OK, this is a little offtopic, but my curiosity was piqued by a part of the article writeup:
Hello Kitty (a cutesy Japanese pink cat with whiskers but no mouth)
Now, this just seems to be an oddity of the artistic nature of Hello Kitty, but when one takes it in context of other things without mouths, it's pretty damn offensive.
Take Dilbert, for example. I'm sure that most of the Slashdot audience is familiar with Dilbert. He's the downtrodden cubicle dweller/engineer who is constantly doomed to failure and has no mouth. This is no coincidence; this is symbolic. Dilbert has no mouth because it represents the fact that he has no say over what happens to him in the faceless corporate power structure.
A similiar meaning can be applied to Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is clearly a feminine character, as evidenced by the pink color scheme and the marketing of such a wide variety of products from childrens' lunchboxes to vibrators and douches. The fact that Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth is a subliminal suggestion by the manufacturer that women shouldn't have any say in society and should be relegated to the home and other traditionally feminine roles.
Add to that the fact that Hello Kitty is mainly a Japanese phenomena, and you have incontrovertable proof of implied sexism. Why, you ask? Because the Japanese have a long, long history of treating their women like dirt. A friend of mine, who lived in China during the Japanese occupation, told me once of how the officers in the Japanese army would routinely beat their wives and rape the women whose land they were occupying. Add to that just about any conversation that I've had with non-Japanese Asians about the Japanese and women turned out advocating a negative viewpoint on them, and you have some pretty damning evidence.
I hope that, in the future, you don't advocate such degrading products. After all, I know at least some of you would be happy to have a woman appreciate you, and respecting them is the first (big) step.
Slashdot Mirror
Take Dilbert, for example. I'm sure that most of the Slashdot audience is familiar with Dilbert. He's the downtrodden cubicle dweller/engineer who is constantly doomed to failure and has no mouth. This is no coincidence; this is symbolic. Dilbert has no mouth because it represents the fact that he has no say over what happens to him in the faceless corporate power structure.
A similiar meaning can be applied to Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty is clearly a feminine character, as evidenced by the pink color scheme and the marketing of such a wide variety of products from childrens' lunchboxes to vibrators and douches. The fact that Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth is a subliminal suggestion by the manufacturer that women shouldn't have any say in society and should be relegated to the home and other traditionally feminine roles.
Add to that the fact that Hello Kitty is mainly a Japanese phenomena, and you have incontrovertable proof of implied sexism. Why, you ask? Because the Japanese have a long, long history of treating their women like dirt. A friend of mine, who lived in China during the Japanese occupation, told me once of how the officers in the Japanese army would routinely beat their wives and rape the women whose land they were occupying. Add to that just about any conversation that I've had with non-Japanese Asians about the Japanese and women turned out advocating a negative viewpoint on them, and you have some pretty damning evidence.
I hope that, in the future, you don't advocate such degrading products. After all, I know at least some of you would be happy to have a woman appreciate you, and respecting them is the first (big) step.