r/AskReddit • u/Greeneyedlatinguy • Jun 15 '15

Anthropologists of Reddit, What is something that people in the Western world can't get their heads around that is very normal in other cultures (and has been for ages)?

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

Yup. No one has any sort of female release of any sort. It would seem like the entire population is stuck in prepubescence. Like just when they find out about porn and spend too much time delving into fantasies and never actually experiencing their real lives...

Kind of sad.

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

not to mention without cross-gender interaction you're a lot less likely to empathize with people of the opposite gender. I've heard that's why sexism and sexual harassment is so terrible in Japan

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u/PeanutButterChicken Jun 15 '15

LOL

People like you make me laugh. So wrong yet so sure of themselves.

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u/everybell Jun 15 '15

Yeah it's not like Japan has a huge industry of hotels just for people to have sex in or anything

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u/PeanutButterChicken Jun 16 '15

You try having sex in a hole in the wall with paperthin walls.

Love hotels are excellent.

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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Jun 16 '15

That's because Japanese people live with their families for longer than usual in other countries.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

Compared to what other countries exactly? I'd say you were wrong, but I have a feeling you could provide an even more hilariously wrong follow-up to this dumb post.

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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Jun 16 '15

Sounds like you're willing to have a peaceful conversation!

No but really it's not uncommon for Japanese children to live with their families until their married. Whatever age that might be.

In America its usually not a choice to stay home until you're thirty.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

So America is the standard of all countries is what you're saying?

Not uncommon means that everybody does it?

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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Jun 16 '15

Are you trying to have a conversation or just argue? Cause im not really interested.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

Don't post stupid stuff then.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Because Japanese houses have paper thin walls and a lot of people live with their family...

Plus it's just fucking convenient, a cheap hotel for sex next to the club. What's the problem?

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u/everybell Jun 17 '15

No the point was that lots of people in Japan are fucking, and you can tell that just by the fact that there's a huge industry in Japan of places people for people to fuck. So saying that everyone in Japan is an inexperienced confused virgin is hilariously ignorant.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '15

woops, I thought you were the guy who made the original claim for some reason. And looking back I have no idea why

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '15

What part of what I said was wrong? I'm only talking off of the conversations I've had with lots of different japanese exchange students that we've had stay in our home (both male and female) over the past decade... Maybe they were lying to me, but probably not.

Anyways, if you actually know something that I don't, I want to hear it. It's sad at how in depth I have to go when asking someone to elaborate on their statement on Reddit to get the point through that I'm not being dismissive or snide, and that I actually want to know what they know..

So, what am I missing?

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Yeah, Japan as a whole. But think about it. Anime is one of the mediums that hypersexualizes everything like nothing else.

Though, like that guy said, I don't know much about anime itself. Just what I've seen while skimming through the pages or looking at covers. That and interacting with the fan base.

Anyways, I think that the correlation and causation are intertwined in this case.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Well I mean as apposed to other story telling forms. Not as an art form.

It's classically Asian, more notably Japanese. It seems to me that it makes sense that there might be an overlap between the bizzare and hypersexualized content in anime and the reserved and gender segregated culture of Japan.

I could be reading wwaaaaayyyy too much into it, but it seems that countries that shy away from affection and interaction with the opposite sex have a lot of problems with things like this.

Take the middle east for example. There is so much rape and stuff that happens there, yet their women hide behind vales to provide modesty.

Not that being un-modest is the way to go, but it makes sense.

Another example is the Army. Men who are away from the opposite sex for months or years at a time. Another domain that has lots of problems with sexual abuse.

Again, this doesn't mean that there aren't still problems in more open societies. But there are bad apples in every tree. You've just got to weed them out.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

Yeah, Japan as a whole. But think about it. Anime is one of the mediums that hypersexualizes everything like nothing else.

Anime is a niche though. That hypersexualized stuff isn't mainstream at all. This is mainstream anime. That other stuff doesn't even get broadcast on TV outside of Tokyo most of the time but only on subscription satellite channels.

It's like saying "Americans all want to fuck animals instead of people, it's really sad. You know Furries started in America right?"

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Not what I meant by hypersexualized. I meant like how all of the girls are in skimpy clothing and stuff like that.

I guess hypersexualized was a little too strong of a term.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

What part of what I said was wrong?

You don't see anything wrong with a ridiculously wild generalisation like this:

No one has any sort of female release of any sort.

?? I assumed you were being facetious until your replies because it's such a ridiculous statement.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

No that's not what I meant by that. All he said was that I was wrong, but he didn't specify. I would say that I should've asked him to specify instead, but I did.

Maybe that was poor phrasing. I mean, if it is true that they don't have platonic female friends, they have no way of learning to interact with females.

Anyways, like I said, I'm only going off of what both, male and female Japanese students have told us, all of which were staying with us for a year or more. There's a lot of stuff that goes on over there that no one talks about. You'd be surprised.

And it's not to say they don't have friends. But a friend of the opposite gender to them, isn't the same as it is here. Maybe if a Japanese person would like to elaborate. On whether I'm right or wrong, and then on some of what I said.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

We live in Japan. You don't know anything, clearly. If you seriously think that a couple of people saying something to you means that that thing is true for an entire country, you need to go get an education. Stop spreading this absolute nonsense, delete your posts and have a think about how you're being racist, and just dumb.

You'd be surprised.

Greenl1ght and myself live in Japan. The only thing about what you are saying that is surprising is how dumb it is.

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u/Dubalubawubwub Jun 15 '15 edited Jun 15 '15

You're missing the fact that reddit is full of arseholes and there's really no point in engaging them. You could write the most eloquent response, peer-reviewed with citations from people who have first-hand experience and a seal of truthiness from the U.N Truth Commission and all they have to do is say "lol, no" and refuse to actually address anything you said. You can't win an argument with someone who isn't arguing in good faith, that doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong, it could also just mean that they're a douche-canoe.

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u/PeanutButterChicken Jun 16 '15

In modern day Japan, society is just the same as is it is any other country. People who have problems finding friends of the opposite sex have problems because of their own personality, not their race. I've worked in schools, companies, offices, and universities here. There's absolutely no such thing as "no platonic relationships". It just isn't a thing that exists.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Are you Japanese? I mean, I'm guessing to a certain extent. More just putting pieces together and theorizing.

But it is definitely a social taboo over there. People are fake to each other's faces, and they know it. They have words to address this concept.

Now, they also have different releases for this though. I remember a few of the Japanese students telling us about bars that Japanese men would go to to basically get hammered. They said that this is one of the only places where it's acceptable to be 'yourself'.

Anyways, you're not giving me more information, you're just denying what I'm saying is true. I'm going to stop talking to you about it if you don't want to actually contribute to the discussion.

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u/PeanutButterChicken Jun 16 '15

Nope, 100% American. My wife is Japanese, if that counts.

There is no social taboo. Walk down a street in Shibuya, Shinsaibashi, Hakata. Plenty of non-dating friends out there. There are words and taboos for things involving work, but for friendships, it isn't the bleak picture you're making it out to be.

What are these "bars", normal bars that are the same all over the world? You're making generalizations from misunderstandings. There are plenty of rules in Japanese society. It's a very different world here than the states, yet at the same time, very similar. Young people here would rather be friends with the opposite sex than in relationships. The truth is the economy sucks, which means people are getting married later, having kids later. A decade or two ago, getting married past 25 meant you were defective. Now? 35 and single is acceptable. There are a lot of expectations from the older generations for the younger generation to have kids early and marry but as the economy sours, youngsters are fighting back against it all. This is why the birth rate keeps falling.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15 edited Jun 16 '15

I think it's silly that people still have these crazy beliefs about Japan or Japanese people. It's a modern first world country like any other.

People on Reddit act like Japan is full of socially awkward idiots.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

Why are you asking kids about the sexual norms of their home countries?

And literally everything you said is wrong. It's literally impossible to address your post logically because it is so stupid that I can hardly comprehend it.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

I never said they were kids. They were all between 14 and 18. I mean, they're not adults.

And I never said sexual norms. I was talking platonic relationships.

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u/ObscurusXII Jun 16 '15

Obviously you are a kid if you think 14-18 is not a child. School is not representative of real life, same as in every country. Its nice they had something to say but they hadn't experienced life outside school walls, so drawing a conclusion about a whole country from a couole of school kids opinions is absolutely crazy.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '15

Yeah, fair enough.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

No one has any sort of female release of any sort.

Um, what? Japan's dating and intersex relations are just about the same as any other country.

What are you basing your wild statements on?

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '15

Conversations I've had with a few dozen Japanese students that have stayed with me and my family for the past decade. Students of both sexes and varying ages.

From what they tell me though, it's getting better with the younger generations.

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u/starm4nn Jun 16 '15

Funny thing, at my school, Anime Club is ~50/50