Forum - View topicINTEREST: 18-Year-Old Idol Asuka Kiraboshi Announces Pregnancy with Manager's Child
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
Author | Message | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Compelled to Reply
Posts: 358 |
|
|||||
If anything in the entertainment industry aligned with "Western" feminist values, it would cease to exist. Sex sells, regardless of what perceived innocence or promiscuity is conveyed. |
||||||
Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
|
|||||
|
||||||
sakabatou86
Posts: 8 |
|
|||||
The culture clash regarding celebrity pregnancies is very interesting to say the least.
Over here it would be a scandal because it means a 16-year-old started dating a 20-year-old. Over there it's a scandal because she's famous and people want to romanticize the idea that they could be with her. It is something I would be very interested to learn the mentality behind. |
||||||
Chrono1000
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
|
|||||
What you're describing is the whore/Madonna dichotomy. Some fans prefer to idolize "pure" girls and put them on a pedestal, some fans want to fantasize about sexy, promiscuous Hollywood vixens. Neither type of depiction cares about the humanity of women as individuals, which is why Hollywood has been getting as much criticism as the idol industry recently. Since women are approximately 50% of the human population, it makes sense that people criticize unrealistic, exploitative portrayals of them no matter what culture is behind those particular portrayals. That doesn't mean there is no room for sexy or innocent portrayals of women in media, but that people criticize those portrayals when they are exploitative and hurt the idol or actress herself. |
||||||
MoonStar9
Posts: 24 |
|
|||||
While it's true many fans seem to feel some kind of misplaced possession of this girl and are calling her private relations "a betrayal", there are also many in and outside her fanbase who are genuinely disgusted by the manager's actions. And frankly, I find that more far more appalling than what some crazed fan says in response to the announcement. This man has ruined not only her career but also her social life indefinitely. She as a public figure will likely be blacklisted from limelight work as the teen pregnancy girl who will damage the business' reputation and will be subjected to harshness both online and IRL for all her family to see. She's already being called a whore and whatnot. Judging by the responses to the announcement on twitter anyway. The poor girl is naive enough to think she won't be replaced during her nine months and whatever maternity leave she'd be granted, and that she'd still sell to the public despite the debacle. And given Japan's harsh social stigma, this is the kind of condition that births suicidal tendencies. The manager is handling the twitter and is apologizing to those who are accusing him of not upholding his position... as well as those calling them whores. Whatever relationship they had is unknown but the girl got the short end of the stick because the manager wasn't professional.
|
||||||
Kalessin
Posts: 931 |
|
|||||
Honestly, this is the part that scares me. Granted, it doesn't seem particularly good that she and her manager went and got her pregnant with how young she is (though it's certainly better that he's 4 years older rather than 20 years older), but the fact that the fans consider her actions a betrayal is just plain disturbing. It's her life, and she's free to screw it up. I can't help but be creeped out by fan reactions like this. But then again, the whole idol industry really makes no sense to me. I can understand guys being interested in attractive celebrities, but the fact that idols seem to be set up precisely to be there for guys to be attracted to them and that that's their main reason for being there as opposed to it just being a side effect of them being popular doing something seems completely off to me. And if the whole point of the girl being there is for guys to be attracted to them and dream about them, then having the girl actually hook up with someone else is a betrayal of sorts, I guess. But if anything, it just shows how messed up the whole idol thing is. Still, if the whole idol thing makes money, presumably, it'll stick around, and I guess that it's just one of those cases that helps show how Japan is most definitely not America (for better or for worse). |
||||||
Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
|
|||||
That's where you're wrong. She's an idol. There are plenty of other entertainment avenues that she could have chosen if she did not want to adhere to what it means to be an idol. Idols are there to be idolized by wota. As soon as she chose to be an idol then she signed away her "freedom" to screw up her life (and still remain an idol). It's no different from any other job. You have expectations to meet in your job. If you do not meet them then you will be disciplined and eventually let go. You may disagree with what an idol's job specifications are, but it's not like they're hidden away from anyone who wishes to be an idol. The idol industry would fall to pieces as soon as there were people who stopped wanting to sign their social life away to a talent agency. But there are thousands upon thousands who want to do so. So I fail it find it particularly disturbing myself as there is no deception in what is expected of an idol. They could try to be a singer, or an actress, or a model. Or anything that is not an idol. That's their freedom. As an employed person, I can tell you that I have very little freedom when it comes to how I perform my job. That's typically how contractual employment goes. |
||||||
Hoppy800
Posts: 3331 |
|
|||||
Most idols under the age of 18 are signed up by their parents looking for fame even if they end up put their son or daughter through hell or pressured by other means, so no, this is not true in most cases. So, it's not the idol's fault unless they signed up when they were 18 or over. Also, idols should be admired for their talent and not purity. Idols are not a religion. |
||||||
Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
|
|||||
Idols are not a religion. They're an escapist fantasy. And as soon as the escapist fantasy is crushed then those seeking the escapist fantasy feel betrayed. It should be kept in mind that the only reason these idols have jobs is because of those seeking the escapist fantasy. Again, the ones putting on the facade of playing the surrogate boyfriend/girlfriend know full well what the talent agency expects of them by signing up to be an idol. If they don't want to follow through then they can quit. Nothing is forcing them to keep the charade up other than their own desire to be an idol.
|
||||||
Yuvelir
Posts: 1579 |
|
|||||
I'm pretty sure there are laws in place preventing your employer from dictating what you can and can't do out of the job (even if they aren't enforced enough). And if you're going to claim that an idol is ALWAYS on the job, then I'm pretty sure that there are also laws preventing 24-hour-per-day working times. The sole concept of your life belonging to someone else because you signed a contract ala Mahoutsukai no Yome is pretty ludicrous. So if a few idols reclaiming their human rights back could make the idol industry collapse, then it cna't collapse soon enough. |
||||||
Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
|
|||||
An idol's job is to attract paying customers for their live concerts/CDs/merchandise. If they do anything to hinder that aspect of their job, then it's not particularly hard to see why they would be disciplined and/or let go. As I said, the industry will collapse as soon as everyone starts valuing their personal life over being an idol. I agree, I wish it would collapse as well, if only because I value singers more than idols and there has been a noticeable decline in singers with the rise of idols.
|
||||||
Yuvelir
Posts: 1579 |
|
|||||
It's not like idols came out of nowhere anyway. Just a matter of going back to what they were before they became wota-centered.
Granted, we wouldn't see so many legions of idols anymore (maybe?) so there goes all the 48 stuff. But they wouldn't disappear outright. |
||||||
Lord Oink
Posts: 876 |
|
|||||
We live in the era of social media, where you can be fired for a post on Twitter. https://nypost.com/2017/08/29/professor-fired-over-harvey-instant-karma-tweet-for-texas/ If you don't think your employeer controls how you can express yourself publically, you're going to be in for a rude awakening. As long as you work for a company, your actions are reflected by them, and they'll can you if they think you did something that reflects badly on them. |
||||||
Chrono1000
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
||
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group