Relevant of today's journal:

Broken Knee's healing progress: I can pretty much walk on it now, although the doctor keeps telling me to use the damned crutches...
Next doctor visit: 3/18/08

Man.... I don't think I've ever posted such an angry journal before...

Everyone should know, first off, that I hate blatant policy breakers here on DA. Not so much the dorks who post random crap that could hardly be considered 'art' (like phone snapshots of some random graffiti) but the people who repeatedly break big rules, such as regularly submitting explicit, pornographic material.

My BIGGEST pet peeve is acts of violence or sexual acts against an unwilling participant. For any reason, really, but especially if it's only meant to spite the person it's about. Now, I don't really effing care if the figure depicted is a fictional character or a real person. If you take, for example, a 10 year old anime character and post an image on DA with that character masturbating or being raped, I'm going to report the hell out of that sick crap.

People don't realize that, while life inspires art, art can also inspire life. Think about it. How many beating/kicking/dropping/drowning puppy jokes did you hear about before the video was released about the soldier who threw the puppy off of the cliff? Now, there's been a so-called "artist" who decided to make an exhibit of a starving dog. No, not pictures of a dog or a sculpture, a REAL dog that was tethered to the wall in an art gallery, the nearest food was plastered on a wall in the entrance in the words that read, "You are what you read." [link] It's not unreasonable to think that people are readily doing these things now because they've been joked about for a long time. The point of view, "It's ok to laugh at this because no one would ever really do it." can lead to it actually being done. Hey! You thought it was funny before, didn't you?

What started this journal is a stupid anti contest I came upon. I think that anti clubs and contests are pretty meaningless to begin with, and quite disrespectful to the artist. Listen, they're trying to tell a story. You must like the story somewhat if you care enough to have an opinion on the character that you're flaming.

In any given story there are bad guys and good guys. There's the main character, the villain, the rival, the supporting cast and - Yes! - the annoying chick next door. Now, obviously, not every story has the same makeup of characters, but there will always be downsides and upsides of the characters and plot. People who call themselves fans shouldn't jump on the "anti" band wagon. Putting so much effort into bringing down a specific character shows that you are completely missing the point. The artist/author had a point of putting them in there to begin with, accept them as a part of the story.

Now, I'm not at all saying that no one should be allowed to have a negative opinion of a character - I really DESPISE Orochimaru, for example, but that's what makes him such a fantastic villain. What I'm saying is that every character in every story serves a purpose. And if that "annoying girl next door" character is annoying you, guess what? She's doing her job well!

This particular contest was against Sakura Haruno, from the anime Naruto. To be honest, I've never been to fond of her myself. She's a Sasuke-crazy fangirl (even though he's been nothing but a dick to her), she hardly ever expresses what she's REALLY thinking (hence inner-Sakura) and she's pretty much useless, during the first part of the show anyway.

BUT she's passionate about what really matters and she helps out when and where she can. She's pretty (WITHOUT becoming an over-the-top Mary Sue goddess) She's clueless, flighty, boy-crazy and sometimes she even gets overwhelmed. So she's easier for teenage girls to relate to than most of the other young girls on that show. She has flaws, big, HUGE, gaping flaws and obstacles within her own nature that she has to find a way to overcome. This makes her, in some ways, an incredibly realistic person.

This contest was asking for art showing anything against her. "Killing, bashing, Raping..." and they don't care WHO does it. Well, I don't care who does it either. What the hell?! The girl is 15 years old AT MOST, during the entire series. I wrote several messages (and apparently got blocked because of it) to the person hosting that pointless contest asking her why on earth she would promote the rape of young women. She was tautological and generally used a bunch of silly excuses intended to lessen the importance of her event.

I'm almost attempted to form a "Pro-Sakura" or "Cannon Tolerance" club as a reaction, but I wonder if that would end up fueling a petty war since they would feel personally attacked. Then again, not doing anything at all is still allowing it to happen.

SO, if I get a general positive reaction going here, with at least 5 people who agree with me, I'll start that tolerance club. And maybe we can even have a counter contest. Her contest is set to end (at this point) on the 10th. Perhaps we can take all the images submitted and come up with our own submissions, showing how Sakura bested the situation.

Would you like to know why I started watching Naruto to begin with? Back before I came to adore Kakashi and marveled over the depth of the characters and how even the villains had back stories and layers of personality. Before I knew anything else at all about the show, I found out there was a character named Sakura in it. On April 4th, 2006, I had given birth to my third daughter and given her that name. [link] At one point I took it upon myself to watch as many shows that had a character by that name in them. I would collect all of the good ones and give them to her as a gift one day. It was a part of how I planned to show her what a beautiful name she has. Because, for as common as the name might be in Japan, it's really quite rare for a little Caucasian American girl to have it.

Sa's birthday is coming up soon. I can't wait to see her blow out the candles on her 2nd birthday cake! Her eldest sister's 8th birthday comes before her on March 29th.

Spring break starts for me after school this Friday. I'm really looking forward to that as well.

Thanks for paying attention to my little "anti-anti" rant. Respond to the journal or PM me if you support the idea.

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