Monday, December 7, 2009

Won't Miss #87 - "charisma men"


Want to provoke a fight with random foreign men in Japan who are interested in or in a relationship with a Japanese woman? Bring up the topic of Charisma men and you'd get a good shot at it. Charisma men are essentially average (or below average) foreign males who want to be rock stars despite lacking any particular talent, looks, or personality. Basically, these are men who capitalize on cultural differences to mask their overwhelming ordinariness or sub-average characters. That's not to say that all or even a majority of foreign males in Japan are charisma men, but those who are will be utterly threatened by the fact that the term exists and react with irrational hostility, particularly toward foreign females. It's hard when you're convinced you're a whale of a guy and someone points out that you're actually just a guppy who looks more impressive because you're currently in a small pond of goldfish who think you're special merely because you're not like the other goldfish they're used to.

I won't miss the charisma men and all of the psychological crap that comes along with associating with them.