spockitty

Feminism is necessary and it is a good movement. In most Western countries women have achieved what feminism is set out to do, I mean there are some wrinkles still that need or be ironed out but I'd say we lead pretty great lives and there are those (a small percentage) who are now looking to fill the void of no longer suffering under the patriarchy, so they go on the news to say that offices are usually cold because men tend to be in charge of the air con, making women, who usually wear lighter clothing, suffer. Therefore patriarchy is still in effect in their eyes. These people would be much better off seeing what ways they can be of use to other women who genuinely need help, perhaps listening to  women who live in countries where they can't even leave the house by themselves, or those who suffer female genital mutilation, volunteering at charities that support those who have been domestically abused and so on. Those women do need feminism. I believe feminism in Japan is necessary, but like I mentioned in another topic, only Japanese people know which is the best way to approach it for them. 
 
Regarding the rise in domestic violence against men, I don't think it's a direct by product of women getting cocky cuz giRl pOwER. Men are ridiculed (by other men above all) if they try to seek help coz their partner is a psycho. It is much more common than anyone imagines. I come from a country where having a girlfriend that beats you up and controls your life is desirable because it means she cares about you and because "that's just girlfriends/wives do! The old ball and chain haha". I have seen a lot of men suffer quietly because they believe this is how things are supposed to be. 
 
If more cases are being reported that's good, because they sure as hell have been happening all along. It is surprising though that this is rising in Japan, although with the whole "herbivore man" phenomenon, maybe not so surprising. Considering that Japan is already a society where feelings and problems are hidden away by default, imagine being a man with all the added baggage that comes with "masculinity". 
 
Also, men can't expect women to do all the work regarding feminism. This movement is supposed to benefit all parties. They need to do their part also in dismantling unhealthy stereotypes which do more harm than good when it comes to divorce, custody and reporting abuse. Support each other, discuss your emotions, etc. The ones who create such toxic, harmful standards for men are... Men after all! The reason there are SO many resources for female abuse survivors is because women fought and worked their hardest to make these places available, no one would've done it otherwise. Men should work just as hard to make sure that these institutions and resources are there for themselves too.
 

might be a lil too late for that, bruh

I agree with you, to a point.
 
Feminism is, or at least its supposed to be advocating for equality not superiority of one sex over the other. That said, raising awareness and combating the abuse that men suffer, especially at the hands of women, is a part of the movement. The risk of humiliation and not being seen as "man enough" is a byproduct of toxic masculinity (a buzzword i know) which is a big topic in feminism. The fact that society unfairly favours women over men in custody battles, is similarily hundred years of harmful stereotypes stacked on top of each other.
 
I don't think we should villanize the whole movement, because mainstream media chooses to only expose the worst of it, because that what gets the views.
 
Now what is said on the video, is not precisely that more women become abusers, but more men report the abuse. Which all in all, is a good thing?
 

seems like they're also mixed in with another artist?
 
ugh nvm. here's the link to one of their songs instead
 
 

I mean "patriarchy" is the reason why the assumption that women can't hurt men and can't be held accountable because they are weak (and so are men who are hurt by women) exists in the first place. So in theory, taking that down and removing these harmful stereotypes first would indeed lead to men victims reporting DV more and women attackers not getting away with it as easily. As @spockitty said, while there may be people calling themselves feminist who work against this goal, the movement as a whole is supposed to reach it.

I agree with you, to a point.
 
Feminism is, or at least its supposed to be advocating for equality not superiority of one sex over the other. That said, raising awareness and combating the abuse that men suffer, especially at the hands of women, is a part of the movement. The risk of humiliation and not being seen as "man enough" is a byproduct of toxic masculinity (a buzzword i know) which is a big topic in feminism. The fact that society unfairly favours women over men in custody battles, is similarily hundred years of harmful stereotypes stacked on top of each other.
 
I don't think we should villanize the whole movement, because mainstream media chooses to only expose the worst of it, because that what gets the views.
 
Now what is said on the video, is not precisely that more women become abusers, but more men report the abuse. Which all in all, is a good thing?
 

YES! Everything was in pieces good lord, I totally forgot about that ^^; I think even I used to upload my DVD's in like 7 parts or sth. 
 
 
Ahhh wow, Plastic Tree is still around??? You know what, I tried listening to baroque yesterday, went on Spotify and that profile is a mess, I think there are 3 different artists on there ;/ funnily enough there is another japanese artist by the name of baroque, he does electronic instrumentals. As for the rest, I know them all by name, but never gotten much into them, aside from Acid Black Cherry, that I was into pretty hard back in the day  and RAZOR! I haven't heard much but I like what I have! 
The rest is going on my to-listen list, thanks ^^

*shakes cane* welcome to MH fellow senior citizen.  Theses young whipper snappers with their snapcats and instagrammars  don't understand our ways sometimes but these youngins are good kids, they just have a young/hate relationship with "shipping" . I'm soon to be 39

NO WAY THIS IS A THREAD THAT EXISTS HERE?????! HELLOOOOO~
 

 
 
YESSS GOOD, kinda wish they continued in a darker direction but it's a summer wave so I guess it can't be helped. THAT WILD ELECTRO SLAPS THO <3<3
 
never heard of them, they new? lacks some power behind it imo, but hey potential is there!
 

in high school, i used to make mix cds of vk bands and pass them out to my friends, acquaintances, and some random people.  i also used to show people pics of bandmen, but it was just entrapment to see their faces when i told them that whoever it was is a guy.  i was in this class called digital storytelling where you had to put presentations together using photoshop and premiere, and most of those were about vk bands too.  i’m sure my classmates loved me.  😅

I mean, it's a niche even in it's own country, so I feel like it's a winning lottery ticket to randomly meet someone who's into it on the other side of the world ^^; 
 
In my experience, it's way easier to meet some local fan online (and by local I mean, at least in your country lol) and then meet them irl. 

It's hiro from studio prisoner. He produced all of nokubura's official releases.

Vk-granny...so I'm a so called vk-Methusalem then O_o
Anyways...good to see u returning after that long time and experiencing new vk ^^
I never left but well...sometimes let it go low for some time and getting strong on it again when discovering something new within the scene ^^

I mean I’m a huge fan of Mejibray, and at the beginning, even though I went to a couple of 8P lives, I was massively conflicted about it. Then (in my opinion) the quality of the music began to improve and it became apparently that they were expressing what was basically an apology to the fans that they hurt in the process of breaking away - which yes, they didn’t need to apologize, I get that a lot when I bring it up, “they don’t need to apologize for being true to themselves”. But I was there for the last two tours, and it was rough. People were sobbing, everyone was screaming for encores that didn’t come, the tour final was ROUGH, and Koichi basically plugged 8P-SB at the end of Mejibray’s last live on his birthday. Even if they didn’t have to, it was really nice to hear those hurt feelings acknowledged. 
 
I went on on a tangent, sorry, LOL. I will never not miss Mejibray, but I feel like the quality of 8P-SB is improving. I went to their tour more recently and Koichi is definitely a lot more comfortable, both are happy, and Genki utilizes his voice in more interesting ways live than he does on the recorded singles. There’s not as much screaming, but it’s still there and in interesting ways. I think I lost my train of thought, but yeah, it’s really not as bad as people think, it’s getting better, but it is radically different. 

Very interesting read. I'll leave this here and see if anyone finds it interesting. https://www.apnews.com/9ef16f52e9b94b9a838b17a63c6c1e8d
 

People always assume I listen to K-pop the moment they see me. Fun fact: I've never listened to a K-pop song the entire way through besides Gangnam Style and Gentleman by PSY (and that's only because they were pretty much inescapable when they first came out). Not that I have owt against it, I just haven't really listened to it, that's all.
 
I remember showing a VK guy to this guy in my class last year at college and he didn't really think much of him until he put two and two together and realised he was a guy, not a girl. Oh, lordy, I'll never forget the way his face contorted in utter horror and confusion.

I don't really show people songs/videos to try to get them into the same music anymore - I used to do it a lot in high school, and my friends were all very polite about it but clearly not very interested. I still kind of cringe looking back on that. These days, I write for a website and post on places like this forum to get all my nerdy J-rock energy out without subjecting my family and friends to it.
 
However, I drag my friends to concerts all the time. (Well, concerts that are $25 or less, anyway. If it's an expensive concert I feel too guilty to ask.) They don't usually care for the music all that much, but they come along for kicks since we don't get to see each other that often now that everyone is working different schedules. It's something to do, and the artists I want to see tend to be a little ridiculous, so I think they always at least end up being entertained by the costumes and stage antics. Recently, I just say "Hey guys, are you up for seeing _ with me?" and they'll say yes without even checking to see what kind of band it is, so I feel super lucky.
 
My two best friends are both casual anime fans, and they're familiar with some of the artists that do theme songs and stuff, so they don't really make fun of my taste in music all that much. Although they both have kind of strange taste in music as well, so I guess they're not really in a position to judge.

Welcome my dear children! How's vk doing these days? 😎
 
I see you can even listen to your weird japanese metal on Spotify, kids have it way too easy nowadays... 
BACK IN MY DAY I had to hunt single songs in 92kbps on dial-up Limewire and half the time ended up with "I did not have sexual relations with that woman.mp3".
 
Funny story, that's how I got into vk! 13-year-old me was browsing the wide web, probably for some quality Britney Spears, and found a grainy Miyavi's Jibun Kakumei PV instead. With a 20MB download limit per day, I thought CLOSE ENOUGH and the rest is history. 
 
Now I'm back after over 10 years of impersonating a Serious Adult™ and I have Opinions™ to share. 
 
Some bands that I used to listen to (some of which are surprisingly still around!): Miyavi (duh), MUCC, Merry, girugamesh, 9GOATS BLACK OUT, Hora, Kaya, Schwarz Stein (can't believe they got back together, it's like I never left!) and the whole shebang, Aural Vampire, Kagrra,, Yoshiki's classical stuff~
 
And some bands that I've discovered in the past few weeks and absolutely love: Initial'L and consequently Lycaon, DIMLIM, Xaa-Xaa~
 
Also, I'm Anna 💩
 
P.S. I also listen to a lot of kpop, all kinds of electronic and celtic music; don't expect there to be much overlap but you never know! if your music taste is as all over the place as mine, hit me up, we can share obscure recommendations!

LOL way to make me feel old

To be honest, I have gotten more friends, although most of them being in their 40s or 50s, in real life for being a fan of Loudness and EZO than VK ever did for me. 
 
However, VK did manage to snag me my boyfriend of 15+ years.  It's hilarious to tell people that we started to date because I had pictures of Dir en grey and Malice Mizer hanging in my locker in the 8th grade and my SO overreacted when he noticed because he was a closeted VK fan and thought he would never find another VK fan in our tiny, country bumpkin town.  We ended up getting a lot of our close friends into VK during high school, but I'm pretty sure most of them don't listen to anything related to VK anymore. 

This reminds me when I  had a framed picture of Yukke on my desk at work and people would come up and be like "Who?? Is this you???" and I was like "Yep, that's me, I did a little touch up on the face and here I am now XD. No no, he is actually my husband :)." 
 
Honestly most of my friends listen to VK, like anime and all that. 
 
VK was quite huge in my country when anime series were shown on TV. And from there, we even used to have these big two anime conventions in my city and even forums on the internet so I got to meet a lot of interesting people (and learn what catfishing was from a young age XDD), so I wasn't surrounded too much by people who didn't know about VK.
 
But theeeen I started listening to other genres and widen my musical taste and with that, I got to become friends with people who didn't listen to VK. In high school a lot of people thought I needed to wear more bright colors and maybe try staying in the sun a little bit XDDD. But other than that we were chill. I wasn't popular but I did get to be part of the drama club so I guess people knew me as a funny person, rather than that girl with hair covering her face XD (I never had that pineapple hair cut, it was just hair in my face XD).
 
I was a very awkward kid who didn't talk that much about what I like, but now, I tend to spread my knowledge to everyone XD. I'm shamelessly exposing all them VK bois I like to the world :)). 

those instagram lips tho.

In high school I enjoyed vk by myself because all my friends were as normie as it gets. I mean, they knew I was into weird music, but the sound of a guitar was too aggressive for their ears. Luckily those people are gone 🙌🏼 As I got older I made a couple of friends who are more into metal music who give vk a try  without judgement, say if there's a release I'm excited about I can share it with them. I also turned my bf into a vk weeb a few years ago. Otherwise, MH is the place to discuss it. 
 
Since some people mentioned kpop, I have relatives who are into that and they think vk is okay. We trade music occasionally. 

I feel old as well.

I couldn't tell you how long it was going after I left, and I left around 2009 I think?
And wow did talking about it led me down a not-exactly-pleasant memory lane 😕