I don’t care for green tentacles in my porn, just purple ones please.

At work, sometimes someone will ask me a question about what I do or what I read. My answer might include Wii, or manga, or something similar; now, if I was a Japanese person they wouldn’t bat an eye when you say something like that. However, being non-Japanese (or, most likely, just non Asian) they somehow take that as evidence of my complete lifestyle or what things I like. Basically: “Are you otaku?” and answers in that vein.

Now, I think the word otaku is pretty standard even in many English-speaking countries now (there’s no red squiggly line under it if I write it in Word), right? Well, how English speakers use it is a little different than in Japan. In Japan, the meaning is quite bad and being an otaku is not a good thing to be. These are people that don’t just play video games, they play them all the time. These are not people that like cutesy anime, these are people that watch so much that they might have lots of trouble in social situations or find no sexual interest in any real people, just dolls or something with ridiculously huge eyes and blue hair. These are the people that frequently go to places like maid cafes.

The students know this and yet they guess that since I said that I like one thing that was made/produced in Japan that I’m a sweaty, awkward, uber-nerd that masturbates to pictures of Zelda or Asuka (a character from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I haven’t watched). Well, they might not think all of that, but given the context that comes from the real world I see no reason at all as to how they can even try to make such a tenuous connection between me (or anyone else) and such a thing as this.

WTF?

This isn’t just something that happens in Japan. If you have a dating partner of Asian decent someone might ask you if you’re an Asiaphile. Even the mere notice of interest to those of whom are part of the Asian subset of the human race could provoke this question.

WTF?

If someone would say they like brunettes, would you turn your head sideways like a confused (but cute) dog and ask a retarded question like “So you’re a brunetteophile, right?” Or maybe if someone mentions that they prefer their partner to be athletic, is it possible that you would blink at them in utter amazement and then ask them if they want to move to Athletistan (it’s next to Georgia)? Of course not, ‘cause the person who you were talking to you would treat you like a red-assed monkey for the rest of the night (if not longer).

Why is any like, even if it’s just perceived and not known, of anything that is (or has roots in) Asia treated differently by everyone? You could like Asian people because of some quality that incorporates them as a subset in this like. You could watch some anime because you enjoy a certain genre and there are anime shows included in this genre in which you have this like.

It really confuses me why this is so. Can anyone give me some insight into why this occurs or how it’s different from any other type of like?