Wednesday, March 18, 2015

FEMALE PROTAGONISTS

One of my favourite people is in every way the perfect embodiment of a Japanese heroine-type such as you would find in a Manga drawn for both the independent-minded female reader and the lonesome teenage boy who abjures internet-based visual stimulation.
That is to say, she's of Japanese ancestry but surrounded by people with odd-coloured hair (brown, dirty blonde, near-albino wheat, copper, green or blue streaked, auburn, gold, dirty, or mousey-hued), smaller than most Caucasians of equivalent age, has a pretty face, and engages in a pleasing and ultra-civilised eccentricity not normally associated with either women or Japanese people (she smokes cigars).

Of course, I first took note of her because women are rare among the cigar crowd. Most aficionados of rolled-up tobacco are batsh*t crazy men, many of them with extroverted insecurities about their image.
In a word, typical dingos.

[Cigars can be enjoyed by any gender, taste buds are present in all. But several shapes are suggestive of psychological issues: toro, robusto, double corona, gordo...  let us not even speak of the Salomon or equally over-the-top figurados. Personally I seldom go beyond a forty to fifty ring gauge, and prefer no more than five inches. The seventy gauge seven incher is for a man with problems.]


Now, as a typical liberated modern male who is in many ways not much progressed emotionally beyond highschool or college, despite being older than Moses by mere chronological standards (i.e., youngish middle-aged), there are things about her that I appreciate very much.
Visually appealing, smart as a whip, and tolerance of tobacco.
Any one of those three puts her in the top ten percent.
The fortuitous combination makes her unique.

[The top cigar last year was the Oliva Series 'V' Melanio Figurado. Robust Nicaraguan filler and binder, Sumatra-seed wrapper grown in Ecuador. Six and a half inches, ring-gauge 52, pointed at both ends. A true work of art. Highly recommended.]

Typically, manga-babes are a complete fantasy. They seldom exist in the real world.

No, I shan't ask her out on a date, though that has crossed my mind.

It would be unprofessional, and disturb the force.


I like my women the way I like my manga-heroines: strong-minded fully formed individuals. In fact, precisely like most decent intelligent men imagine their mother to be, and wish their daughters to become.

I will admit that I have absolutely no clue what women think of that. Nor what most women think of their mothers or daughters. But I seriously doubt that women want their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons, to be in any way like the majority of men in Manga, who are dysfunctional glandular freaks, brutish high-schoolers, warped fiends, or anguished lonely nerds wielding great swords of flame and power.
Often with very peculiar hairstyles.


I also like men who are precisely like manga-heroines: strong-minded and fully formed individuals.


No, not that way.


If they do wear panties and frilly undergarments, I have no wish to know. Their secret lives as gender-benders or cat-girls do not interest me im gonzen, and I sincerely hope they have no magic powers.
I'll be happy to discuss books or politics with them.
Perhaps over whisky and cigars sometime.
People with active minds.

I am rather blessed that I know a number of individuals like that, whose company is infinitely enjoyable. Most of them are men, of course. Given my age it would be naturally (and deliciously) suspect if I were to hang-around tearooms and women's clothing stores.


I am nothing at all like Ranma ½.



AFTERWORD

Cigars don't appeal to me very much, I vastly prefer a pipe. For a very long time that meant English-style blends -- Latakia, Turkish, and Virginia leaf, in judicious proportion -- though for the past four years or more I have veered toward pressed flakes and Virginia-Perique mixtures. Like many pipe-smokers I am somewhat obsessive, and it must be said that pipe-smoking often appeals to more introverted types, especially people with an eye for detail, along with peculiar interests and consequently books all over their digs. I'm not at all sure that cigar-smokers read much, if anything at all other than Cigar Aficionado magazine.

If they ever read Manga, or typical American Superhero comics, it is probably for the pretty pictures and zesty costumes. People with a genuine appreciation for the art-form are rare indeed.

I'm just mentioning this as a shout-out to geeks, most of whom do not smoke cigars. Who exist in either gender, and possibly several variants in between.
If anything, they too incline toward pipes and fine briar.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Ever.


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