Forum - View topicEmbarrassed to read manga in public?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sutekina
Posts: 4 |
|
|||
|
Are any of you guys embarrassed to read manga in public? Say you head out to school or at work and decided to bring along a manga with a frilly-looking cover - would you hesitate having to read it in plain view of other people?
For me being shy about having people see what I am reading being foreign, I usually keep my reading at home privately. It just begs too many questions from other people who haven't been exposed to manga, or the elements that make up the artwork. |
||||
|
||||
Vortextk
 Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
|
|||
|
I read little manga and am mostly into anime. Bought all of Full metal panic at megacon 06 and all of deathnote at megacon 07. I also bought an english release as well as the first few volumes of Battle Angel and Angel Sanctuary, and that's it. Only gone through like..1/3 of it.
While I'm most often found at home, I definitely don't want to take it out anywhere to read it. I'm private about my "nerdy hobbies" other than to acknowledge "yeah I watch some japanese animated shows" and such. Whenever I go out to eat somewhere nice or the like and am not driving I find it's a good time to read. No one's watching me or looking at the book, and I just leave it in the car when we get to our destination. At megacon I was fine but I even felt funny using my borders coupons to buy a few manga volumes before. Most people don't seem to share these paranoid views though 
|
||||
|
||||
Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
|
|||
|
I used to read manga at school all the time. There was a pretty well-established otaku subculture at my high school, so I never really got bothered about it. Once I got a few extra credit points because my English teacher spotted me reading Nausicaa while we were studying the Odyssey (although that's not why I was reading it :p).
I'm neither ashamed nor proud of the fact that I read manga. It's just what I'm into. |
||||
|
||||
Mylene
 Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
|
|||
|
I have no qualms about reading manga in public, although I sometimes will sit so the cover isn't quite so easy to read if for some reason I'm feeling a little self conscience. I figure there's no reason I should be embarrassed about reading something, after all. I work in the library field, and have no problem sitting in a public area in the library during my lunch break, name tag prominently displayed, and with a manga in my hands.
On the other hand, my husband will not read manga during his lunch break unless he can find some unused room to read it in. He wants to maintain a certain semblance of being an "adult" and just can't bring himself to not be embarrassed by reading manga in public. Unfortunately, his hideout is use all the time now, so he's hasn't read any manga at all for many many months (he doesn't read at home either for some reason.) I try to convince him it doesn't matter, but I suppose when you're a computer programmer working in the medical field you'd rather have people see you reading Stephen Hawking rather than Takeuchi Naoko. |
||||
|
||||
Maryohki
 Posts: 526 |
|
|||
|
I don't read manga at school because I don't want my volumes to get beat up or covered in pencil lead, and I reserve spare time in school for reading actual books.
However, I read a lot of manga in public. I wouldn't worry about reading manga in public. No one will really care. I mean, I went to a 4-H fair with nothing to read but stacks and stacks of BL, and no one really even seemed to notice. If I can get away with reading BL at a 4-H fair (or yaoi in a small town Indiana physical therapy office, for that matter), then no one should really have trouble with reading manga in public x3. |
||||
|
||||
|
Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
|
|||
|
I can kind of guess, but curiousity wants me to find out exactly what BL and 4-H is?
|
||||
|
||||
|
Mylene
Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
|
|||
BL = Boy's Love, basically what some people call shounen-ai, I think (although I believe that's a misnomer, yes?). Given that I don't typically like male characters in manga or anime, I really don't much about it in general. 4-H is a youth organization in the U.S. It's particularly popular in rural areas, I would think, as large part of the annual 4-H Fairs revolves around showing various livestock. However, there are also opportunities to present projects and exhibits in a wide variety of topics from weather to consumer clothing, woodworking to cooking, photography to fine art. 4-H was a fairly big deal where I grew up (in Indiana as well) with even the "popular" kids participating. I wish manga had been readily available in English back when I was a 4-Her. I meant spent many a long week sitting atop my 4-H box next to my cow reading and playing solitaire during my 10 years in the program.. |
||||
|
||||
|
Vortextk
Posts: 892 Location: Orlando, Fl |
|
|||
Ah yeah...I know shounen-ai, that term atleast. Being a straight guy I don't use it or see examples too often, besides the racks and racks at megacon the past two years...wow. And I believe the term is a little "off", kind of an american/english interpretation like Otaku, i.e. in America it's a really dedicated fan etc while something similar with different connotations in Japan. And 4-H...DUH. I haven't heard the term for like 12 years but still can't believe I forgot it. |
||||
|
||||
Bunchuu of Chouka
 Posts: 92 Location: Toledo, Ohio |
|
|||
|
Embarassed? No, not me. I can understand that some people do get embarassed, but I personally have never had any problem with indulging in my hobbies outside of my home.
After all, reading manga is nothing to be ashamed of. A man must always be proud of what he does- in work and in leisure. Anything less...well, those are real grounds for embarassment. |
||||
|
||||
|
Maryohki
Posts: 526 |
|
|||
Yeah, 4-H is pretty much only a farm thing here, with a few exceptions (me being one of them). I have livestock, but it's just a deal where I help take care of them at a neighbor's house (they're just outside city limits) and sell them in the 4-H auction, then pay said neighbor some of the earnings to cover the price of the animal[s] and the feed. It's a pretty hardcore Christian/homophobic group, so one saying I would go to Hell for reading stuff like Kissing was pretty amazing. |
||||
|
||||
Terrestrial_Cel
 Posts: 99 Location: SF Bay Area |
|
|||
|
I read manga on the train going to and from work everyday. It's better than just sitting there looking at the smelly people.
It really doesn't bother me to read manga in public. If people think it's weird, that's their issue not mine >.> Though, I do live in a big metropolitan area, which means most people don't give crap about what I do  .
|
||||
|
||||
|
velocet
Posts: 240 |
|
|||
|
It depends on the contents of the book in question, really. There are some manga I do feel comfortable reading in public, and many I would not feel comfortable reading in front of anyone who isn't very familiar with manga and/or anime.
Basically, I'd pretty much die of embarrassment trying to justify fanservice to any/all of my friends and colleagues. As a woman in her 20s it's hard to explain why you're reading something that seems to be solely based around the panties of teenage girls without sounding like a weirdo/pervert. Anything that involves nudity for anything other than essential plot elements or non-sexual artistic merit (e.g. the nude depictions of Dorothea in Emma) just feels wholly inappropriate reading in a public setting. I'm also a bit shy of reading children's manga - or anything with an art-style that looks like it should be a children's book - simply because I feel too old for it in a lot of ways, I wouldn't read a children's novel in public either. Much as I love series' like Cardcaptor Sakura and Sugar Sugar Rune, they're somewhat of a guilty pleasure these days. |
||||
|
||||
|
fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
|
|||
|
It is my opinion not to read BL manga in public, people may get the wrong idea. But then again, you could read a violent manga and people will get all down and out about the violent images contained within. I am not afraid at all to read manga in public. Heck, even when I'm at school in the classroom I'll be reading manga. People might ask me about it but for the most part I'm left alone when it comes to manga.
|
||||
|
||||
blind_assassin
 Posts: 755 |
|
|||
|
I read manga wherever I feel like it. Most of the time I'm reading something like Vagabond or Eden though so anyone looking over my shoulder tends to get a dose of someone having their head shot off or an amazingly well drawn sword fight so I don't get bothered really.
|
||||
|
||||
kizzmequik_74
 Posts: 302 Location: QC, Philippines |
|
|||
|
I read manga in public, mainly as a way to pass time, or as a break from required reading in classes, and I don't really care what other people think of it. Seriously, cracking open something like a volume of School Rumble and reading a chapter or two between endless stacks of political philosophy texts is excellent therapy.
If anything, I'm more embarrassed by my reactions to the manga that I read: snickering loudly in a properly quiet library is a bit embarrassing (not to mention, may bring the wrath of the librarians upon you). 
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group