Argh! Just when Kyou Koi wo Hajimeshite was getting cute, the protagonist just HAD to turn into a total wimpy whiny spineless jellyfish! Argh! She was doing so well at first, refusing to go the usual route of having a makeover and ditching her plain jane braids and long skirt…then she HAD to fall for the bad boy and get a kawaii makeover treatment…and if that’s not the end, she turned into this whole jealous, clingy girlfriend who can’t decide if he likes her or not, even though he’s done everything to prove it to her! ARGH!

At least He’s Dedicated to Roses wasn’t as bad. I was kind of sad for the protagonist because she was so downtrodden and tortured but could not retaliate against her tormentors due to her parents’ debt, and was totally psyched when she finally revealed that she’s been crossdressing as a boy, and her male alter ego was actually a strong fighter! The part where she whipped off her braids in class and broke her desk in two with her bare hands totally made me piss my pants!

By the way, I managed to somehow finish First Girl. In the next 10 chapters (I was mistaken; there was only 18 chapters THANK GOD), Miu was:

1) Forced into becoming Tangoman’s lover because he tricked her into believing Billionaire didn’t want her.
2) Became a huge Broadway star dancing opposite Tangoman.
3) Pervy General came to New York to find her; attended her show and killed 13 of her co-dancers.
4) Billionaire rescued her; he’d been silently watching her from afar in order to protect her.
5) Tangoman decides that Billionaire loves Miu more than he loves her, so he gave Miu back to Billionaire.
6) Billionaire takes Miu back to Japan to live with her mom, who sold her in the first place.
7) Billionaire goes back to his country to oust the revolutionary government.
8 ) Miu’s younger stepbrother falls in love with Miu and tries to rape her.
9) Miu’s pure love for her stepbrother changes him for the better.
10) Pervy General goes to Japan and kidnaps Miu.
11) Miu decides to go back with Pervy General. On the way back in train, Miu seduces Pervy General and was going to stab him a la Basic Instinct.
12) Miu misses. Billionaire hijacks train, was going to kill Pervy General.
13) Pervy General lies and said he’d fucked Miu. Billionaire is stunned. Pervy General shoots Billionaire.
14) Pervy General holds a grand ball with Miu as his date. Says he’s going to marry Miu.
15) Billionaire is taken out as prisoner, is severely injured.
16) Pervy General plans to execute Billionaire in front of the dinner guests and Miu.
17) Miu gets one last tango with Billionaire. Their love touches the hearts of everyone except Pervy General.
18) Miu wants to be executed alongside Billionaire. Pervy General obliges.
19) Miu and Billionaire are saved at the last minute by Commander and his guerillas; they are all undercover dinner guests.
20) Pervy General is captured; civil war is over.
21) Commander becomes President.
22) Miu and Billionaire return to his palace and live happily ever after.

I couldn’t picture this in real life. I mean, Miu is just a school girl! A teeny Japanese schoolgirl, next to a bunch of hot Latino women…she just can’t win! Look at Miss Universe, all the Latin American contestants have dominated the crown and Miss Japan only won twice out of 60 years! This manga can only mean one thing: Latino men have the YELLOW FEVER.

I’ve been spending the last few days procrastinating by reading a bunch of shoujo manga online, and managed to get my work done by typing a few sentences while the pages loaded. I used to despise shoujo manga and now I know why.

THEY ARE SO DAMN UNREALISTIC! THE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS ARE SUCH AWFUL ROLE MODELS FOR YOUNG WOMEN!!

Right now I’m reading this one called First Girl. I’m only at Chapter 8, but in these 8 chapters, our protagonist Miu (17 years old) has already been:

1) Sold by her mother to an unbelievably hot, handsome and sexy Latin American billionaire.
2) Sent to fictitious Latin American country where he lives in a palace.
3) Fallen in love with said billionaire in the span of 1 unwilling sex session.
4) Had to go on the run with billionaire because revolutionaries massacred billionaire’s father and 4 older brothers and extended family.
5) Got married secretly to billionaire.
6) Billionaire gets killed by revolutionaries the next day; commander of revolutionaries falls in love with Miu and kidnaps her.
7) Commander turns out to be another smexy bastard.
8 ) Miu escapes from Commander and seeks refuge at a tango club.
9) Miu becomes tango extraordinaire.
10) Miu causes tango club people to be exterminated due to her connection with Billionaire.
11) Commander tries to rescue Miu, both get captured by pervy General.
12) Pervy General wants to hanky-panky with Miu, Miu fakes a striptease to escape.
13) Miu finds Commander, Commander tells her that Billionaire is not dead, is actually helping the revolutionaries.
14) They are mysteriously saved by a stranger.
15) Commander got killed as helicopter appears to retrieve Miu.
16) Miu finally meets Billionaire again, but Billionaire sends her to New York to be kept safe while he works to topple the civil war.
17) Miu gets kidnapped in New York.
18) Miu gets rescued by SUPER HOT SMEXY tango-dancing celebrity.
19) Tango-man falls in love with Miu, trains her to be his new dance partner.

All this happened in 8 chapters. 8 chapters I tell you! And it’s about 40 chapters in total! Judging by the way the plot is progressing I’m not surprised if it ends with an intergalactic space battle while Barack Obama valiantly tries to win Miu’s heart.

Another series I read and actually *quite* liked was this trilogy about a 300-year-old wolf who falls in love with a mortal woman. It’s kind of sad, despite the woman being a huge mess of low self esteem, spinelessness and wholesome attractiveness to every non-gay man. The romance between the two was very realistic as it addresses the difficulty of loving a wolf who can’t financially support you, who is immortal and has a hell-crazy past.The ending was nice, however…even though she died. HA! SPOILER!

Then this other 3-chapter arc called Love Strip is yet another piece of unrealistic porn sh*t masquerading as teenage romance about how this super hot smexy genius is in love with a dorky bespectacled girl and decides to tutor her so she can transfer to his prestigious school. The catch? She repays him with sex! What the hell? Who would actually whore herself out for tuition?!

Then there’s Beauty Pop, which is basically plagiarized wholesale from Ouran High School Host Club! Even the main characters are exactly the same! Argh!

Kiri (Haruhi) = talented hairstylist, completely nonchalant
Narumi (Tamaki) = talented and privileged hairstylist, star of Scissors Project, the school makeover team, hot headed and dramatic
Ochiai (Kyouya) = bespectacled business genius, president of Scissors Project, cool and collected
Kei (Hunny-sempai) = shota-con cutesie boy, manicurist of Scissors Project
Seki (Mori-sempai) = the tall stoic muscle-man, shiatsu master
Iori (cross with Tamaki + Lobelia girls) = romantic and dramatic aromatherapist
Chisame (Renge) = violent and often-infatuated Lolita character, Narumi’s sister

Not to mention that every chapter some amazingly talented hairdressing master (from all over the world) will appear to challenge the Scissors Project, while at the end, Narumi’s father tries to destroy Scissors Project so that Narumi can concentrate on inheriting his legacy (familiar, much?).

And yet, despite my rambling…I’m still addicted to shoujo manga. It’s like watching a train wreck…you know it will scar you but you can’t turn away from the awful sight. I want to know if Miu ends up dancing the tango with smexy Martians!

Because I am procrastinating (when I’m supposed to be writing my postmodern theatre essay due tomorrow), and also because I’ve just written a 7000-word draft for my ISM thesis (2000 words over the limit too), I’ve been thinking if female empowerment is merely a myth.

Granted, I subscribe to postfeminism, which is nothing like being a female chauvinist, although there have been some claims that postfeminism reverse all the work that the first and second wave feminists have worked so hard to achieve. At 12 years old I was subject to to daily proclamations of GIRL POWER!! from my Spice Girls Cds and posters, and that was what shaped my feminist ideals.

Due to my ‘joie-isms’, liberal attitude toward sexuality (liberal here does NOT equal to promiscuity) and my personal appearance, one of my classmates once called me the most unfeminist persons she’s ever met. I find it kind of sad when public perception of feminists is that they are all butch-looking bra-burning sex-negative man haters. I don’t really follow any of the three trends of feminism, be it liberal, radical or material (maybe I’m most like a radical but I understand the importance of material). I just believe that femininity should be embraced and celebrated in whatever way that makes you happiest. I love dressing up and looking pretty. I’m proud to be a woman, so I don’t see a point in rejecting the girly-girl aesthetic. It might be pleasing for other men, and it might subscribe to the patriarchal image of the sex object, but it is only the presence of such conservative narrowminded men (and women) that choose to see attractive women as sex objects.

I really like the Kano Sisters even though they are probably only famous because of their huge jugs. If they were ordinary looking, I doubt anyone would listen to their sex-positive stance. I like how they dress to show off their assets and are not afraid of the conservative backlash. They can be considered soft-porn models (and everyone and their grandma is all about OMG PORN IS SO DEGRADING IT OBJECTIFIES WOMEN) yet I see their pride in their bodies (and they look great for being in their 40s) in their pictures.

Mika and Kyoko.

However in our narrow minded society, if any woman steps out in skimpy clothing and declares her love for her own body and her rejection of the patriarchal ideal of the over-glorified Virgin, she will be immediately labeled as SKANK! or WHORE! or SLUT! no matter how intelligent or chaste she is. Back in secondary school and JC, some peabrained idiots used to call me Horny Girl or Pervert because I wasn’t afraid to discuss sex (and I was a virgin all the way till university!) and the irony was that some of them were actually promiscuous, but were too ashamed to admit it.

While I do not condone irresponsible sex, I do not think sex alone is a shameful thing. I think a girl has all the right to display her sexuality if she is comfortable with it and not have to be forced to act like she is a pious, inexperienced passive little woman to be seen as a desirable, decent and respectable role model in the eyes of this patriarchal and chauvinist society. Especially in Asia, most starlets have to follow the mold of the sweet and innocent girl-next-door, not the sultry femme fatale, because men are actually afraid of aggressive women. Men want something they can control, which explains the appeal of the girl-next-door.

So there really isn’t any way to beat the current system. If you’re the Virgin, you’re submitting to patriarchy. If you’re the Whore, you’re condemned by patriarchy. If you’re a tomboy, you’re reinforcing the notion that it’s better to be a man. So what can we, as women do?