Four for you Sayaka! You go Sayaka! And none for perverts and internet idiots.
So recently Tomomi and other girls posted that they were pissed off with the way fans were treating them at a handshake event.
Tomomi tweeted:
“It hurts to be told ‘ero’ that much.”
“I hope you would realize that even if it was just a joke, it could hurt someone.”
“Will you say that to a friend? Will you hear that from a family? Will you say that to a girl you like? Does Tomo do something bad? Not just ‘ero’, many words made me sad today.”
“Sorry for tweeting like that… But I’m really grateful for everyone who have come. I really love you… I want to smile more for everyone who have spared their time and came for Tomo’s sake, but…”
“Sorry for complaining like that! Tomorrow I’ll work harder with smile!! Because Tomo is here to make you smile.”
I didn’t know what happened but it was clear that it was more serious then how she phrased it. Then it was posted that this is what was being said to Tomomi and making her upset:
“I jacked off this morning before I came to see you!”
“I Tomonanised earlier!”
“So you’re wearing pink underwear today again?”
“Tomomi, your body is looking as sexy as ever!”
“Say ‘Oh! It came out!’ whilst doing this [gesturing as if holding a penis] please!”
It”s bad enough that this happened but then idiots on the internet started justifying it.
“You’d expect this sort of thing, I’d think?”
“Shut up, prostitutes.”
“They’ve quite a nerve, lecturing fans about morals whilst forcing them to buy multiple copies of CDs to meet them.”
“Didn’t you make these customers yourselves?”
“What do you expect from AKB fans?”
“If your business is milking idiots and weirdos, don’t complain when they actually show up.”
“Idols are just for onanising over, don’t they realise that?”
“The only moral collapse here is in your sales methods.”
“If they did that, most of their customers would disappear.”
“If you don’t like it, quit. There are 47 replacements for you.”
“Don’t they just want their favourite idol to remember them by doing something outrageous?”
“Given that they treat their customers as tools for extracting money from, I can’t see what right they have to complain at this treatment.”
“Just quit holding these events – oh, sorry, that would wreck your CD sales!”
“They pays their money, they does as they please.”
“Gathering all these social rejects, what do they expect?”
“They should do some training with hostesses as to how to better serve their customers.”
“If she doesn’t like being called Ero she shouldn’t be in AKB48″
“The thing is, they shouldn`t be treated that way, but hey advertise themselves that way. That`s what they bank on, the type of people they appeal to. Moe is gross because it dehumanizes the object of the Moe feelings to something that is cute, sweet, and lovable but inferior and incapable of being independent it`s own person, like a cute kitten. Like in Heavy Rotation, they were their wotas personal, eroi dancing kittens… “I want you! I need you!” while dressed in lingerie and having pillow fights and reading children`s books or dressed as eroticised loli cat girls clumsily eating sweets. There videos and projected characters don`t command or even ask for people to respect them. And the girls didn`t exactly come up with this act, they`re trained to act this way for cameras and their fans, because that`s what sells the best.”
NO.
Listen, I know AKB uses their sexuality to sell themselves. They use it a lot. Just because they do does not make it okay for anyone to ever harass them.
All idols play a role. They work with their assets and their managers tell them what they will be. It doesn’t mean that those girls necessarily like it or are like that but they do it because they are told to do it.
If a girl such as Tomomi plays a sexy role it doesn’t mean she is promiscuous and wants to suck everybody off. Even if she was a porn star it does not mean that she wants to be treated like this.
This is victim blaming. You are blaming the girl herself and because she acts sexy you are saying she somehow deserved it. No. How about you blame the sick fucks doing this stuff? She was there at a handshake event, doing her job and they were the ones to come along and say this gross stuff to her. They should be the ones held accountable for THEIR actions, not her. She was doing nothing wrong.
Also there’s a difference between what you say in your own time and in front of the idol. For example my tlist talks about how hot idols are and how bad they want to bang them all day. Do I give a shit? No. Hell, I join in. Why? I don’t care because that is separate from the idols themselves.
As I have said numerous times, idols are marketed so they feel familiar to you but they are not. Any adult should have a basic grasp of reality and realize this. They don’t know you and they probably don’t care about you.
It’s like this there’s this guy I like at a store I go to. I would never randomly go up to him and say I think he is beautiful and propose to him. Why? IT’S CREEPY. I don’t have any sort of prior relationship with this person. Still I like him but that doesn’t mean I should say so.
I accept the fact that he will never be anything more to me. I accept that the most I can ever hope for is a smile from him as he checks out my milk or whatever and a slight brush of the hand as we exchange money. This is exactly how you should perceive an idol. You can have feelings or desires for them but realize that it is one sided. They are not your wife, girlfriend, friend, or blow-up doll but just a person doing their job.
You can dehumanize them all you want but still at the end of the day they are real girls who have feelings.
It’s also ridiculous to say that if they didn’t have people like this supporting them they would have no one. That’s totally false. All this is doing is justifying the actions of a few sickos and it’s not right.
I know plenty of people, including myself who buy merchandise and support the girls but would never act like that. We are obsessive but we would never disrespect or try to hurt a girl because we love them so much.
If they lose a bunch of fans over wanting to be treated like a person well then it shouldn’t matter. Those kind of fans were not worth having in the first place.
It makes me sad that this poor girl had to go through this and was obviously hurt so much over it. It makes me sadder to know that she was told it was her fault and that she should just deal with it because there’s nothing that she can do about it and that if she doesn’t like it that’s her problem, that she can be replaced.
I wonder just how many girls(many of them very young) go through this abuse. I guarantee it happens everyday. It’s heartbreaking to know this and when you think about it all the girls can do about it is smile, hope it is over with quickly and try to push it out of their mind.
Even if the idols who posted their complaints here did it in a roundabout or sweeter way, it’s nice that they spoke about it. I hope more girls start to speak out about it because people being perverts and treating girls like shit should never be accepted.
Pingback: More Reactions To That AKB Handshake Event | International Wota
I agree with everything you said. The amount of downright misogynistic crap I’ve had to read justifying this incident is appalling, and if that is on this side of the world, I can only imagine how it is in Japan (and the 2ch comments are a proof of how lowly the wota can be).
From what I know, Togasaki (the theater manager) tweeted about these events already and said that if things kept going like this they would have to abolish the handshake events altogether, I really hope they don’t because the decent fans don’t deserve it and they are the majority. It’s really cool to be able to meet your idol in person, and AKB has been doing it ever since they debuted more than 5 years ago, but something has to be done.