lovecoutorn

[lovecoutorn]

DISCLAIMER: The only person I give permission to repost is @banyureged since they collabed for the art. I do not fuck with any other reposts of this diagram from anyone other than him, especially if it's uncredited.

(Repost as in taking the art and/or caption and posting it in an entirely separate post instead of just reblogging.)

A study sort of thing I did comparing popular fashion trends amongst landmines between 2020 and 2023 to show how broadly "jirai kei fashion" can be defined as landmine people's tastes change overtime. You can see the change in preference from cute girly kei fashion to the cooler sabukaru-like "alt girl" silhouette that has been increasing in popularity recently. Some more notes I have about the difference in trends are

2020: still heavily attached to their tamer "ryousangata" roots. With sweeter girly kei fashion and still few edgy elements in play, the image is fairly "clean" and preppy compared to future trend developments, limited piercings and preppy styling and all. A cute yet "deceptive" fragile image (ぴえん系) was ideal with not as much emphasis on showing off "wild jirai-ness" in appearance.

2023: as the wilder delinquent-like side of jirai behavior has gotten more and more attention in the media, there has been an increase in landmines purposely showing off their "jirai-ness" by donning more intimidating darker styles as a defense mechanism of sorts (same also applied to girly fashion when it became associated with landmines). With more visibly edgy motifs like heavy facial piercings and tattoos reminiscent of the underground visual kei scene, sabukaru-inspired trends like menhera/yamikawaii print tees and hoodies and legwarmers, and a sharper almost "grotesque" style of makeup, a loud visibly "dangerous" and rebellious image has become wildly popular amongst landmines. I guess if the 2020 image of landmine was "ぴえん系", the 2023 image of landmine would be... "オラオラ系"???

[lovecoutorn]

I want to make this clear, I don't allow any repost of my art on any public social media without credit. I do not want my shit to be misconstrued. You can link to my reblogged post or any other blog's reblog of my original post if you want to share.

#personal #I'm not ready to come back yet but I just had to disclose this.

[lovecoutorn]

Please block and report this account, be very careful, they started posting self harm photos

I don't know if they got hacked or what but they used to be a very good account about mental health awareness and Japanese fashion

[lovecoutorn]

A study sort of thing I did comparing popular fashion trends amongst landmines between 2020 and 2023 to show how broadly "jirai kei fashion" can be defined as landmine people's tastes change overtime. You can see the change in preference from cute girly kei fashion to the cooler sabukaru-like "alt girl" silhouette that has been increasing in popularity recently. Some more notes I have about the difference in trends are

2020: still heavily attached to their tamer "ryousangata" roots. With sweeter girly kei fashion and still few edgy elements in play, the image is fairly "clean" and preppy compared to future trend developments, limited piercings and preppy styling and all. A cute yet "deceptive" fragile image (ぴえん系) was ideal with not as much emphasis on showing off "wild jirai-ness" in appearance.

2023: as the wilder delinquent-like side of jirai behavior has gotten more and more attention in the media, there has been an increase in landmines purposely showing off their "jirai-ness" by donning more intimidating darker styles as a defense mechanism of sorts (same also applied to girly fashion when it became associated with landmines). With more visibly edgy motifs like heavy facial piercings and tattoos reminiscent of the underground visual kei scene, sabukaru-inspired trends like menhera/yamikawaii print tees and hoodies and legwarmers, and a sharper almost "grotesque" style of makeup, a loud visibly "dangerous" and rebellious image has become wildly popular amongst landmines. I guess if the 2020 image of landmine was "ぴえん系", the 2023 image of landmine would be... "オラオラ系"???

[lovecoutorn]

i really dislike the gimmick-ification of popular jfashions nowadays. Gyaru makeup and lolita fashion being used as one-time gimmick stuff than actual styles people wear in their day to day life. In a lot of anime and manga using gyaru/lolita as one-time character "skins", there is no actual spirit of either, it feels less like "gyaru wearing gyaru makeup" or "lolita wearing lolita fashion" as much as it is "character cosplaying as gyaru" or "character cosplaying as lolita". Same with real life, japanese influencers doing "gyaru cosplay" stuff (don't get me started on the ganguro as halloween makeup videos), a popular jirai influencer advertising a lolita reseller service for those who want to do "lolita cosplay", in fact I've seen many non-lolita influencers accidentally advertise replicas for their one time lolita-try ons. I think something similar is also happening with girly kei, there's not just "jirai girls who happen to wear girly kei" but also cosplayers who specifically wear girly kei in order to look jirai. It seems like there's a growing number of people who try on things not because they like the style but because "they like the character associated with the style". I wonder if this is good or bad though...

[lovecoutorn]

I'm seeing the tendency for landmine to be seen as more trendy in Japan but more "reclaiming" overseas. Not just the clothes but the attitude. Seems like every JP artist was drawing "cute landmine girls" (and those who draw those "oh she's a landmine girl but she's actually a wholesome totally Normal person uwu" charas) and mainstream jp fashion influencers and models were hopping onto the fashion landmine trend with makeup tutorials n girly clothes without actually engaging with the community bc being associated with these "crazy unstable menhera" would definitely ruin their job prospects.

But overseas, I do feel like a lot of fashion landmines who talk about "reclaiming" do struggle with mental health and want to connect with jirai culture bc of that, but they still struggle with the idea in their head that "self-destructiveness = problematic = bad", so they end up sanitizing the whole thing. They'll post boxcutters and beer cans or other edgy landmine imagery but they'll clarify that "haha but I don't actually DO those things lol" because they're scared of being problematic and they see visible mental struggles (including their own) as problematic.

They end up viewing the japanese influencers hopping onto the landmine trend as the true "good" irl landmines bc they don't actually show their landmineness, meanwhile the OGs get labeled as the "bad ones" (ironic since the character of Yua Takahashi who they always idolize so much was based on these "bad landmines"). It's okay to LOOK mentally unstable but bad to actually BE visibly mentally unstable.

Tho i don't think this is a landmine specific phenomenon, it also happens in the menhera community. I identify more with menhera bc I just don't identify with a lot of the booze n pien aspects of landmine culture, but there's a sense in how overseas menheras approach menhera fashion and art that's like "yeah express yourself through your clothes/art, show the world your vent art— but not in a way that might be mistaken for promoting, glorifying, romanticizing, fetishizing, or sexualizing mental illness or makes other people uncomfortable in any way" which I don't think is fair. A lot of people don't have the cleanest perception of their own mental struggles and I think they should be allowed to express that without being accused of promoting something "problematic". The OG menhera artists and designers that people looked up to now getting flack for creating menhera art that isn't the cookie cutter pills n bandages or anxiety metaphors that people are comfortable with. Even death elements are seen as controversial. Menhera art and fashion was supposed to be something that discomforted people, something that forced them to look at the things that they pretend don't exist/matter in day-to-day life.

I think the problem is that people want to engage in communities that requires them to be comfortable with the "dark sides" of mental health and its struggles, but they haven't even learned to be comfortable with the "dark side" of their own mental struggles.

[lovecoutorn]

I've been thinking about making a post like this for a while, but never could figure out a good time to post it. But I figured it'd be best to do it on here, as these are my comprehensive thoughts on the matter of the term itself, and how some people still neglect the mental health implications of the term Jirai's existence.

I am the first to admit I'm no saint and have worded my thoughts on this matter poorly more than a few times on my Girly blog, but the fact I still see people trying to say that Jirai as a term doesn't hurt anyone and it's just a "certain group" making the term harmful is upsetting in a way I can't fully articulate.

My grievances and negative stance towards Jirai has always been intended to be directed towards the fact that it, on a broader subcultural level, often encourages a sense of complacency among mentally ill people to adopt routine suffering in order to continuously identify with the definitional and aesthetic image of the term. The reality is it is anti-recovery by design, because if people are to recover and not have the negative traits associated with it, they are no longer able to fit the conceptual and widely upheld definition of the term. This is the inherent problem with Jirai as we know it, as it was born as a negative term referring to certain traits that, under the presumption of its subcultural usage, are not able to be changed. This idea can cause some people to be in a cycle of self-harming behaviors to keep the label, which is something I have personally seen in JP spaces.

And I understand that some people have a different, more positive experience with it, but an individual good experience (or experiences) does not erase its broader use, and it's reductive to act like it does.

This rooted negativity is why it is so harmful whenever people engaged in the culture get brought up as being part of a "bad side" that's "giving the term a bad name". People often attach the label to themselves as a way of saying "I know I will never get better". But people who do this are not bad, and they do not deserve to be spoken about as being lesser than so people can feel as though the word is neutral and it's some "other" making it bad.

The term itself is not ideal, and this is independent of the fact it is referring to a type of person. It has never been about the people identifying with the term being bad. Jirai, by definition, and the way it has been upheld as a toxic subculture are what is causing its associations. The people using the term who are so often disparaged are not individually causing the term to be negative: that was already built in because the whole thing is toxic by design.

At the end of the day, this is dealing with the topic of mental health, which is a very sensitive topic, and it is possible to point out why the term has problems without resorting to "people who use it and engage with it on the subcultural level are bad and you should just ignore them".

Ultimately, you can't try to sanitize the term because you want to use it without feeling bad, as it just isn't possible.

[lovecoutorn]

bitchfest.

Surprise, bitch. Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.

Recap, I'm torn. Used to go by the same lovecoutorn username but tumblr fucked my old blog up when i tried to post a very long sentimental thing about landmine culture. But now I'm back with a shorter angrier thing about fashion jirai! And tumblr. How fun!

I'm going to be very honest with y'all, I'm not even sure about blogging as much anymore because I am very tired of having to walk on eggshells in this hellsite to make sure tumblr doesn't fucking blow up (lol) my blog. I don't even know what they're blowing me up for? It's so fucking frustrating. I've only been on this website for a few months but having my blogs constantly get deleted can really make your eyes twitch. So I'll probably have a looser posting schedule. Bitch when I want. Draw what I want. Hope that's a-okay!

Trigger warning for mentions of self harm, drugs and ableism below

Okay, bitching round 2: y'all fashion jirai make me so fucking tired. So I'm gonna say some fucking shit.

I don't think most fashion jirai people are neurotypicals. I do acknowledge a lot of fashion jirai people are also mentally ill and struggle with various mental issues and disorder. You not being mentally ill is not all of what makes you all fashion jirai. You are fashion jirai because you don't respect all mentally ill people. You think you're a "better" mentally ill person than real jirai because "you don't promote self harm" or "you don't promote drugs" "you don't promote disorders". News fucking flash, people who actively engage in self harm communities aren't doing it because they want to promote or advertise self harm, they're doing it because they have a damn fucking mental illness and they're tired of the idea that everyone around them is "loving them despite their disorders" like they're not enough as themselves so they decide to find a community of like-minded people who will actually accept them fully.

Yes these communities are toxic but that's the whole point. Jirai was built on the stereotype of a cute but extremely toxic unstable girl and you're surprised toxic unstable people identify with it? You are not better than these people because you think you're handling your mentall illness "right". Half of y'all are literally just as toxic if not even more toxic than lifestyle jirai but won't fucking admit it. Just because you don't associate with "the bad parts" of jirai culture doesn't mean you're not just as shitty anywhere else. You claim jirai kei is about shedding light on mental struggles but hide jirai people who don't "do" their mental illness "right" from speaking up in the community because they make y'all look bad.

Also the idea that you need to "wear jirai" to be jirai is laughable. Did you think the women who would be labeled as the original landmine stereotype back then wore what they wore because they wanted to look like the most jirai they could? "Ah yes, I'll buy this Liz Lisa dress so people around me will immediately know how much of a landmine I am" "I'll cut my hair into a hime cut so people can tell how mentally ill I am"??? While this might not exactly apply to the private lifestyle jirai accounts that don't post themselves, in general "jirai who don't 'wear jirai'" are reasons why so many unrelated fashions end up becoming "jirai trends". An example is Nuta having called herself a jirai woman in a relationship/behavioral context since before 2020, but Nuta herself has said that she didn't want to look like a stereotypical jirai girl and instead took inspiration from aoichihiro for her style. And now "tenshi kaiwai" is considered a "sabukaru jirai substyle". Did you think these wildly different styles came to be jirai because the brands suddenly willed them into existence? No! No jirai is consciously trying to make a "new jirai substyle". Sometimes you get bored of wearing the same fucking shit. Sometimes you just try new styles, sometimes you just adopt the tastes of your friends in the same community and what you wear together ends up becoming a recognizable enough "look".

Oh also the "i like jirai kei" vs "I'm a jirai", I'm sorry but at this point y'all are literally ripping jirai from its roots. Literally admitting you would rather cosplay/larp toxic mentally ill stereotypes as an "empowering fashion subculture" than actually understanding/sympathizing with toxic mentally ill people. You copy everything a typical jirai person would do for aesthetic but the moment you're actually a jirai person it's bad?

I'm so damn tired of y'all.

#jirai discourse #rant #trigger warning #drugs #drug abuse #self harm #ableism #jirai kei #personal #vent #地雷系 #地雷女子 #地雷女 #地雷男子 #jfashion discourse #lifestyle landmine #fashion landmine #fashion jirai #lifestyle jirai