Manga and MAGA
What is the role of Japanese pop culture in the post-liberal era?
It's interesting seeing the "4B" trend from Korea, in which women tired of structural sexism in their nation reject dating, marriage, birth, and sex with men, now trending on TikTok in America. The gaping chasm between how young women and men voted in the election reveals a schism that goes far beyond the usual generational or policy lines. And I find it telling that women distressed by the election’s outcome are looking to East Asia for answers.
In Pure Invention, I argued that the tastes of young Americans and Japanese had synchronized, due in no small part to the huge amounts of Japanese fantasies Americans have been consuming over the past four decades. These fantasies, products of a society struggling with identity and meaning in the post-industrial era, spoke deeply to young Americans whose own society was increasingly coming to resemble Japan’s. I am often asked by readers, so if the US and Japan have synched up, what's next? During pandemic, when everyone was locked down, that wasn't easy to answer. But now we are beginning to see the paths between the societies diverge, in America's full-throated support of Donald Trump and swerve away from liberalism.
Japan's “lost decades” began in 1990 and ended, more or less, in 2010. They were marked by economic depression, political chaos, and struggles to redefine gender roles, adulthood, even simple happiness, in an era of less. One could argue that we Americans are still in the midst of our lost decades, which began with the financial crash of 2008. But the election has laid bare how differently American and Japanese societies are processing the fallout.
Both nations have turned inward, away from the ambitions of global leadership and cultural role-modeling that marked their diplomacy in the industrial era. Both have grown more conservative. Yet while Japan struggles quietly with its problems, channeling frustration and ennui into ever-more intricate fantasies, America, with its unique patchwork of identities, coalitions, and interests, seems to be ripping apart at the seams.
In 2015-6, a subset of anime fans, radicalized on anonymous imageboards such as 4chan, played a significant role in energizing MAGA supporters online. This strange counter-cultural cross-over emerged from the fact that 4chan began life as place to celebrate Japanese pop culture, and retained those roots even as it shifted increasingly rightward. Yet America’s far-right anime fans seem to have played little role in the 2020 elections. 4chan didn’t matter this time around because American society has come to resemble 4chan, with its hunger for outrage, its love of trolling, and its enthusiastic embrace of “feels” over reason.
The passions of anime fans have long spilled off the internet and into real life, but this seems to be accelerating now. A hundred thousand people attended the AnimeNYC convention last August. The incredibly diverse crowd I mingled with there bore little resemblance to the anime trolls of 2015, and hints to me that things will be different this time around. In fact, I suspect that fans of Japanese pop culture in its varied forms might well represent the counter-cultural resistance of America’s new era.
We saw a hint of this during the first Trump administration, when women donned Hello Kitty-styled "pussyhats" to protest sexism in the 2017 Women's March on Washington DC. And how democracy activists in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Chile appropriated imagery from anime into their respective movements in 2019-20. The values embodied in Japan's pop culture are deeply rooted in themes of camaraderie, struggle against authority, and pushing against societal expectations and restrictions. The marginalized in Japan, China, and Korea have long used pop culture as tools in their struggle against the forces stacked against them. The popularity of anime and 4B show they could soon become America’s.
Fantastic post.
> I find it telling that women distressed by the election’s outcome are looking to East Asia for answers.
There is a real difference in the agency women have about voting (lots) compared to dating (much less). While women get the up/down choice on dating, men are still left to lead the engagement. The admission that Bumble was going to let women initiate has failed is a good example that "nothing has changed." Women can make a big splash in politics, but in dating... they are still in the reactive role. Any man that understands his role will see that - he offers, she screens. And it's not an entirely rationale process, often not at all.
When he is more attractive (in behavior, as much as looks), when he makes better offers, her politics will take a backseat to stronger, more ancient motivations.
I live in Japan. I've watched dating here, vs my home country. And the anime/manga look is an aesthetic. In dating (at least), it flies against traditional roles. Of the Westerners in Japan, a disproportionate amount are "all in," with presumably straight males erring toward the look of a Japanese HS girl... taking it too far to make sure you can't miss it.
If America did sink in the financial crisis (good date to the fix the origin of the crisis), and then the "turn" happened in ~2013, with the onset of non-binary/trannie culture (along with everything "underprivileged"), what aesthetics was the culture offering consumers? women? men? In a shallow/surface level, what did it look like?
That so many right-wing men have cartoon girl avatars, is certainly "unusual." Some might call it weird. You might notice that while the "cartoon girl as identity" is remarkably common with men, it is universal with the "incels" (the least successful among us). Even gun culture online will be mixed with "cutesy-isms" and anime-identification. It's a strange aesthetic. Like someone that doesn't know how to dress, putting on articles of clothing with no sense of how they work together, or the effect the ensemble will produce. If that creates chaos in the dating market, that might be expected.
If the culture is ready for a return of masculinity (more Top Guy, less The Devil Wears Prada), I think we'll see the influence of "cartoon girls" decline in the aesthetic, at least in the US. There was good commentary yesterday (calling back to the summer) of Trump bringing in a "Macho" culture, and how that appeals to the male vote. For right-ists, that will be a better fit - were there more attractive male symbols, more men might pick them up, and put them on. And as there are examples in the culture beyond "bald dudes with lipstick wearing dresses" (I am thinking of vaulted Biden appointees, and Admiral Miss Whathisname), young men will have better, more appropriate examples to draw from. Traditionally successful icons may inspire traditionally successful behavior - they are of the same kind.
Coming back to women, specifically in dating, their role is reactive. Women are often surprised by what they are attracted to, particular when their education has been so far from natural roles (when you have the wrong priors, everything is surprising). As men pick up more appropriate symbols, lots of women will find themselves attracted to those traditional roles. And then "what they say on Tik Tok" will be a reaction to the reaction... and dysfunctional trends in Korea will have less air to breathe.
I love Japan. And most American men are not terribly different from Japanese men of the same age. But in terms of "suggested roles," the Swagger of America (which is more of an idea, than a popular choice) is deeply rooted, and in many way more attractive than "cartoon girls" as an aesthetic. America is ready for better symbols - when they become available.
If America can source better symbols than endless adoration for trannies and the "gay," the presence of better, more natural choices for men should make stronger roles for those men easier to choose, and dating will straighten out, in many ways. No one should expect the women to lead the way... it's not how it works.
Regarding 4B in America, political polarization may blunt its effectiveness.
4B will most likely be done by progressive women. They likely do not hang out with anyone right-leaning. Therefore, they will never date right-leaning men regardless of election results. Thus there are no right-wing men to punish.
That leaves moderate or left-wing men, who likely voted “correctly” yet will be punished anyway - and that can turn them into right-wing men.
That leaves the option of bullying other women into 4B by mocking or denouncing any woman who dates a man (or maybe just those who date the right-wing men they want to punish.) But that can backfire too, driving *women* toward the Right, just as perceived anti-male attitudes drove men rightward.
Then there’s the simple fact that feminists already have an anti-male reputation, so a change probably won’t even be noticed.
What these women end up doing is their choice, their prerogative. I just don’t think it will play out the way they hope.