Shame is (not) funny
Apr. 19th, 2017 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsSome discursive ramblings on a whim...
I hear a lot about the role of shame in East Asian cultures, so it strikes me as ironic* that after marinating myself in a bunch of East Asian media and then going back to the American stuff, shame is like the first thing I notice in the American stuff. American media thinks shame/embarrassment is a great way to teach and a go-to way to be funny. As someone with an embarrassment squick it trips me up constantly. (At this very moment I'm pausing my mostly-fun first-ever viewing of Kung Fu Panda for the Xth time to process tripping over vicarious embarrassment again.) I wonder if this is possibly WHY I'm so drawn to East Asian media --- I mean it's not like it never does it but it feels like it's less?
(*Note this doesn't prove or disprove the broader cultural observation. It's totally conceivable that a culture where shame is serious business would deal it out less glibly in media [EDIT: or that it is there but not in the forms my own culture has conditioned me to react to/be squicked by]. I'm not qualified to say whether that's the answer but it's possible.)
Looking at shame from another, representation-y angle is how I ended up watching Kung Fu Panda actually. Y'all might have noticed I'm head over heels for Akatsuki no Yona right now, and I still absolutely adore it, but the thought "could I cosplay this?" gave me a big ol' faceful of body image dysphoria**. That was where I was earlier today when I got around to sampling Voltron: Legendary Defender on my Netflix trial*** and I was NOT ready for its treatment of Hunk. ("Okay, if he's stuck in this garbage can, I'm leaving. ... Okay, so he is stuck and I lied, I'll stick it out to the end of the pilot, but you're on probation, show.") Between that and throwing in crass "humor" indiscriminately, I rated the pilot "not a keeper."
And then I was like "goddammit, I need something with a fat hero." (I also may need to re-read the Jes Baker book, having finally bought myself a copy.) So I started watching Kung Fu Panda. I'm not to that part quite yet, but it's been credibly promised, and the other heroes have been called out for their fat-shaming and are starting to see the light. It helps some. (But even here, to take one detail, Netflix’ summary of the movie refers to Po as “lazy” and I see no actual evidence in the film that he’s lazy.)
(**I did cosplay for Halloween last year --- as Link. I could slip that one through because Link can be incarnated as anybody. Not gonna work this time.)
(***BTW, the binge kind of petered out before completing and I'm still working on the new MST3K eps.)
I hear a lot about the role of shame in East Asian cultures, so it strikes me as ironic* that after marinating myself in a bunch of East Asian media and then going back to the American stuff, shame is like the first thing I notice in the American stuff. American media thinks shame/embarrassment is a great way to teach and a go-to way to be funny. As someone with an embarrassment squick it trips me up constantly. (At this very moment I'm pausing my mostly-fun first-ever viewing of Kung Fu Panda for the Xth time to process tripping over vicarious embarrassment again.) I wonder if this is possibly WHY I'm so drawn to East Asian media --- I mean it's not like it never does it but it feels like it's less?
(*Note this doesn't prove or disprove the broader cultural observation. It's totally conceivable that a culture where shame is serious business would deal it out less glibly in media [EDIT: or that it is there but not in the forms my own culture has conditioned me to react to/be squicked by]. I'm not qualified to say whether that's the answer but it's possible.)
Looking at shame from another, representation-y angle is how I ended up watching Kung Fu Panda actually. Y'all might have noticed I'm head over heels for Akatsuki no Yona right now, and I still absolutely adore it, but the thought "could I cosplay this?" gave me a big ol' faceful of body image dysphoria**. That was where I was earlier today when I got around to sampling Voltron: Legendary Defender on my Netflix trial*** and I was NOT ready for its treatment of Hunk. ("Okay, if he's stuck in this garbage can, I'm leaving. ... Okay, so he is stuck and I lied, I'll stick it out to the end of the pilot, but you're on probation, show.") Between that and throwing in crass "humor" indiscriminately, I rated the pilot "not a keeper."
And then I was like "goddammit, I need something with a fat hero." (I also may need to re-read the Jes Baker book, having finally bought myself a copy.) So I started watching Kung Fu Panda. I'm not to that part quite yet, but it's been credibly promised, and the other heroes have been called out for their fat-shaming and are starting to see the light. It helps some. (But even here, to take one detail, Netflix’ summary of the movie refers to Po as “lazy” and I see no actual evidence in the film that he’s lazy.)
(**I did cosplay for Halloween last year --- as Link. I could slip that one through because Link can be incarnated as anybody. Not gonna work this time.)
(***BTW, the binge kind of petered out before completing and I'm still working on the new MST3K eps.)
no subject
Date: 2017-04-20 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-21 08:13 am (UTC)But, wow, I expected better of Voltron after seeing people on Tumblr like it so much. Think I'll give that a pass. :\
no subject
Date: 2017-04-21 12:29 pm (UTC)