[quote name='TnB' post='69316' date='Sep 24 2009, 04:42 AM'][quote name='JPope' post='69314' date='Sep 24 2009, 12:51 AM'][quote name='TnB' post='69312' date='Sep 23 2009, 09:42 PM']As for her fanbase, you all should really take a look at the reasons
why middle school kids think "young mamas" like Tsuji are their ideal mom, or why girls think being a mom at her age is a good idea. It's not really "Wow, she's so inspirational! She's really grown up!" so much as
"If my mom was young, she'd understand me better and be cooler to hang out with" and
"If I get baby making out of the way early, I have the rest of my life to do whatever I want!"[/quote]
Yes on the former and no on the latter. I don't think many young girls think about life in the very long-term like that, and certainly not with regards to baby making.
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Actually it's yes on both. I didn't just make up the responses, I got them from a magazine poll. <img src='
http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':hahaha:' /> There was two different polls - neither were specific to Tsuji of course, she was just one of the examples and I think a maybe there was something about her popularity among middle schoolers? Either way, there were polls about how readers felt about young mothers (over 50% favorable opinion). Then there were lists of the top 3 reasons young girls gave for liking the "young mama" figures, and the top 3 reasons young women gave for liking the idea of being a young mama. I wish I could find the scan again, the only other response I can remember was "It's easier on the body to go through childbirth at a younger age." The whole thing in general was interesting, mostly because it seems like such a turn around from the trend among young Japanese women to want to put off marriage and childbirth until later in life.
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That is interesting.
[quote name='The☆AEUGNewtype' post='69337' date='Sep 24 2009, 08:40 PM'][quote name='Cyrene' post='69289' date='Sep 23 2009, 10:54 AM']I just dislike her whole ~cute Mama~ persona. ... selling wedding photos that are of her like she's an idol in a concert...bleh.[/quote]
This.
[quote name='mEri' post='69299' date='Sep 23 2009, 12:48 PM']I don't think she's exploiting her child and "shameful" shotgun marriage at all. She has always protected her child and that baby is nowhere in the public eye. If her career got a bump, then good for her - turn lemons into lemonade.[/quote]
I could give a flying shit about her baby in the first place, that has nothing to do with any of this. It sounds like we're having a fucking baby civil rights movement around here or something. And the key here is the word "lemon," its very telling and indicative of what this really was. By that, you just admitted that it was a rather unfavorable situation that she "turned into" something better. I don't think getting a "career bump" from essentially not doing ANYTHING of any entertaining value or interesting nature is something that should be celebrated, its rather pathetic. Not even just pathetic on the level of her going along with making her personal life into a public affair, but also fairly pathetic if the Japanese public is actually as receptive to this as some of you are making it sound they are. The exploitative element comes solely from her being so willing to share her personal life with the public, and in turn, the public actually giving a shit about it, if what you say is true. It doesn't have anything to do with sex before marriage being a bad thing nor does it have anything to do with the baby itself, though the obviousness of the "shotgun" element of the marriage is pretty pathetic, but that's a whole other discussion that doesn't have a terrible amount to do with this discussion at its core.
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Did you have to towel off after composing this response? Sheesh...
It might surprise some here that Tsuji Nozomi was extremely popular in Japan for seven years prior to becoming pregnant and getting married, and it is not unreasonable to expect a fair number of those fans to show a continuing interest in her post-idol life. Neither is it unreasonable for those who were not Morning Musume fans to show an interest in a very popular public figure based on similar life experiences. I'm just not getting the whole "pathetic" vibe out of Nono's pregnancy, her marriage to the father, or her fans' interest in her life as a young mother. If the couple are happy and in love, what is so contemptible about their marriage or baby? "Pathetic" would better describe people who pass negative judgment on a person they have never met based on a private situation they know nothing about. "Contemptible" works well, too.