Pop Idol

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//Okay, but I call holdin’ him down for ya. Hey, Mana.//

The weird, tiny blob of metal floating their way always astonished him. Despite living with Zori for at least a stellar cycle, he just couldn’t figure out how someone could get that small. A minicon with a mini-er mini! Amazing.

And a little nervewracking. He was afraid he’d injure one on accident some day and drive her off.

Rumble shook his helm. Gotta focus and try to help her think of a new designation.

She shook her helm, offering quietly “The other me--Rewind’s friend goes by Medley.” It wasn’t quite that she wanted to mimic her alternate, but that was as good of a place to start as any. Strange, though, that an alternate self who wasn’t also Rosanna chose a musical name, anyway.

Seeing as his natural head-on approach to problem solving had yet to spoil anything, he intended to continue using it.

“Dunno.” Shrug. "Don’t got all my old memories. Guess I shoulda told more of ‘em to the Boss before bitin’ it out there on that rock. Probably some rust scrapin’ workin’ the Well gave it to me for fightin’ a lot. Or when I was buildin’. You know.”

He punched the air and made thudding noises, miming the use of his piledrivers.

“How come? The one you wanna kill name you?”

His expression became less playful in an instant, twisting into the darker, more frightening look usually seen by bots who got in Soundwave’s way during the war.

What kind of life did she have back where she came from if there wasn’t a single bot there she’d be happy to see? Even Enemy had the alternate Eject once upon a time.

//Okay, so we don’t go runnin’ around your Iacon unless you wanna get someone back for somethin’. No big deal, right? ‘N I won’t call you Rosie no more if you don’t want.//

He rolled onto his back.

//Whatcha like better? Flip? Somethin’ else? Ain’t the first time somebody changed their designation.//

“I really hope they’d be dead by now,” she said, servo clenching into a fist against her knee and continuing in a whisper of a sneer. “As much as I’d love the satisfaction of killing him...”

Sighing forcefully, Rosie pushed down the anger festering behind the thinning veil of self-depreciative sadness. It was a wonder she hadn’t become resentful of Rumble, as opposed to... well, what they’d gone through the first months she’d lived at Dancitron. And what was going on now. Sometimes, her forgiveness made her feel like she just that desperate for attention.

Regardless of that fleeting thought, Rumble’s unorthodox answers had her losing ground on the 'I’m upset’ front--which was a good thing, suppose, but it wasn’t in the way she’d anticipated. Normally, when mechs were sad you comforted them, and yet somehow the opposite seemed to be effective, if not for the sake of her being absolutely perplexed.

Idols are meant to be pretty, fun, cute, and flirtatious, so that fans can fantasize about being with them which drives sales of branded merchandize.

An Idol that has romantic or sexual pursuits is no longer perceived as available, in addition to it conflicting with fetishized virginity.

Basically, the Idol industry in Japan is the epitomy of a misogynistic sex-sells industry where the product is a fantasy relationship with a woman who is performing to make herself desirable. 

Many, many idols are extremely salty about this and will go to great lengths to mock and disparage the system, but they can’t do much to get it changed or go against it because their entire career will be destroyed if it is publicly discovered that they have or have had anything close to a relationship or sex.

And the companies absolutely do fire idols who do so, and destroy any potential they have as a career public figure for the rest of their lives. It’s horrifying.

Is it fair, is it right? Maybe, maybe not. Many Japanese people speak out against this and consider it unfair treatment, but many don’t, or see it as a reasonable sacrifice for fame and stardom. It is, however, a central tenant of their culture, and you can’t expect to view this through a western cultural lense, which values individual rights, and make judgements. It also, as mentioned above, is not about misogyny, as this attitude doesn’t come from a devaluation of women per se - it’s more a devaluation of the individual against the collective.

And why Minami Minegishi of AKB48 was demoted—and shaved her head when the news broke out.

On January 31, 2013, the weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun reported that she had spent a night at the flat of Alan Shirahama, a member of the boyband Generations. A few hours later, it was announced through the AKB48 official blog that she would be demoted from one of the official members of Umeda Team B to kenkyūsei (trainee) status as of February 1.[7] She thus became the first AKB48 member to be demoted tokenkyūsei in four years since Miki Saotome in late January 2009. On the same day, the AKB48 official channel published a video of Minegishi with her head shaved (or more accurately reduced to a crew cut[8]), apologizing to her fans for her “thoughtless behavior” and hoping that the management would let her stay in the group, with other members that she loved.[9] In the YouTube statement, Minegishi explained that she cut her hair in a state of shock induced by reading the Shukan Bunshun scoop, when she could not calm down.[7] However, in Japan, cutting one’s hair is a way of showing contrition.[10]

In an article for The Japan Times, titled: “AKB48 member’s ‘penance’ shows flaws in idol culture”, Ian Martin noted: “What is happening here is that the protection of fans’ fragile fantasies automatically trumps the basic human right to a life outside that fantasy framework. Though as lawyer Hifumi Okunuki pointed out in a Japan Times article on Jan. 22, such an arrangement is probably illegal under Japanese labor laws.”[11][12]

It’s really sad and I’m disappointed that some of my friends saw what was happening to this girl, and thought, “haha that’s what you get for being thirsty” rather than understanding that this is messed up and that she was distraught and already being publicly punished and humiliated by the band management—just for having a relationship.

And finally, this is why Kyary stands out so much, because she’s such a huge idol but was in a relationship with Fukase for 2 years before they ever went public with it (despite all the paparazzi pics that kinda gave it away anyway) and she didn’t get demoted or fired—however the tabloids were causing so many problems for her that she was under tremendous stress, especially last year. She said that every time she left the house they would say things about her and cause problems in her relationship (accusing her of cheating when she was spotted going out to eat with a male friend, etc).

AND why Kyary’s song Mondai Girl (Problem Girl) was a little controversial for an idol because it’s basically a big middle finger to the demands made for her to be only a fantasy robot girl and not a real person who falls in love, who lives life, who just wants to have fun and express herself and share her visions with the world. Some of the lyrics go:

I won’t submit to answering all of your requests like that I wanna wear makeup that sparkles upon those who hold me back I’m just falling in love I won’t meet your expectations but it doesn’t mean I’m selfish

(my full translation and fansub dropbox link here)

Some ideas just weren’t meant to be poked at in depth.

//Confusion’s kinda normal these orns. You got all kinds of bots tryin’ to make one good thing ‘n don’t none of ‘em think the same.//

The other half of her statement was more troublesome to him.

He pauses the game to look up from his datapad and give her a quick visual once-over. Her helm is still perched atop her neck and she doesn’t have any holes where her spark should be or fountains of energon running down her sides, so there’s gotta be another reason for saying that.

Rumble bumps her leg with his pede and twists to face her.

Rosanna didn’t want to die, but what scared her more was the sense of loneliness. In a circle of random mecha trapped in place, all voting on who would die next--and consequently facing the decision of who was the one of them that would live--Rosie knew better than to think she’d last long. Her fame might give her a few turns, but would anyone really care?

Her natural life span was shorter than most because of her condition, much like the elders whom had been voted off first...