Friday, August 12, 2011

A Trap is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

Welcome and thanks for dropping by. Two more one-shots coming your way, starting with Boy's be ambitious Girl! by Koroha Kiritomo. You may realize this title is ungrammatical, and has odd capitalization, but the title shown on the first page is unaltered from the raw (except for the removal of the furigana). It appeared in volume 1, White Group, and is about Yuuki, his school's idol and member of the drama club. He's roped into playing a girl for a play by his cousin Yayoi and he becomes very popular. A sequel appeared in volume 7, Plum Group, so look forward to that.

The second one-shot is Doppel! by Nariyuki Hazumi. Souta goes to his local fortune-teller to get some help, and she gives him a mysterious mirror. From it appears a copy of himself, his doppelganger, that wants to cross-dress. It's from volume 6, Cherry Blossom Group.

Boy's be ambitious Girl! one-shot: Mediafire, Megaupload
Doppel! one-shot: Mediafire, Megaupload

17 comments:

  1. I bookmarked the Kuragehime page and sometimes check back for updates, and this time checked the main blog page too.

    Who do you keep calling crossdressers "traps"? That's actually an offensive stereotype. See http://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/e9i7q/how_does_the_trans_community_feel_about_traps/ for a lot more discussion.

    Transsexuals try to pass for their real genders to be themselves and camouflage themselves from transphobes who may want to kill them for being transsexual, not to trap straight people attracted to non-trans members of their gender.

    as zombiegrl said,

    "The entire trap thing is a stinking pile of transmisogyny. It undermines our identity and attempts to invalidate the gender we live as. It is the root of the trans-panic defense and generally offensive to every trans person I know. The whole thing is so that straight dudes don't have to deal with the fact that they are actually attracted to a transperson.

    "TL;DR we fucking hate it."

    as whateversusan said,

    "I hate that one. I am not a 'trap.' This is mostly done by men who are terrified of finding out that a pretty girl might have a penis, which in turn threatens masculinity, etc., etc.

    "It makes it seem like my entire identity is wrapped up in 'fooling' straight men. Which, no."

    as AlwaysLauren said,

    "...I'm a trans woman and I find it pretty offensive. I date men, and I'm constantly struggling against the idea that I'm somehow out to trick them into sleeping with a guy.

    "The whole trap meme pretty much boils down to the exact same attitude, treating trans women like they're really men, and anyone who was attracted to the woman in the picture has been tricked or trapped.

    "I don't think it's funny, and that attitude is not only horribly demeaning, but downright dangerous in that it encourages people who find out I'm trans to feel that they're right in feeling trapped or tricked."

    and

    "...The idea that trans women are fooling men into sleeping with a man is what leads to so many trans women being beaten or killed when people find out their status."

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  2. We use the term "trap" because that is the term popularized in the anime/manga community to refer to cross-dressing boys. When translating, "trap" is used in place of "男の娘", since that is the closet equivalent. "男の娘" is not a transsexual, and it's not merely a cross-dressing boy. It implies that the boy looks, speaks and acts like a girl, something "cross-dresser" doesn't accurately portray.

    As you can see from our releases, we are a very gender-bender-friendly group, so we're not trying to offend. However, we cannot please everyone.

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  3. "We use the term 'trap' because that is the term popularized in the anime/manga community to refer to cross-dressing boys."

    If Japanese speakers in anime/manga community popularized a term to refer to blacks with "nigger" being the closest equivalent in English, would you use "nigger" too while wanting to be a very-racially-friendly group?

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  4. I'm sorry, but all the Anon posts here are hilarious. You have no reason to take offense to such an innocent term, and are only looking for trouble.

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  5. as zombiegrl said,

    "The entire trap thing is a stinking pile of transmisogyny. It undermines our identity and attempts to invalidate the gender we live as. It is the root of the trans-panic defense and generally offensive to every trans person I know. The whole thing is so that straight dudes don't have to deal with the fact that they are actually attracted to a transperson.

    "TL;DR we fucking hate it."

    as whateversusan said,

    "I hate that one. I am not a 'trap.' This is mostly done by men who are terrified of finding out that a pretty girl might have a penis, which in turn threatens masculinity, etc., etc.

    "It makes it seem like my entire identity is wrapped up in 'fooling' straight men. Which, no."

    as AlwaysLauren said,

    "...I'm a trans woman and I find it pretty offensive. I date men, and I'm constantly struggling against the idea that I'm somehow out to trick them into sleeping with a guy.

    "The whole trap meme pretty much boils down to the exact same attitude, treating trans women like they're really men, and anyone who was attracted to the woman in the picture has been tricked or trapped.

    "I don't think it's funny, and that attitude is not only horribly demeaning, but downright dangerous in that it encourages people who find out I'm trans to feel that they're right in feeling trapped or tricked."

    and

    "...The idea that trans women are fooling men into sleeping with a man is what leads to so many trans women being beaten or killed when people find out their status."

    Innocent term, you say?

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  6. Yes, Mr/Ms "Anon," innocent. Your taking an innocent term with no hidden meanings, and blowing it out of proportion as you see fit. No one here thinks of it as the way you make it out to be as, but you. You're doing all the damage yourself - to yourself; pity you can't see it.

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  7. "Boy's Be ambitious Girl!" sounds exactly like the title of Morning Musume's song "Girls Be Ambitious!"! Lol that's just awesome XD.

    Thanks for another installment!

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  8. "Your taking an innocent term with no hidden meanings, and blowing it out of proportion as you see fit."

    I quoted several real-life transsexuals talking about how in real life the term is used by violent transphobes.

    When real-life blacks talk about how in real life the term "nigger" is used by violent racists, do you call "nigger" an innocent term and the people who listen to these real-life blacks "blowing it out of proportion"?

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  9. You quoted nothing of the sort in relation to real life. You quoted everything in relation to the "meme." That aside, I have never heard a single person IRL use the word "trap" when talking about a living person, they use the word "Tranny" which is slang for Transvestite/Transgender, or they use cross-dresser/drag queen - I'm sure you know.

    If it has been used IRL as you claim, then it's a VERY rare occurrence and doesn't give you grounds to pin it as a derogatory term as a whole... (The internet is a vast place. A small group of people posting in one forum does not account for much)

    Which brings me to another point: your horrible analogy of the word "nigger." (I ignored it the first time, but you seem bent on it) Nigger is a derogatory term because of how it is used. It's MEANT as an insult by the person who uses it. Even then, it's not always derogatory, such as when black people refer to one another as such - it's a brotherly slang to them.

    NO ONE here uses the word "trap" with derogatory connotations behind it. YOU and your friends are the one who labeled it as such, not us. We don't go out calling people like you "traps," we [manga readers] use to to refer to a fictional stereotype, in a fictional world, of fictional people. In no way do we relate it to real life, and you're a fool for doing so.

    Even with all that said, as the Admin said before, "trap" doesn't even really refer to ANY of the previously mentioned. It's its own idea, separate from cross-dressing and transgender; the term "gender-bender" is used to refer to those things in the manga community. Kuragehime? Kashimashi? - gender benders, not "traps."

    And with that, I'm done with you, "Anon." You're making your own derogatory terms for your own self, and falsely blaming (attacking) others for using them spitefully. You're taking innocent terms and turning them into hate words. Why? I'll never truly know for sure, but I blame your ignorance, foolishness, and most importantly, your personal insecurities of who you are. You see something innocent, and latch onto it as hate because you're too self conscious/insecure, and think everyone is out to get you. (There is a reason why doctors require you to take therapy sessions.)

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  10. "Nigger is a derogatory term because of how it is used. It's MEANT as an insult by the person who uses it."

    Nigger and trap are both derogatory terms in English because of how they are used in English. They're MEANT as insults by the English speakers who invented them and use them.

    If a bunch of Japanese speakers who didn't know enough English to know any better used "nigger" as a compliment towards black characters in comic books, then would you use "nigger" so "innocently" yourselves in English?

    "YOU and your friends are the one who labeled it as such, not us."

    I'm *no* friend of the guys who invented trap as a hate term by hating male-to-female transsexuals and accusing them of trying to trap them by being attractive women.

    "(There is a reason why doctors require you to take therapy sessions.)"

    I'm actually not trans myself. I'm just an English speaker whose first impression of sentences in English depends on the English language instead of any foreign language, who likes Kuragehime a lot, and who was surprised to find out that the English speakers who translate Kuragehime (a) used a term because they heard it in Japanese and didn't know any better about how it's already a hate term in English and (b) *defend* continuing to use it once they *do* know better.

    There *is* a reason why doctors *don't* require us native English speakers to take therapy sessions for remembering what English terms mean in English instead of pretending to be ESL speakers. ;)

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  11. I know I said I was done with you...but your rhetoric is absolutely astounding, and not in a good way. You truly don't understand anything other than your own bigot ideals, and you have my pity as such. Good day, sir.

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  12. Guys, the people get offended, because get offended.

    Trap is just a pop word, nothing more, nobody said that with the intention of "atacking someone".

    Stop with this "You are bad to me", there are a lot of other things much more offensive than this.

    And, if you want to participate on a discussion, don't do it with the "Anonymous", what u are doing is "cowardice".

    By the way, great releases, Ambitious Girl was funny. :P
    Doppel, well, I don't have a strong opinion, is just "not bad"... xD

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  13. SRS BSNS AH MAH GAWD ITS A MANGA IF UR OFFENDED BY THIS IT MUST BE A SAD LIFE U LIVE MY FRIEND ! GET LAID HAVE A DRINK LIVE LIFE! IF U GO ABOUT YOUR LIFE GETTING OFFENDED BY EVERY LITTLE THING ... WELL I WOULDENT WANT TO BE U... GJ ON THE FAST SCANS BTW! :D

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  14. Trap is indeed derogatory. As a transgender person, I hate the term. I am not trying to "trap" or "trick" any homophobic straight douche into having sex with me, thanks.

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  15. You're a crossdresser not a transwoman, shut up. You don't know the struggle, you don't know what it feels like to have to endure the hate of the average american just to buy a bag of coffee at the store. It might be cute to you, but it isn't cute to transwomen that have been beaten, killed, discriminated against, etc etc.

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  16. Right on!

    It's pathetic how some people think they need to be ignorant of language A in order to respect language B, *especially* when they're native speakers of language A themselves...

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