I agreed with OP. However, you can say what you want. Just remember it’s the tone and the context in which you say something. When i lived in Japan it was one of the first things i learned to say. Playfully, which tends to bend the minds of geeks that don’t understand and haven’t even been to Japan. The point is respect cultures other than your own. Kawaii, like an other word or term is fine to use IMO, when done correctly and with the right intentions. (via @ea5e95)
Cultural appropriation is a real thing but holy crap you are going way off the deep end with it. Cultures do not just stay the same forever. Did you know that? They actually change over time. That’s appropriation you dolt. All parts and peoples of the world do it equally. But since you brought up Japan, let’s talk about Japan. First, Japan has three written scripts. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana, 108 characters, is original Japanese. Katakana, also 108 characters also Japanese made, but for the sole purpose of writing foreign words. Kanji, some 3000-5000 characters, is not Japanese at all. A very long time ago the Japanese APPROPRIATED it from native Chinese. Here’s an academic paper on it.
https://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/301_PDF/301_P_P/EnglishLoanWordsJapanese.pdf
It’s not just words either, it’s clothes and cars too. Having a big BMW is cool as hell in Japan. Want to talk about Japanese women fetish? You should go PinkBBS and check out their “Gaigin Shoujo” threads. There exist Japanese people who love dem wite wimiz. People are attracted to certain things! Gasp! Plus even if you’re male, just be white and go to Japan. See what happens. Women will be all over you, dudes will hate you for it, and everyone will want to try out their English on you. (Though I don’t really understand this one considering we nuked them. Twice.) English as a language is hip and trendy just to show on your body or on buildings. You can walk into a store and see a blank grey messenger bag on the shelf. Then next to it is an identical bag, except it says “BOSTON HOTDOG HELLO” on in big red letters and for twice the price. It does not matter if it makes sense of if a word is used by the Japanese in the same way it was used in original English. If it’s English, it’s cool. By your logic I should call all Japanese racist and seriously GET OFFENDED!!!!!
On top of all this Japan is literally paying money to export Japanese culture, including the word “Kawaii” itself. KPP is taking part in it, and she said she hoped for Kawaii to one day be an international word.
http://world.time.com/2013/07/01/japan-spends-millions-in-order-to-be-cool/
Cultural appropriation is real and it’s happening every second of every day. Because that HOW cultures work. Every culture in it’s current state today is as result of everybody appropriating things from everybody else. THAT’S HOW IT WORKS. Did you know what is actually called “Traditional African Garb” actually came from Norway? Norwegian merchants an assload of years ago sold clothes in Africa and it got popular. This is how it works. (via @greystravels)
No culture gets “appropriated” unless one has less power than the other. I’m pretty sure most Japanese people in Japan wouldn’t give a fuck because they still have enough power in the world to determine their own image, presentation, etc. They’re a first world nation. I don’t need to get offended on their behalf. They don’t need my particularly grating form of white benevolence.
It’s true that we have bad racial stereotypes targeted at Asian people over here in the United States. But I don’t think saying the word “kawaii” is going to convince people that Asian girls are cute little fucktoys. Halloween costumes like this will. Presenting yourself against a backdrop of silent costume Asian women like this will. But just using a foreign word? Naw man. Naw. There’s no strong link there. (via homeboundace)
While I agree and personally don’t use ‘kawaii’ randomly in conversation (although, obviously I use it when I’m speaking Japanese), I’ll just say that you’re… kind of fighting the Japanese government on this. The government has made ‘kawaii’ and ‘kawaii culture’ the forefront of it’s current international campaigns about Japan. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who’s been involved in a lot of these international campaigns, uses ‘kawaii’ randomly in conversation, and seems to invite the world to do so too.
So idk. Maybe ‘kawaii’ is aiming to be a new foreign loan word in English that has some kind of specialized meaning - different from the English word cute. Maybe it won’t. Who knows.
But yeah with the Japanese government promoting the word so heavily abroad, this is kind of an uphill battle… (via @seadame)
i am an extreme proponent of the idea that language cannot be appropriated under most circumstances. loanwords between languages happen constantly, especially since we’re living in a world connected together by the internet, where media from cultures that would never have left their borders can be shared with everyone.
however, this is one of the very rare cases that i will support someone’s claim that the use of a borrowed word is appropriative. and that is because of the storied history of white people idolizing, fetishizing, and objectifying japanese culture simply because they consume some forms of japanese media.
i do disagree on the point that “if you’re not japanese, don’t say “kawaii,”” though. that should be changed to “if you’re not speaking japanese, don’t say “kawaii.”” there is nothing wrong with saying a foreign word within the context of the language it comes from, because in that case there is often no substitute.
in short: weeaboos ruined everything for everyone, so only say “kawaii” if you’re actually speaking japanese, otherwise just leave it alone. (via hoechbeard)
Asian women have that docile stereotype in the west but you know what? That stereotype was developed and is still encouraged in Japan. It’s not just some attitude made up in the west. Women are still seen as relatively weaker and dumber than men because Japan is still a rather sexist country. I’m half-Japanese and I’ve lived in Japan for most of my life and I’ve seen how men treat women (granted it’s not horrible but annoying nonetheless). By the way there’s nothing wrong with someone appreciating and being interested in a foreign culture. That’s not appropriation. Sure, I can’t stand it when non-Japanese people pretend and delude themselves into thinking they’re Japanese. But simply using the word kawaii has nothing to do with cultural appropriation. (via @anima-voliatevska)
English is made up of borrowed words. We have German, French, Italian, and many other languages that we have taken words from. When we say these words, we are not using the word as an emblem for the entire country. It’s simply part of our lexicon. I can understand how someone could use a word to describe, in a racist way, a country. However, when I and many others use kawaii, they are using it to describe a specific clothing style or artistic style. There is no other word to describe that style so fully— saying “cute” loses the implications that kawaii has regarding certain color palettes, arrangements, etc.
Kawaii does not mean the same thing as cute to many people. To some people, it does. I think it is those people that this post is mainly aimed at, the ones who are trying to seem Japanese because they are obsessed, like playing dress-up on Halloween as an American Indian. It’s offensive and racist. Kawaii is being used inappropriately. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t appropriate ways to use it in the English language. (via craftycthulhu)
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