y’all can blame @skeletonsbeneaththewisteria for these existing

ana reads bnha ch50

previous chapter here first chapter here next chapter here

I got a little preachy and I’m not sorry

Wow, I don’t know if this is different for other people, but all I can say is that, before I could drive, I didn’t know how to get anywhere that wasn’t in my town. The grocery store? Got it. Target? Got it. The movie theatre in the next town over? ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE IT. Had to print out those old mapquest directions. Very impressive, Midoriya. You don’t just know hero things.

I titled this png “manual love” and that sounds like something else...

Can I just say how much I LOVE Manual? It’s amazing that he’s able to see what Iida is up to, first of all, and then having the guts to call him on it is no easy feat. And he does it in such a caring way! He really sees Iida as his ward and wants to take full responsibility for him. He just seems like such a sweet guy, and a good little hero. I wish we got to see more of him.

This immediately makes me think of Hannah Gadsby’s comedy special, Douglas, on Netflix where she says: “We are not preparing our boys for the real world.” I’m not saying that violent anger is purely a male issue, surely not, but, I mean, we know. That’s the full line, actually: “Know what “boys will be boys” means? It means we are not preparing our boys for the real world. It means we know.”

Look, I won’t pretend to be an expert on masculinity in Japanese culture. I won’t even pretend to be an expert in it in American culture. But we know a lot about Iida. We know that he has a strong affinity for categorizing things in the world in boxes and that he’s most comfortable when he can sort things into right and wrong in that way. And, since he comes from a legacy of heroes, I think it’s fair to assume that Iida has grown up with a lot of ideas about masculinity, justice, and controlling one’s emotions. All of that has led him to be the person who he is here when he can’t control his rage, and can’t see talking it out with any of the growing list of people who have noticed his pain and offered to talk as an option. I’m not saying that everything would be solved if we could socialize boys better to talk out their emotions instead of punching them out, but surely things would be better. I mean, we’ve got similar issues with Bakugou. Even Todoroki and Kirishima’s responses to Bakugou’s kidnapping, and Deku too!—I know that this is their ‘hero’ characterization, but these boys have had their minds trained to think that only action is good enough. Anything that isn’t direct action is the equivalent to not doing anything.

Also:

Same thing. Btw, I unironically love Arthur.

Okay, we need to have a talk. Native. That’s the name of this hero. And he’s obviously based off of Native Americans. Look, it’s not my place to hold a Japanese man responsible for knowing this is offensive. No, we Americans* need to hold responsibility for this. Horikoshi can easily look over at us and see our sport’s teams, our depiction of Thanksgiving, our treatment of indigenous people and think, oh cool aesthetic. They make neat Halloween costumes. I think I’ll make a hero like that. Why wouldn’t he think that?

But, of course, this is offensive. The costume bears a feather in the headdress which, I believe, typically denotes rank. Like, that would actually mean something to a tribe. But it appears to me that there’s kind of a hodgepodge of different tribal elements here, all combined to make kind of a generic “Native American” look. And, to add insult to injury, this character is here just to be nearly slaughtered. Not given any importance outside of his near death. When Native Americans already have to suffer through the legacy of being a people who were slaughtered. Yeah, it’s not good. But we have no one to blame but ourselves, really.

*Not only Americans, but also Canadians, Central and South Americans, and Australian/Oceanic people.

Overall: Yes, I realize that people on tumblr don’t appreciate all this discourse but, hey, these posts aren’t intended to grow my popularity or anything. At best, they open up conversation, at worst, they’re just me talking into the void. But yeah, this chapter is heavy. Everything that Iida’s going through is super heavy and, idk, we see so many extreme vigilante situations in fiction that I just need to call it out for what it is. The culture that it’s reflecting. Because media reflects culture, right? Not everyone’s gonna go out to try and kill their brother’s would-be murderer with their bare hands, but a lot of people are gonna be like that Arthur meme and punch their little sister for breaking a toy.

Aside from that…you guys know I’m excited. This is the fight I’ve been waiting for. I’m so psyched. This chapter, when it’s not pissing me off, gets me super hyped. I can’t wait for the next chapter!