You know how catty those women are...
First, a five-second rundown on what the Takarazuka is for those of you who don't know: famous all-female Japanese musical theatre troupe with a small but devoted non-Japanese fanbase. Runs a highly selective (is that the word I'm looking for? Er, "difficult to get into") music school for girls who want to become Takarazuka members. ETA: A wiki link would probably help, huh?

A girl has recently been expelled* from the Takarazuka Music School because she was accused of shoplifting; she says the accusations are false and that the girls responsible had been bullying her for a while, and is suing the school to let her back in. Which is already not terribly funny. (* That article's in Japanese, unfortunately, but there's a translation in the post linked below.)

The fun, however, really starts when the person who posts the news to the Takarazuka LJ comm includes a comment (now edited out) along the lines of "This is why I'd never go near an all-girls school. Women are scary, and they carry grudges."

Some people believe this to be offensive. Others disagree, stating that it's true because women have PMS, it's just a joke, and you shouldn't be mean to the original poster because she's a BNF.

(Incidentally, is there a program that will let me screencap/save the post without just alt+print-screen-ing it a few dozen times? The Takarazuka comm has a habit of deleting anything that gets too wanky.)

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	faultypremise 2009-11-11 06:18 am UTC (link)
	hyper-sexualised teen lookalikes ^ I think she was referencing your comment, only putting it in more succinct terminology. So just stop now, while you are behind. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dana 2009-11-11 06:23 am UTC (link)
	I cannot believe you guys, hyper-sexualised, yes, which as a woman I find ghastly. Those groups are a symptom of the sexist society we live in. I would never use the word 'skanky'. Never. And so what, my reference was wrong, I made a mistake, I apologised. What the hell?? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	faultypremise 2009-11-11 06:27 am UTC (link)
	And that's what happens when you paint an entire group of people with a single brush. The more you know... (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

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faultypremise
2009-11-11 06:33 am UTC (link)
And knowing is half the battle.

G.I. Joooooooooooooooooooooooooe o/~
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dana
2009-11-11 06:33 am UTC (link)
You know what, I'm stopping here, because this is crazy world. What I'm saying, and what you are hearing, seem to be very different things, and I don't know if I'm not being clear enough, or if ...I dunno, you have expectations of who I am.

But I can't do this anymore. Communication breakdown.
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faultypremise
2009-11-11 05:30 pm UTC (link)
There is definitely some communication breakdown going on here. However, I beg to differ that *I* am the one not getting it. And before you rush to reply to this, I might suggest sitting on your hands instead. The more you type, the more ridiculous this gets.
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sarracenia
2009-11-11 06:42 am UTC (link)
...so uh. You make a sexist assumption, thereby calling by inference every single woman who is in an all-women music group infantilized and hypersexualized. Oh, but only the Western women apparently. Then when someone takes offense and rephrases your statement at you, you take offense because they totally used a much more offensive term to rephrase your offensive terminology, because after all, because called a hypersexualized teen lookalike is infinitely better and different than being called a skanky girl group. And you use that as a distraction from being called on your sexist bullshit, because you think that just because the second you apologize for your sexist bullshit everyone should shut up immediately and immediately forgive your fail because it makes you feel bad, completely ignoring how they might have felt about something they may have put a great deal of time and effort into dismissed as a bunch of hypersexualized teen lookalikes.

Yeah, you're looking really good here.
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dana
2009-11-11 06:50 am UTC (link)
OK, let me spell it out for you. The only exposure I ever get of woman's groups is the pop groups, which I see as hyper-sexualised. It's not that I live under a rock, it's that I don't follow music much, and pop music is so pervasive. So saw 'woman, musical' and then though of that show about women who are trying to get into the 'Pussy Cat Dolls' and I made the mistake of assuming that was Japan's equivalence, I did ask that, in case you noticed.

I didn't know there were women musical troupes, I didn't even know there were ones anywhere in the world. I learnt something new. See, I'm trying to be honest here with my thought processes and my making a mistake. I don't see the point on constantly JUMPING on me to point out how wrong I am, when I admitted I'm wrong. It's not really going to change anything.
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sarracenia
2009-11-11 07:46 am UTC (link)
As a general rule of thumb, the best response to accidentally being a jackass on the internet is to apologize, and shut up. Continuing to talk about how you apologized and everyone's so mean for not immediately letting it go isn't exactly going to make you look better. You were a dick, people are going to call you a jackass for a bit even if you do apologize, and the less you give them reason to keep calling you one, the quicker they stop.
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dana
2009-11-11 07:49 am UTC (link)
For the most part, I agree. But I was explaining why I thought that way, it wasn't like I woke up and said, let's offend someone in a musical troupe by comparing the group they love with Britney Spears. I'm not the enemy.
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dana
2009-11-11 07:47 am UTC (link)
Not to mention that I apologised 5 times to tez for my mistakan assumption - and I am, still sincerely sorry, before snapping becuse I can only apologise so many times, I don't know what more I can do.
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