腐女子彼女(My Girlfriend’s a Geek)?
I’m currently reading the manga My Girlfriend’s A Geek. There’s also a live action film for this! Yet, I hear the live action version really sucks. Well, 3-D people are acting. So, of course, it’s inferior to 2-D.
I find the English title “My Girlfriend’s a Geek” disturbing. Because the original title is 腐女子彼女 Fujoshi Kanojo (fujoshi girlfriend), and technically, fujoshi is not a geek. Fujoshi is a yaoi fangirl. Sub-subculture of Otakudom. Moreover, otaku and geek are essentially different.
Geek is an IT-wiz. Otaku is a fanatic in subculture, especially anime, manga, and video game. Of course, some of them can be geeks, but not all of them. Not all of them are intellectuals. I wasn’t a straight A student, but barely a C student by enormous help of extra credits. Because Akihabara has been historically associated with electronics, recently IT, maybe that’s why otaku is seen as a tech-savant. But many otakus are ordinary folks. Otaku doesn’t mean “geek.” So, it’s lost in translation. Otaku is more “meek” than “geek.”
But who cares if a girl is a geek or meek? Or even fujoshi! The girl in the manga is extremely cute. But I totally understand how she feels. She always questions her boyfriend that if he’s okay with dating an otaku. Yes, even today in the 21th century, otakus are still seen as weirdos. Otakus now have become socially acceptable, but still weirdos to the mass. It’s the eyes of people around you that puts you down.
Otaku is meek, gentle spirit, a highly sensitive person (HSP). Yes, I’m hypervigilant. I rather prefer a quiet peaceful environment. A bar, disco, dance club, strip club, these are too loud and noisy, and too many people drinking, screaming, and dancing, it’s a conundrum. It’s the very city life that wears me out. It’s very metropolitan, even megalopolitan. Yes, too many megalomaniacs with megalothymia.
I don’t want to be watched when I’m working or doing something. I rather do independently without anybody present. They are the mirror, God is the mirror, Amaterasu told us to regard the mirror as her. So, I can’t face them. The mirror is a pan-opticon surveillance camera. It’s Big Brother, or should I say Big Sister since my background is not Western Judeo-Christain, but Japanese Shinto revering Sun Goddess? That’s why I rather stay home. The best eco way is to stay home and watch anime. Since the word “eco” originally meant “home” in Greek!
And when do you get most conscious of the mirror? Romantic rejection. Yet, people say, “Hey, it’s no big deal.” When I tell them I came to America because of rejection by 3-D girls, they think I’m just joking and laugh it off. But once they know I’m telling the truth, they look at me like I’m some sort of wimp. “Such a small guy.” Yes, contempt in their eyes! More mirrors to face! That’s exactly why I can’t face them. But recently an article from Bloomberg Businessweek reports a new scientific study that emotional trauma may be as grave as physical trauma. That proves my point! See, I was right!
The word “wimp” has a negative connotation. So, I will rather say “meek.” Because “meek” is praised in the Scripture! The meek don’t go out and seek a fight. They rather stay home and avoid conflicts. So, we withdraw. Socrates even said withdraw is a courageous thing to do in The Laches. So, I retreat from 3-D to my home, the most courageous act in the world!
Therefore, if I ever see an otaku girl traumatized by the mirror, I will tell her, “Hey look! Meek is beautiful!” I don’t even need to bring up the Beatitude to support this claim. Because it is self-evident! Otaku the most beautiful!
And now, it’s time for girls to claim “My Boyfriend’s a Meek!” 草食系男子彼氏! That is my salvation!
This book and the fiction version is actually on my reading list. I read another type of these books.. Fujoshi Rumi.
@animemiz
I see. Rumi is a meganekko? I don’t know why megane has a fetish appeal. Well, I want to see if any female mangaka wants to write My Boyfriend’s a Meek. Reversed version of Fujo-kano.
Uh… You do know that the term geek no longer applies to just IT-wiz folks. It can also mean someone who has a slavish devotion to something (in this case Yaoi) that places them beyond a mainstream level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek
Meek and wimp both have negative connotations and pretty much go hand in hand. And seriously, “My Boyfriend’s a meek” does not sound very attractive. If a girl says her boyfriend is meek, she’s not complimenting him. To say that the boyfriend is docile and submissive also implies that he is also spineless and a pushover. It would be better to use the word “Pacifist”.
@Nan
Thanks for the comment.
Even so, the translation itself is clearly misleading. It should have kept the original term “Fujoshi” instead of translating into a rather vague term like “geek.” The whole meaning was lost in translation. Geek is an intelligent fellow. Very savant. Straight A student while I wasn’t. So I’m not a geek.
“Otaku” used to have negative connotation too. And that is the whole point of this manga, that she’s feeling insecure by being a fujoshi. But the manga proves that a fujoshi is blessed. The Scripture is making the same point. Meek is also praised in the book Small Is Beautiful. That’s why I’m making my case here. That meek is beautiful! Black is beautiful, small is beautiful, and now meek is beautiful, that’s the civil rights movement of our era! I can vision a day when girls will be proud to have a meek boyfriend. Thus, blessed are the meek!
@Monsieur LaMoe
Actually, in terms of intelligence, nerd fits more of your IT description than geek. Geek can be someone with average or super genius level intelligence, they are geeky because of their interest in a particular subject(s) – be it films, comics, figurines, books, etc. http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks
Personally to me, “My Girlfriend is a Geek” rolls off the tongue better and if you think about it in marketing terms, it is more mainstream and easier for a casual reader to understand. IMO, if you name the comic “My Boyfriend’s a Meek” you might as well rename it to “My Boyfriend’s a Milquetoast”. That is what I would have interpreted it as, and I don’t think I would be the only one to do so. All that aside, as a consumer, I would not pick up a book titled “My Girlfriend’s a Fujoshi” or “My Boyfriend is a Meek”. At least “My Girlfriend’s a Geek” piques my interest. Just my 2 cents.
Lastly, I would have liked to hear your thoughts on the contents of this comic and why the fujoshi is blessed to have a meek boyfriend. The other reviews I’ve read have not said favorable things on the fujoshi and the meek boyfriend characters, so let’s hear your take on it.
@Nan
Thank you for the link. Good to know the differences, but nerd and geek can be used interchangeably.
Again, “geek” is a very mistranslated word for fujoshi. Since I speak Japanese, I can check the original title, and find out this is an obvious mistranslation. It is distorting the original meaning. The word fujoshi has originality. Fujoshi is not mainstream but subculture. But using “geek” loses its Japanese subcultureness. Readers want to read its originality. So, stick with the original. Don’t Americans love originality? Even our president has funny name and very original unique background.
For milquetoast vs meek, meek is better since “meek” is used in the Bible, and the soshokukei’s life style goes back to a book called “Small is beautiful” which is an interpretation of “blessed are the meek.” Soshokukei’s roots didn’t come from milquetoast. Moreover, “meek” is a pun of “geek.”
That’s completely a new subject and off-topic. I may post about it once I’m done reading.
@Nan – Don’t forget that fujoshi is not an attractive term in the original Japanese, either – at least not to the general population. (Nor is otaku.) In fact, to some Japanese, being meek is a far less serious problem than being an otaku or fujoshi.
Ultimately it’s impossible to keep both connotations and denotations when going to a very different language, so a translator has to make some hard choices. “My girlfriend’s a fujoshi” might be rendered “my girlfriend is obsessed with watching gay men have sex,” but that is unwieldy and slightly more explicit than the original. There simply is no commonly used term in English that captures “fujoshi” – the closest I can think of is “fag hag,” which essentially means a girl who likes hanging out with real, gay men because they are well dressed and nonthreatening. Girls who like boys who like boys is about this kind of girl. This is, again, very different from the fujoshi, who is stereotypically more likely to hang out with other fujoshi and discuss pairings of 2D characters.
Yes Rumi wears glasses, and not sure, there’s always a person who thinks glasses are cool, while other think the opposite..