe we can all do our part to fix that problem and make the world a little better for everybody. And this is a shout-out to woman webmasters for ANY page- Keep up the good work. Thanks to those of you who don't blast men in our infinite ignorance (stereotype!). Thanks very much for your honesty to us and the gumption to stay in the internet business. And please, if you get another letter not believeing you are a guy...laugh out loud, 'cause you see, when my mom walks into an auto parts store, they STILL call her sir. So don't feel like the Lone Ranger."

Maybe he doesn't know any better. I really would like to know more about this Underfaker guy. I don't understand where this women/anime stigma is generating from. All you have to do is go to anipike and you will find tons of anime sites created by girls. Look at cosplay pictures. A majority of anime cosplayers are girls. I'm honestly confused by where he is coming from. Is there really a problem to fix? At least we all got a shout-out for our "honesty and gumption" to keep our anime sites up and running in. And I've never ever gotten an e-mail that a guy didn't believe I wasn't a girl because I love anime. And if I were his mother, I would first smack around the people who called me "sir," and then smack him around for saying things either without researching them first or that make no sense in today's society. I think he may have written this article back in the early 90's when anime was just starting to surface here in America and around the time Toonami came into existence when it was possible this whole thing was relevant. Because it wasn't until 1997 and the release of Final Fantasy 7 that I, myself, started to get into anime and look into it more. But those days are long gone, and this guy needs to move into the new millennium with the rest of us. I guess that will conclude my rebuttal of "grrl power" here. Thanks for listening to my rant. *bows*


"From Texas with love,
Jonathan 'Underfaker' Lindsey"

Texas, eh? Isn't Texas where FUNi lives? Peculiar indeed.



"Rebutted with love by Amethyst (or Peachy if you like) of the "grrrrrrrrl power-liscious" Anime Cauldron. :)"

- >Peaches