Ben Preiss
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 Who is MRirian? Her videos have combined for millions of views, so what’s the deal with MRirian? Why are so many people watching her, and why does anybody care? Is she Japanese? Her blog is in Japanese, she speaks Japanese, but according to Japanese sources, she’s not exactly fluent. So is she American? Where is she? She says she’s 21, but looks much younger. Is she playing “pedobait?” Watch and decide for yourself.  Two themes interleave the online discussions -- some not at all nice -- that seek to grapple with her popularity: One, that she's playing "pedobait," to use a lovely phrase, aiming to gain an audience of boys and men for ad-revenue purposes (i.e., she's a camgirl).
And/or two, that she's making some kind of artsy, deep comment by playing a stereotype, that stereotype being either -- now hang with me here -- of pop culture-addled Japanese teenage girls, or of white American girls who play pop culture-added Japanese teenagers (which girls are known as "wapanese," a word roughly comparable to "wigger.")
(machinist.salon)References: buzzfeed, machinist.salon 1 Comment: on Controversial New YouTube Star |
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