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Re: Japan and “Reclaiming”

menheratic

The otaku to blame for the 2008 Akihabara mass-murder was finally executed today, so we wanted to take a minute to remember foreigners that being “otaku” (オタク) is not seen as something positive.

You see, the concept of “reclaiming” terms does not exist here in Japan the way it does in the west, and words that were born in a negative context will always remain negative. However, deriving positive terms from negative ones does exist!

Examples:
Otaku (オタク) turned into Wotaku (ヲタク) - the original was used to discriminate against anime fans as delusional social rejects, so they coined the term wotaku in order to form a peaceful community void of bad media reports
Lolita (ロリータ) turned into Lolita (ロリィタ) - the original coming from “the book”, the media started to label the fashion as Lolita over a very popular gag manga that labeled the character Alice as such while depicted wearing the fashion, so the community changed the spelling to distance from lolicon
Kawaiko (かわい子) turned into Kawaii (かわいい) - the original was used by men to sexualize (underage) girls, so they started labeling everything that is “just like me” as kawaii to dilute the impact of the cat-calling

The derivations often sound the same in direct translation, which might give the wrong impression that the original was “reclaimed” despite being written and spoken different, so it’s always a good idea to compare the spellings to make sure you use the correct one!

menheratic

image

Menhera is of positive origin and was coined by the members of Japan’s oldest and largest mental health board to describe themself and find each other on social media (here a long article tracking every single detail of its birth). There’s also many events related to Menhera subculture like The Menhera Exhibit (メンヘラ展), the Menhera Music Festival (メンヘラの集い), or the Menhera Summer Festival (メンヘラ夏フェス), all being hosted in collaboration with the local government to spread mental health awareness, they wouldn’t use the term if it was degoratory. It is short for “mental healther”, which is a person working on (their) mental health.

The only reason why some misuse it as insult is because of the stigma towards people with mental health issues, but that doesn’t change that it is not the original use (compare it to the misuse of “emo” in the west) so there is no need to change it, and even if there was a new term people would misuse it regardless due to the stigma.

girlyholic

Also:
Labeling yourself as something unironically because you are the stereotype isn’t considered reclaiming because it doesn’t do anything to change the meaning to something positive, rather it is perpetuating the derogatory one. Not only does it do nothing against others being targetted with it but also makes for an easy excuse for outsiders to get away with the insult.