Forum - View topicChicks On Anime - Shoujo in Academia
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Levitz9
 Posts: 1022 Location: Puerto Rico |
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Wow, interesting column!
This is going to sound ignorant, but I had no clue that actual colleges are studying anime and manga from an academic perspective. It brings to mind something I read at the back of an Oh! My Goddess! manga; the editor was talking about how, back in the Eighties, he was talking about studying manga or anime, when other academics told him (and, I'm paraphrasing here), "Dude, like, why study that grody mess, right? I mean, Japan's economic structure is, like, whoa, and their history is, like, whoa. Cartoons are, like...bummer..." He also brought up the case of a friend who was studying the Soviet Union...which collapsed the year after he graduated. Looking at manga and anime from a fetishistic point of view is interesting. While I'm heavily familiar with the otaku that have body-pillows and massive figurine collections of one character, I've never even thought of looking at it like that. Mostly, I've tried looking at it as literature, or a part of popular culture, which is how I usually present it if I ever mention anime or manga in class (going by the premise that 'popular culture' is a map, of sorts, and is connected to other forms of pop culture, which, in turn, is a part of culture). I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for that 'Mechani'...uh... crap, I forgot the title......well, I'll keep an eye out, for it! 
This was an enlightening column--any chance for a follow-up? 
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Kenotic
 Posts: 167 |
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I'll second the SGMS workshop recommendation. Last year's was phenomenal, and the highlight was easily meeting Yoshitoshi ABe and hearing him speak. I'm going to have to miss it this year, but will be keeping an eye on the schedule for 2010.
I'm going to have to look up the Mechademia journal and see if I can find it in town. Any people from Minneapolis with an idea where you can find it? I'll order it otherwise, but it'd be fun to find it in a local store 
Thanks again for a great column! |
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Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
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Thanks for interviewing Frenchy Lunning. I looking forward to seeing what she does next.
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Cait
 Posts: 503 |
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I've never really thought about "fetish" like that before. It's interesting to think about the difference between how women perceive the roles of family differently between cultures. It's easy to perceive Japan as "conservative" about women's roles, but in some ways, it seems (like the "freedoms" that young girls have) they seem to be more liberal than here. I'd be interested to learn more on the subject and will be looking out for Frenchy's works in the future.
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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I vote best column so far. I have so many new tabs open to follow up that I can see my time sucked away for hours, if not days. And Amazon getting more of my money
Sara, that commercial gave me the biggest laugh I've had in days, and I'm laughing again just writing about it and picturing the veins popping across femdom. Classic, perfect and so wrong from so many points of view. It's so surreal, it should have been a SNL skit. On the darker side, it's a sad commentary on the state of business marketing for children. Just ordered my copies of Mechademia 1-3. Being still a neophyte fan, I had not heard of Professor Lunning's work. She seems truly engaged and enthused, and refusing to carry any cultural preconceptions or bias into the research. Very interesting take on magical girls in anime, for instance. Her entire approach is refreshing. I have a hard time with some of the books and papers from "experts" on anime because they stand back (not even spending time in Japan in some cases) and evaluate the Japanese anime/manga sub-culture and its products still through the lens of American social systems and values. Her description of her discovery of anime brings me back to my own. Even though arriving very late, I was lucky to have stumbled onto it without knowing anything about it, just as someone would have back in the early days. Though I'm a bit jaded now toward new anime, that original feeling of having found something truly remarkable remains and is what keeps me in it. SGMS sounds great. If I'd known about it last year, I would have walked to Minnesota to hear Yoshitoshi ABe in person. His attendance doesn't surprise me, as he seems to be a creator eager to share his thoughts and enthusiasm with others. His DVD interviews are some of my favorites. I'll be keeping it on the calendar for next year for sure considering that quality of guests. Great column this week. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Mmm, I say full speed ahead if you enjoy Prof. Frenchy Lunning's opinion, but hang back a bit on the 'carrying bias' part. Our pal Google informs us the Prof.'s trained discipline is a PhD. in 'Design Communications and Cultural Studies'. Or in short, Communications, a rather....' open-ended'... field of Higher Ed. In the article Prof. Lunning hits on Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Political Theory, US History, Japanese History, etc. to build some of her ideas. None of those are 'Design Communications and Cultural Studies', not to sound like a PhD. grump (which I am). Of course that point doesn't preclude anyone's ideas from being interesting/accurate/valid, but in this case I really don't think you can posit Prof. Lunning as a dry, un-biased academic focusing on one discipline. She certainly has an angle she's after with the material. Again, nothing at all to dampen enthusiasm for the opinions within if one is inclined, but be careful to not equate: 'academic = dry, objective fact' here. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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... How are things like political theory, sociology, psychology, philosophy and history nothing to do with cultural studies? Even more, how do they not have anything to do with Design Communications? Last I checked Design Communications used most of those and anime/manga fits right in since it's a medium used to communicate with people. |
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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I understand, but maybe didn't say that right. What interests me is NOT in fact a "dry" academic viewpoint per se, but one based on a real personal enthusiasm for the subject still in the context of competent research that is willing to just look at the subject for what it is (the unbiased part). She mentions doing this because of an interest, maybe even passion, for it, not because it's her remunerative career focus. My complaint refers to the more aloof viewpoints I come across that are sold as objective, but are critical of the cultural and social aspects of the works from what I can only perceive as a personal, cultural bias of their own (or pandering to such amongst their peers). In any case, I'm more of a "make progress by opportunistic groping" kind of person vs. methodical planning and categorization. Her description of how she finally settled on shoujo seems to match that methodology, which is generally the rule amongst passionate pioneers and innovators .
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Let's not run the thread off-rails, but if disciplines were that vague everyone would get XXX Studies or XXX Communication and call it a day. You can accurately say mathematics 'communicates' ideas and concepts, but when NASA needs rockets built they turn to engineers. There's no way anyone could become PhD. level versed in that many disciplines, let alone from a general Liberal Arts degree. Again, none of that, in any way, put's a pro or con on the article and it's subject matter. It addresses a specific point of a poster: Be careful writing off any bias because Alphabet Soup is flashed around. I don't/didn't say 'ignore the opinion'. |
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know the academic reasoning of moe.
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littlegreenwolf
Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Oh, I see now. First you criticize her even mentioning anything associated with her area of expertise, claiming it has nothing to with her degree, even go so far as to criticize her if she has knowledge outside it, and now your disputing that her degree isn’t really a degree at all because it takes a basic understand of other subjects to understand Cultural Studies or Design Communications as a whole. I’m really curious as to what your definition of a Doctor of Philosophy is. I thought her PhDs made her more than qualified to talk and teach about the subject. |
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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LOL. ...at least I hope you were being facetious. If you try to make it all SERIOUS, you've missed the point. Seriousness leads to solidity, thus the proverbial "solid citizen". I much prefer associating with--and trusting--the competently insouciant myself. |
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Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
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Holy Glenn Beck Batman! Did I burn her house and kick her dog too? I thought, twice, I brought up a point about bias that was mentioned by another poster. It's a point that says: 'An academic work by a marine biologist on the mating patterns of whales may hold a good chance to be a rather dry, objective study that can be denoted as such. An academic work on the impetus of US foreign policy in the 70's by a linguistics professor, however insightful, will probably hold a degree of bias'.
Me. What's that (Philosophy) got to do with anything ? I'm more curious if you've ever heard of 'Design Communications' before today?
Terrific. I'd posit her academic background qualifies her to broach a number of subjects in an academic setting. I'm not willing to posit that it qualifies her as a bias-free commentator/ strictly 'dry' academic on one of the fields earlier mentioned. And in the big picture, I also think that's a pretty un-controversial, small potatoes point basically in answer to one poster's comments ( '....and refusing to carry any cultural preconceptions or bias into the research'). Yet, here we are... |
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Ktimene's Lover
Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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pparker, I was being both facetious and serious. Moe can borderline with lolicon/shoutacon. Also, finding an academic stance on something one can deem pedophilia is something unto itself.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Well, somehow you managed to become a Doctor without knowing how to use apostrophes, sooooo... |
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