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Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0
Yeah, I totally understand that.
I'm defending Ayu not in the context of "ayu is a pop star, and SHE TOTALLY GETS ME OMG!" which is indeed EXACTLY what gets people talking about pop stars in a "friendly" context. Because most pop stars are deliberately distant, cool, perfect, etc. They're far more rehearsed than Ayu has always been. They're a different KIND of pop star.
I'd feel very weird being forgiving of vague tweets if they came from someone like Namie, for instance.
I only feel the need to defend Ayu here because "unprofessional," talking to her fans as if they were her friends, was always kinda... part of her image. She's VERY inconsistent about this, but her image has always been "she's just like if one of us normal girls was able to wear designer clothes & travel the world." Since the beginning her lyrics have always been "my real feelings" (at a time when that was NOT common in J-Pop, although now it's not so unusual). Girls copying her fashion & buying every makeup product she promoted wasn't an accident, and it wasn't just "I wanna be like my idol," it was just "I CAN be like her." Ayu has always come across more like the class president who didn't really want the job but everyone insisted that she take it, rather than seeming like a distant, perfect, mythical goddess.
Granted, fans who don't see her that way - and given her relatively distant image since.... I dunno, around the "MY STORY" era or so, there are PLENTY of them - are going to probably be much harsher on her when she's unprofessional, which I completely understand.
But for me personally, if I was only interested in seeing her professionalism, I'd only watch her concerts and videos and I'd only read magazine interviews that have been edited and polished. To me twitter is where you see celebrities at their least professional. For some, it's a place where you see these celebrities embarrass themselves with vague tweets made in the heat of a moment without much thought. For others, it's a place where you see celebrities humanized by those tweets. And that humanization makes me feel better. To me it's both endearing to see Ayu so humanly flawed, and encouraging to see that yes, indeed, everyone makes mistakes.
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I always saw Ayu the way you discribed her here. I don't like her diva image she got around 2006/2007.
And I also agree about what you said about twitter.
I'm a big Britney fan for example and I so love how she posts all this weird stuff on twitter and facebook. From short videos in which she's imitating a woodpecker to articles she likes you can find everything on her facebook.
But what Ayu does doesn't seem to me like she's sharing random moments of her life. For me it feels as if she is sharing this stuff just because she wants the attention, like an attention seeking teenage girl who's already the queen of her high school but who wants everyone to know how "hard" her life in reality is. For me those tweets have nothing to do with being honest about her feelings, they jut add to her diva image. And I hate that.
It's totally fine to post something like "Had a bad day and somehow can't stand myself today." or something like "My love and I had a great day but due to work we won't be able to see us in a while =(". THAT would be honest. I think it has nothing to do with being honest sharing vague tweets and stuff like "I hate you..." with a pic of yourself. Not even her lyrics have ever been that vague.
If this would have been the first time she would have tweeted something like this I wouldn't care. But she has done this countless times in the past. Sometimes those tweets were followed by nothing, and other times she announced her divorce or breakup a little later. So it's no wonder people are going crazy when she tweets stuff like that.
And in all honesty, being an adult also means to learn how to handle criticism. Always take criticism seriously but never personally. If there is some truth in the criticism - learn from it. If it's just mean stuff who is supposed to hurt you - ignore it. It won't take you anywhere to blame everyone around you for not loving you unconditionally like a child and in addition being passive aggressive. This teenager/child like behaviour is exactly what being a diva is all about.
And her diva style pisses me off and destroys everything I so loved about her when I discovered her in back in 2003. I just can't stand in anymore. Since 2012 I'm hoping it's just a phase but sadly it isn't. And I'm at a point where I'm not able to defend her anymore just because I love her so much. I'm actually beginning to understand why fans are leaving. For me there is no relateable woman anymore out there. There's just a diva who is pissed about people who don't like any single dumb tweet she makes left for me.
That makes me sad, but I can't change how I feel about that.