Forum - View topicINTEREST: Australian Senate Plans Investigation into Fair Work Commission Official for Displaying 'E
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SGMJanus
Posts: 1 |
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So, we have a man of culture in Australia.
I kinda want to see what figures he had... |
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Lynx Raven Raide
 Posts: 412 Location: Central Coast, AU |
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Before idiots chime in again about us Aussies, this time it is squarely on Gerard Boyce. I know some put stuff like images of paintings and stuff in their office to make themselves look better, but the last thing I would put in my work office is my anime figure collection. Not saying collecting figures is wrong, hell I have a sticker from J-List's mascot on the side of my ear muffs for work*, but there is a time and place for certain things.
That being said, since it seems he is Sydney based, I wonder if we will see him at MadFest this weekend. Edit: for those wondering why the Senate is involved, it is a governmental department so this is effectively the 'one tier up' for complaints *Some idiots have a habit of grabbing others ear muffs. I know which one is mine 
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Charou
 Posts: 123 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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^That's assuming many people even GO to Madfest this weekend, given the main reason for going for many of us (the Japanese guests) is now void -- and why risk that large a crowd full of infamously unhygienic weebs otherwise? We won't refund because damn the poor organisers but we're definitely not going. I was already on the fence, to be honest. Download, well...we'll see.
As for this latest mini-scandal, I agree that he should have known better. I've worked in local NSW government and so many of those people *have no life*. They'll turn any office upset into a major [expletive] scandal, so my first reaction was 'my god these people need to get some perspective' which is kind of funny coming from a Gen X weeb who is very proud of his carefully-constructed Sydney suburban weeb bubble. Either way, I think the fact that Boyce installed a camera without permission is, er, much more disconcerting... |
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strawberry_milk
 Posts: 87 |
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While I agree that Gerard Boyce has to take sole responsibility for his actions, how do we know they were anime figures?
He "allegedly crafted the figures himself as a hobby", so they're clearly not official merch. Did he call them anime figures? Otherwise they could be any other "scantily clad" cartoon or comic book characters, of which there are many, so I wonder why they're not being described as such. |
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harminia
 Posts: 1997 Location: australia |
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In the ABC article credited as a source, it says "At least one of the figurines was of an anime — Japanese animation — character". And in news to make this story even funnier, he apparently replaced the security camera (which may or may not have been fake) with a standee cutout of Donald Trump |
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DavetheUsher
 Posts: 505 |
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This oppression of weebs must end.
 I'm glad I can have some anime figures/merch at my desk and people admire them rather than recoil in horror. But then I do work in an environment made up entirely of people under the age of 40 which probably helps.
Now that's how you troll in style. 
Would like to know which characters he had though. |
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roxybudgy
Posts: 129 Location: Western Australia |
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Nothing against scantily clad anime figures, I have a few myself, including a naked Holo from Spice and Wolf which is currently on display at home in a glass cabinet, but I would never display my figurines at work, with my main concern being that they would be damaged or stolen. What my colleagues would think comes in as just a minor secondary concern.
While I agree that a lot of anime figurines are not work-appropriate, the other staffer's comment that this amounts to "gross intimidation" of women is a severe over reaction. Edit: upon reading the article carefully, the comment about "gross intimidation" was not in reference to the figurines, but instead to the questions from another staffer. Last edited by roxybudgy on Wed Mar 04, 2020 10:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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Should have known better, yes. But at the risk of making generalisations, anime fans are more heavily represented in groups of people that have trouble with what is and isn't appropriate socially than other fandoms/pursuits/hobbies. And while some people do get excessively worked up over nothing, scantily-clad figures are not office appropriate.
This is the public service, where the prevailing attitudes are going to skew more heavily towards those held by people who are older or conservative or both.
I would say that depends on the exact nature of the figure(s) in question, and whether or not he's wilfully kept displaying them after anyone's told him it's putting people off. |
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strawberry_milk
Posts: 87 |
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For all we know he could've had 19 bikini-wearing Princess Leias. But it seems ABC News wants to make sure everyone knows at least one figurine was from an anime. 'Cause evil, foreign figurines, comin' o'er here, underminin' our values and stealin' our figurines' jerbs, I guess. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Basically more "moral guardians" looking for a scapegoat, instead of covering more pressing news or planting trees. While the media is in the wrong, I don't think it's a good idea to put anime figures in a government office space, governments tend to be filled with these "moral guardians" who like to moan and whine about anime figures like it's going to give them ebola or destroy the country. |
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nargun
Posts: 924 |
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Almost certainly there are actually more anime figurines in australia than US-comic ones. If you don't know -- and honestly a hefty proportion of the commonwealth public service would be able to tell the difference -- you'd go anime, because anime has more cultural salience -- relevance, impact -- than US comics do. |
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Crispy45
 Posts: 363 |
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There's also the fact America doesn't really make sexy figurines anymore due to similar people objecting to them and driving them out of the industry. There's a couple Scott Campbell statues that still get made every other year usually, since he's one of the few American artists who give the finger to the moral guardians, but that's about it. The only others ones still out there are the Bishoujo line from Kotobukiya, a Japanese company with the Marvel/DC license. There's a 99.9% chance the figures were anime, or at the very least made in Japan. |
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Sakagami Tomoyo
Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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I'm not so sure about that. I'll agree that there's probably more anime figurines in Australia than anyone realises, but there's a lot of US comics ones too. It's also debateable which has more cultural impact here; outside of the usual geek/nerd circles, you'll probably get more recognition of Superman than Son Goku. |
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strawberry_milk
Posts: 87 |
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Depends on the kind of figurine. If we're talking static-pose, ready to be painted kind, then sure there's a lot of anime ones, but there's also ones from Warhammer and other sci-fi/fantasy games. And, as I mentioned, there are many other "scantily clad" characters from American pop culture - Princess Leia, Power Girl, even Jessica Rabbit, just to name a few off the top of my head, all of which have figurines available. If anything, I would think there's more Disney and DC figurines in Australia, since our pop culture is arguably more heavily influenced by the US than Japan, and even Cheap as Chips stores sell them. It's the focus the ABC news has placed on "anime", even placing mention in the first couple paragraphs of their article, rather than focussing on the actual problem of inappropriate material in a workplace - no matter what that material is. That there's an anime figurine or three doesn't matter, but people will link it with the recent story about Stirling Griff's comments of anime depicting "child exploitation" even though they're two completely separate situations, and so it's the understanding and acceptance of anime that will suffer. |
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Lynx Raven Raide
Posts: 412 Location: Central Coast, AU |
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For a group of people who have an instance of differentiating ourselves from Western geeks, we sure get up in arms when mentioned separately in an instance like this.
Here was the full quote:
Mentions three categories, not just one. Also, it was only mentioned one figure in particular was crafted, not all. I do find it funny, though, her saying she wasn't sure one was human. Kinda curious now.
I'll let you know, cause I'm still going. Two of the Japanese guests I was looking forward to pulled out (Kaorin and Mayuchi) but the third, Arisa Uki, landed this afternoon. Still think there will be a decent crowd, seems mostly the MHA crew are the ones pulling out |
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