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Originally Posted by barisuta53
I think I agree with you.
Everyone is different and behaves differently, but I don’t like it when gay men trash those they deem to be too camp or flamboyant. Especially since these are the ones who put their necks out to further the cause by forcing people to pay attention rather than quietly living life.
This is why I think personalities like Ayu are drawn. But it’s all a moot point I guess because I don’t know if anyone in Japan has criticised her for showing support for the gay community (I won’t say LGBT because she hasn’t really).
Her decline from popularity was well underway before she started letting her thoughts on it be known which is a shame. I feel like the way her career is now has given her freedom to do what she wants to do. Maybe she feels less pressure?
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I would say Ayu is a better LGBTQ+ Ally than your average popstar. She portrayed gay and lesbian relationships on her work over the years, have had openly lgbtq people on her body of work and I can't think of anyone else in the industry worldwide who actually had a openly trans dancer that got A LOT of spotlight over the years while still only playing roles her cis dancers did usually.
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Originally Posted by tokyoxjapanxfan
My “issue” with Timmy was similar in the sense that it felt like he was being used as a spectacle. We don’t know how much he wanted that, though. I mean he did his own makeup and it’s obviously something he was comfortable with (for at least some time.)
So it wasn’t my issue with him, just how he was used.
It felt... like a parody. I mean, Gomi also became a parody of himself (who is also gay), and Hikaru is now kind of going down that road lol. Still, it’s impossible to say Ayu is forcing any of this. I can’t imagine that if they expressed that they wanted to be used more “normally” that she’d oppose? In the end they’re in the world of entertainment and screen time and getting a name for yourself is surely part of that for some.
Timmy’s just felt closer to home because I’m also a foreigner and I’d hear the things people were saying about him. Kimoi, kimochiwarui, kowai... not very often that they were positive.
But I know that Ayu loves and values the gay community so I don’t really believe anything was ever done maliciously or forcefully.
(None of this is aimed at anyone, just offering my opinion.)
Personally I don’t think her embrace of the lgbtq community hurt her, considering is was done after her popularity had already started to wane. I think it’s just a case of over exposure and changing of trends. No one stays at the top forever.
My biggest annoyance now is just that I feel like for the past 10 years she failed to utilize the immense amount of talent that still exists in the music / entertainment industry. Instead, she just kept using the same team over and over again. (Minus a few instances of course.) For someone as big as Ayu, it just strikes me as odd that she seemingly just... stopped trying to progress.
This all comes from a place of love. I know it might sound too critical, but I don’t take it as seriously as it might sound haha.
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Considering Hikaru's instagram and Gomi's behind the scenes behavior, I believe they got those roles because it hit closer to home for them. Hikaru has being a femme high heels dancer on his own stuff since before working with her.
About Timmy, he was a drag performer back in UK, wasn't he? And his outfits are actually representation of some stuff done by a LGBTQ+ subculture if I'm not wrong, so even if it feel odd for us, she maybe is conveying something this subculture feels confortable with.
In the end of the day, a lot of Ayu work was meant to be shocking to some degree, even during her peak, and making people unconfortable with some stuff reflects that.
About her stopping progress, is something I somewhat agree, but I believe this was more of a comercial decision. From Love Songs to Colours she really tried to push boundaries both with her own sound, as with her visual work and public image, and as the public didn't react well to that, she tried to get safer again starting with A One.
I always like to repeat how some of her work where she tried the most to do new stuff were also the ones with the poorest reception.
17th March 2021, 11:20 AM
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