I'm a Japanese-American woman. I'm an outspoken, stubborn but mostly peaceful person. I overlook a lot of offensive statements on the internet, but every now and then, they sneak up on me and whack me on the head. While browsing The Onion's AVclub blog, I ran across one of those "I Went to Japan and it's Weird There and They Sell Weird Stuff in Vending Machines" posts. It's neither more nor less stupid and offensive than the average. For an in-depth discussion of the kind of piece I mean, see this post, "Of 'Wacky' Japan and the Myth of the Other". I did expect better from the AVclub, which often has quite sophisticated pop culture analyses. I especially enjoy the "Box of Paperbacks" feature. The AVclub is an incredibly popular and widely read site, and it's not known to be especially "extreme" or fratboyish. And I knew I shouldn't have done this. I'm kicking myself now. But I read some of the comments on that Japan travel piece. What a cesspit. The kind of mentality on display is the reason I avoided any kind of Japanese clubs through college. And yes, I know I hurt myself by doing that. But I saved myself a lot of hurt as well. I'm reproducing the comment thread here to show what I mean. I'm starting with the p0rn description from the original article, which inspired nothing more than a "meh" from me. Below that are the truly disgusting comments. Do NOT read any further if you're not prepared for intensely demeaning statements about Japanese women, plus a backhanded nasty insult at Japanese men. I have not censored them, other than adding some characters to try and throw off search engine results so I don't bring a bunch of drooling losers to this blog.

From Japan, a Brief Pop-Cultural Survey by Kyle Ryan Speaking of Japanese p0rn, wow, is it disturbing. Although my orgy DVD liveblog and Nina Hartley interview may indicate otherwise, I’m no aficionado of the p0rnographic arts. So maybe I’m a little sensitive about the borderline sexual assaults I saw broadcast over the Meguro’s two p0rn channels. The premise of one had some dirtbag on the street coaxing ostensible amateurs to follow him to a hotel room and, you know, f*ck a stranger on camera. I had no illusion that these women were professional ringers, but it was still disconcerting.

Japanese p0rn by Baio Wulf All Japanese p0rn appears to be sexual assault (you know, so I'm told). The girl always appears to be in pain. It's certainly not a consequence of those super-hung Japanese fellows, so I'm not sure what the cultural origins of those frowny f*ck-faces are. Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me? 5:07 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by AJR I was under the impression that all Japanese p0rn was tentacle-related. 5:23 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by Baio Wulf No, only the animated stuff is tentacle-related. Someone told me that's because they're not allowed to show penile insertion, so they circumvent the "no penetration" rule by having monsters penetrate women with tentacles... which is of course way, way sicker than just allowing penile penetration to be shown. Go figure. 5:31 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by AJR Oh. Gross. But, still...kinda hot. Mostly gross, though. 5:37 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by New Skin Why don't you have sex with a Japanese woman. Then you'll get it. Although, there does seem to be an unfortunatly large amount of rape themed p0rn in Japan. Consequently, I'm sure if you didn't understand English and watched your standard American p0rn, based solely on the noises the people were making you would probably think the participants were having a good time--or trying to make you believe they're having a good time--either 5:51 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by The Magical Ghost of The Timonator Are you implying to understand the tentacular-penetration phenomenon I must first engage in intercourse with a Japanese lady? Dude, sometimes intercultural studies is a dirty job... but, well, you know the rest. 6:06 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by New Skin Well I was refering to the non-animated p0rn, but if it'll help with the tentacle thing too, then bonus. 6:13 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by AJR Science says we must, Timonator's Ghost. For science, I will obligingly nail a Japanese sch00lgirl. 6:15 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by String him up Ewww...pedophile. 6:39 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by MMe "Tentacular"? Timonator, you slay me... 8:38 PM Mon April 28, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by Seacrest... OUT! Bein' coaxed to f*ck a stranger on camera? That's called "reality" or "g0nzo" p0rn, and America is sick with the stuff. 11:00 AM Tues April 29, 2008

RE: Japanese p0rn by squilla boxer Yes, Japan did bring us the R@pe Man series of movies although they aren't even actual "p0rn". Also, 90% of the actual J-p0rn I've seen is "censored", because although they're implying rape, we can't be expected to endure the sight of un-pixilated genitalia. B*ttholes are alright, though. Weird. 12:41 PM Tues April 29, 2008

I was wondering if the author of the piece would say something. He did. He responded to some insults about the depth of his writing style. He sarcastically called himself a racist. He's the real victim here, after all. This, more than anything, was the last straw. I left this comment:

White People are soooo Waaaacky by atlasien Interesting how the author of this article is so insulted and vociferously defends himself from commenters bored of the "Japan is waaacky" meme, but doesn't say anything about all the commenters making jokes about raping Japanese children. 1:20 PM Tues April 29, 2008

I don't expect my comment to have much effect. In fact, I've already been accused of being a "white, liberal en@ma sack". Maybe it will make a few people at the AVClub think. Think about incidents like the one this year where a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa was raped by a U.S. Marine. I don't want to point my finger and say "this is funny, but that is not funny." Given the right conditions, I'll laugh at anything. But when Japanese children are referred to as subhuman rape toys, and the site editors allow that to be normalized as a baseline level of humorous discourse... it's funny like a heart attack; it's funny like cancer.

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