The topic goes about why Ayumi (a girl) uses boku and not watashi, well i said Utada is also a girl and she uses boku :innocent you made fun of me with no reason :headache

^ I don't think they were making fun of you. It was a joke against Utada I believe. Seeing as she's rather boyish.

I dunno why, but I think some words/sayings have slowly become unisexual.

This definately doesn't apply to all girls. lol
Maybe it's a way to show toughness and independence. To get rid of the cutesy image.

Well I use "ore" around close friends, but they usually rub me off as being "a silly foreigner". No, really, I like that word and thinks it suits me. Yay! (But in formal situations I use "watashi")

It's hard for English speakers to comprehend gender-specific pronouns since we really don't have them. Japanese does have gender-specific pronouns, but especially amongst today's youth the lines are becoming more and more blurred.

ok! thanks for the explanation Calico and Aca-Chan!

I think it's different for "Boku wa Kuma" Hikki's...

About that song, it tells us about the Kuma himself, not about Hikki..
It looks like, the Kuma himself wrote the lyrics..

In Ayu facts, she sings and write that as if she is a male person..
Well, that's my opinion..

Well the first time ayu used 'boku' in a song (I believe in from your letter?) I remember her saying that using 'watashi' and 'anata' would make it seem like a love letter, which wasn't the meaning she wanted to convey. Therefore in that song she used 'boku' and 'kimi' to refer to a relationship between friends. Then a couple years ago when she preformed on SMAPxSMAP they asked her about her usage of 'boku' in her lyrics and she said something along the lines that it places a distance between her and the speaker in the lyrics. I've never heard her use 'boku' much less 'ore' in speech though.
Personally, I think it's pretty crude and unattractive for a female to use 'ore' to refer to herself. Not very fond of the 'boku' females either to be honest. But that only applies in spoken language, not song lyrics.

Slightly off topic, but that's pathetic. Language is not meant to stratify people. A woman can say whatever word she wants.

I think in today's society, though, the lines are becoming more blurred until the pronouns are more about formality than gender. Even in English we're seeing movements in places to get away from "he" and "she" with using words like 'sie', 'hir', 'ey', and 'zie'. And of course, "their" is now being more accepted as a singular pronoun as opposed to just multiple, to get away from being gender specific.

"boku" is so widely used in Japan now by both males and females. Almost all my Japanese female-friends use it in casual conversation, even with other guys who generally don't even bat an eye. Granted most of them come from the Tokyo area so I would sort of assume that it's still kinda divided in more rural areas. I once wrote a post a long time ago about Japanese pronouns and gender assertion/identity but I can't find it now. >.<;

yes ofc she CAN say whatever she wants, but that DOES mean she has to take the consequences. Which is people might find her funny or whatever.
It's like that with EVERYTHING. sure you can dress alternatively, but you gotta cope with funny stares. Just an example :)

You can't expect people to completely accept whatever you're saying without making comments about it.

Just like ayu! Personally I find it pretty strange people actually asked her why she uses Boku, but that's her own fault ofc :) not that it's a bad thing, I love she uses it. Imagine marionette "watashitachi wa.." lol that'd sound horrible :laugh

It can be used in a poetic sense without being gender-specific.

I don't really see a point in her using boku. But I guess it adds a sort of androgyny to the lyrics. ;D
But in a lot of her songs, she does use feminine speech. Look at all the "no" and "wa"s. ;)

Let's see...she's used: watashi, atashi, boku, anata, and kimi. Now she just has ore and omae to use. ;)

Haha.
Just for the record whenever I speak Japanese, I use boku cuz it's shorter and it sounds nicer. xD

Ore and Omae might be a little too "rough" though.

^ Aye, I was joking. Haha. Plus people here would complain so~ much. XD

^ I wouldn't be surprised if she used those while like talking to Peco or something. People tend to drop their level of formality by a few notches when they talk to people they're really comfortable with.

^ Maybe! It would be soooooooooo weird to hear Ayumi say ore. XD
"Ore wa Ayu!" haha.

For some reason I seem to remember that I *have* heard Ayu say "omae" in some video before. :P Maybe it was some backstage thing or something...

Anyhow, most has already been said, but one more point I'd like to make is that sometimes I feel like Ayu's use of "boku" makes her lyrics more personal, like she's really trying to close the distance between her and her listeners. I mean, if you're talking to a close friend, you wouldn't really use words like "watashi" or "anata" at full force or anything. To make her lyrics more appealing to her fans who feel like they are closer to Ayu through her lyrics, or try to relate to her lyrics, it's actually quite good to use "boku" and "kimi". The use of these pronouns just seems to be warmer.

Also, I think we should look at pronouns in Japan less as a gender-specific thing and more as a hierachic thing. In modern Japan it's not really "I'm a girl I must use watashi" and "I'm a boy I must use ore" (since it's apparently very weird if a grown boy still uses 'boku'. I think it's considered something that a small boy would use. XD). It's more like "I'm talking to someone above me, must be formal." That's why I don't think it's really much of a big deal that Ayu uses 'boku' at all.

From an artistic point of view, not only is this completely plausible but it also works in Ayu's favour because it makes it easier for the listener to relate to Ayu's lyrics too. In Japan's social context, it's not at all uncommon for girls to use 'boku', either. Language isn't that rigid. :)

Yeah, I kinda had a feeling that I once heard Ayu use "omae" somewhere. At first I thought she used it in one of her tougher-sounding songs, but none there too. I think it was maybe when she was talking to a stuff of hers.

I thought other than her saying that using 'boku' helps reduce the syllables, it's also to separate the singer-Ayu and the person-Ayu? Since she sometimes uses atashi/watashi too.

Speaking about grown man using boku, doesn't Zin use boku, at least during his lessons? Or is it just because he was speaking in a formal way?

^ I remember hearing that about separation.
I would like to see the video where she says omae though. xD