All Asian girls are ugly without makeup

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There’s something about the internet that makes some people behave in a way that they would never do in real life, partly due to the anonymity, and partly due to the fact that it’s easy to say what you really think, no matter how base it is, when you’re not face to face with the other person.

Since I’ve started blogging this time last year, I don’t exaggerate at all when I say that but for two instances (the present included), everyone I have encountered have been the nicest people I’ve met in my life. However, no matter in what circles you run, you can never really escape that certain minority of trollers out there who don’t live by the same rules of common courtesy and respect that the rest of us do. Normally I would not broadcast these incidents, as I do understand that people who are nasty online may actually be really nice people in real life, and they often don’t realize the ‘realness’ of their actions because it is in the online environment, but this time the behaviour I observed has been so disgusting to me that I felt I was obligated to expose this to you, my readers, in the hope that even the perpetrator herself can take a step back, look at her own actions, and realise where she has gone wrong.

So it all started from this one random comment on my facebook page by Ms Troller.

I make a point not to respond to trollers because most of the time they’re just trying to get a reaction out of you. I did post a screen shot of this comment on instagram and twitter because I thought it was so random and funny.

But inevitably, one of my friends was quite offended and responded, as below.

At this point I intervened. I said something like:

“Not wishing to justify with your racist remark with a response, I just wanted to say that unfortunately your claim of ‘honesty’ does nothing to conceal your rotteness’

Miss Troller then deleted her original comment, probably not wanting any record of her being accused of racism.

She then wrote me the following private message, trying to frame her original insult in a more positive light. Miss Troller, I think it is you who doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of ‘racism’.

I would have been happy to see an end to this whole incident with Miss Troller relatively cordial private message to me, but then I saw this unbelievable rant Ms Troller wrote to my friend, who had responded to Ms Toller’s original comment on my page.

A comment like this is a prime example of the mass delusion many in society suffer in relation to what is considered to be ‘racism’ and the damage that this attitude does to the cohesiveness of society as a whole.

Being racist isn’t just about derogative comments or violent acts. In its most venomous and deeply seated form, it’s the making of stereotypes about a person based on what you experienced or think you experienced about certain other people in their racial group. It’s thinking about ‘them’ as being separate to ‘us’, where ‘us’ and ‘them’ are defined only by superficial points such as the way people look or their historical geographical origins. It’s the making of assumptions which are really based on the fear of the unknown or the reluctance of someone, comfortable in what they perceive to be a safe and familiar world, to learn new ideas that may jeopardise what they have long become accustomed to believe (a threat to their sense of identity).

I find it interesting and very telling that Ms Troller has made a distinction between ‘Asian girls’ and ‘American women’, basically implying that all American women are white, and Asian girls aren’t American.

Importantly, Ms Troller made four key comments that I thought I might investigate, and find out if there’s really any truth in them.

1. All Asian girls look so ugly without makeup:

This is such an idiotic comment that I initially didn’t think it needed any response, but just for fun, lets have a look at the evidence.

First I had a look at some famous Japanese actresses, who very often appear in dramas and movies wearing minimal makeup. The following images are taken from this article:

Masami Nagasawa:

Ryoko Hirosue

Keiko Kitagawa

Then, googling ‘asian girl without makeup’, I come across an article about Wonder Girls Sohee and Ye Eun without makeup.

So here they are with makeup:

Now, without makeup. I think they look beautiful without makeup too, don’t you?

But I think what Ms Troller is probably really referring to is all those before and after images online where relatively plain Asian girls transform their looks with makeup. Lets have a look at some famous examples:

Okarie

Kumicky:

Yes, these girls do look rather plain without makeup, but certainly not ugly! In fact, there are very few people in the world, regardless of race, who look their best without makeup. Lets have a look at some famous American actresses:

Cameron Diaz

Katherine Heigl

Jessica Alba

And what about me? People are quite shocked how different I look with and without makeup, but you can judge for yourself. Yes, I personally do think I look a thousand precent better with makeup, but I’m not ashamed of my natural face. In fact, you all know I work full time, and I only ever put on makeup on the weekends when I get time.

Me with only BB cream, and eyebrow liner.

Me with circle lenses, eyeshadow, eyeliner, upper and lower lashes and lipstick.

2. Asian girls wear eye tape and circle lenses to try to look more like American women (I take this to mean white women)

I think there may be some truth in this statement as initially, the idea of having ‘bigger’ and coloured eyes, and blond curly hair, would have arisen out of exposure of Asia to the west. But over time the Gyaru look has evolved into its own style. It’s so unique that you can no longer say that it’s mimicking the western look.

Lets look at some examples of the idealised Japanese Gyaru look.

Yui Kanno

Kummicky

Okarie

Rumiringo

Just looking at a small sample of popular gyaru models, yes, many aspects of their looks appear to mimic European traits, but can you really say that what they’ve done with their makeup is really aimed at looking European rather than Asian?

3. Asian girls have to wear 100 pounds of makeup and to look beautiful

To examine whether Asian girls have to wear ‘100 pounds of makeup’ to look good, lets have a look at our Gyaru icons, to see if they wear ‘100 pounds of makeup’

Kummicky

In Kumicky’s usual style, all she’s wearing is light eyeshadow, eyeliner and false lashes!

Tsubasa Masuwaka

Again, it looks like Tsubasa is only wearing eyeliner, eyeshadow and false lashes.

This doesn’t look like 100 pounds of makeup to me, what about you?

4. American women do not have to wear as much makeup as Asian girls to look beautiful

Right…………………………

I think I’ll just let the following photos of “American women” wearing too much makeup do the talking.

In conclusion, I think it’s completely idiotic and counter productive to talk about people looking ugly without makeup, and even bringing race into the mix. Everyone has their own style. Some people like to wear a lot of makeup, others don’t wear any at all. There’s nothing to be gained criticizing one person or another just because you don’t agree with their choices and preference. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but don’t spend your life badmouthing other people and deluding yourself that you’re somehow better than people who don’t agree with your world view. Rather than resenting these negative people, I feel so sorry for them because they are so closed minded, and will probably remain that way for the rest of their lives. All they are doing is depriving themselves of experiencing the rich tapestry of life, by dismissing everything apart from what they already think they know. And also, unfortunately, it may be that these people are simply limited by their lack of intellectual sophistication and education, and they really just can’t help being the way they are.

Also check out what the other blogger Ms Troller targeted has to say about this: http://sugarcoatedmuffin.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/all-asian-girls-look-so-ugly-without.html

Gamer Girls - commentary from the female perspective

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Pictured: Wildly popular Deviantart denizen, Alodia aka Blakmage9

Sometimes when the planets align (or possibly much more often than that), there is a merging of two polar opposite notions-namely girls and gaming-to create something new yet not inconceivable - introducing the 'gamer girl', or, more fondly referred to by guys as 'hot gamer girls'. To guys, this archtype is much like other 'hot girl' related neologisms that describe an attractive girl who is made exponentially more attractive (to men) due to having a specific attibute that puts her within a certain architype. Examples include the ‘goth chick’ and ‘hot girls with glasses'.

Traditionally, gaming is considered a male interest. Most girls I've spoken to about gaming cannot even begin to understand its very existence. Many a relationship have even broken down by the irreconcilable differences between the gamer man, who sometimes just wants to game, and the mainstream girl, who interprets the man's interest in gaming as disinterest in her. We all know a couple like this.

However, the number of girls who game out there is probably grossly underestimated. As for me, I am a practically a veteran - from Tomb Raider to Final Fantasy (7 through 9) in the late 90's to net cafe lan games (counter strike and warcraft 3) in the early 2000's. Back then, being a girl who gamed was like being the Loch Ness Monster - occasionally spotted, but generally considered to be a myth.

Later, when I progressed to MMORPG's (massive multiplayer online role playing games), being a girl meant an unconscionable level of special treatment and popularity. At some stage I would log onto the game and be bombarded with 20 whispers from guys. My boyfriend started telling people he was a girl just so he could get free stuff.

Now I'm starting to make it sound like some kind of prostitution.

In the past, there was a general apprehention of 'girls who game must be ugly' (and let me just say that this is an idiotic statement, as there are no ugly girls in the world). Not so these days.

Just look at the modern day ambassadors of the ‘gamer girl’:

Penny, from hit TV show, 'Big Bang Theory', an example of the mainstream, attractive blond girl that popular media portrays as the type that nerdy guys dream of dating, but could never in their wildest dreams date. In the episode 'The Dumpling Paradox', the guys find out that Penny is a natural at Halo. And who can forget the episode, 'Sheldor the Conquerer', when Penny becomes addicted to the MMORPG, 'Age of Conan', and increased her attractiveness to gamers everywhere by one hundred and fifty thousand percent.

Konata Izumi, the blue haired lolicon (childlike female character) character from the Japanese Anime, 'Lucky Star' who is genuinely obsessed with all things Anime, works at a Cosplay cafe and logs onto an online RPG and plays into the early hours.

And now, the real life version of Konata Izumi, Alodia Gosiengfiao (Blackmage9.deviantart.com) who is not just interested in, but publicly participates in all things nerdy and niche.

You may have seen youtube videos on the topic, like VenetiaPrincess’ spoof of ‘Womanizer’ by Britney Spears.

As gaming becomes increasingly treated as a sport, professional all girl gamer teams are popping up everywhere like FnaticMSI and SK Gaming, who have a worldwide following.

Megan Fox has also become widely know as a Celebrity gamer. I'm sure thousands of guys had nosebleeds when she revealed that she was kickass at Mortal Combat.

The gaming industry has been aware for years now, the high representation of girl gamer consumers, and many popular games now contain elements that (arguably) are there to appeal solely to girls. Like the incorporation of non-combat pets in World of Warcraft, e.g. cute little 'Perky Pug' here (a pun: PUG stands for Pick Up Group, meaning a random group formed with people you don't know to tackle group content).

And here's my character, below - Fourseasons, dressed in Easter event garb.

This phenomenon probably has not, as Leonard’s experience in the Big Bang Theory would suggest, made it any easier for male gamers to get a date with a blond bomb shell—there’s nothing to indicate that a girl’s level of superficiality and materialism is relative to the nerdiness of her interests. Rather, as distasteful as it may be, it's a coup for girls, providing them with a new arena in which popularity and fandom are easy pickings (similar to when American pop stars tour Japan). And as a majority of girls in the world are predisposed to have no interest in gaming, the completion is thin indeed.

The idea of girls using their interest in games to appeal to guys is somewhat anti-feminist, and arguably as degrading to the female gender as push up bras were considered to be in the 60s. But personally, I don't see it this way.

Being a girl gamer, and a skillful one at that, can give many guys a sobering wakeup call - gender has nothing to do with skillfulness in a game. To me this is just the same empowering idea as women succeeding in industries that are male dominated, like cookery, accounting/finance and defence.

That said, I would be the last to claim that I pursue gaming for altruistic reasons and that all the attention isn't nice. But the gaming world will evolve like any other, and when girls in games looses its novelty, girls will have to work harder to be respected as skillful players. I see exciting times ahead.

China - the country of designer bags

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Living in Canberra, a small town trapped in the body of a city, I've always been grateful for the opportunity to be inspired by the ever more stylish Chinese international students that make up a sizable percentage of the 360,000 population. Only in the space of the past 5 years, China has spawned a new bourgeoisie, who, having succeeded in making bucket loads of money on the backs of get rich quick schemes that worked, now turned their attention to spending it. Everywhere I looked, girls were wearing designer bags. A few years ago, the default position was, it comes from China - it's fake.

Not so these days. The tables have turned. While western girls are travelling to Asia to pick up their fake Gucci's, Chinese girls are out in the west buying the real thing directly from the boutique.

I couldn't help but look back to the the China I knew: the rundown country where no one owned an automobile, three bedroom apartments were leased out on a one family per room basis, and milk was only available by delivery in little plastic satchels - the China that my parents escaped so that they had a chance to build a better life. Now, those people who couldn't get out of China have the last laugh. This is new China, and no one is thinking of leaving - that is, with the exception of university students being sent abroad on their parent's wealth.

On a visit to my hairdresser last month, I was looking at pictures in a Chinese tabloid and an article caught my eye. All I could see were picture after picture of women carrying Hermes Birkin's. The captions listed who these women were and just how much the Birkins cost them. My hairdresser explained, every girl in China has a designer bag now. The designer of choice was of course, Louis Vuitton. At first I didn't believe him. Come on, every girl?? He insisted that even the poor girls were living for months on instant noodles just to save up for a bag, and not just one bag - a girl had to keep her wardrobe up to date.

Discussing this with my house mate, a (way too) pretty and trendy Chinese international student, she explained that all her friends were multi-Louis-Vuitton-ares. She said it's not about fashion, but status. While in China, the parents were buying luxury cars to peeve off their peers, they are sending money to their kids overseas to buy designer bags. These girls can get up to 5 new Louis Vuitton bags a year. And it's like nothing to them, my house mate explained. When a friend of theirs bought a new LV bag, her friend would complaint to her parents and get one too. Such a culture seemed even more outlandish considering that the Chinese Yuen is 6 to an Australian dollar.

I wondered if this phenomenon had been noticed by anyone else. One Google search on 'Chinese girl LV bag' turned up this article.

Female Chinese Soldiers were snapped while travelling with complete sets of LV luggage and handbags. They look so cute too! I never knew that soldiers were paid enough to buy designer bags, but then again, I would be the first to admit, it's really not about can or should when it comes to a girl's wardrobe.