#although apparently i am perfectly capable of critique myself

[ben-solos-smile]

I hate that my professor keeps telling me to give more detail on my co-leader evaluations to help them grow... Like I feel bad and wish I could give more detail, especially because they've given me valuable feedback, but I get so nervous that everything flies out of my head as soon as it happens, so I legitimately can't remember anything

#also my brain just rejects the idea of telling someone what they need to improve on #so i just get stuck saying they had good ideas and were good at talking to group members #both of which are true #i feel really bad though #and i dont want the professor to think im being lazy #i sat there trying to come up with something #also i am the least qualified person to evaluate someones leadership #i wouldnt know a leadership skill if it smacked me in the face #she even used my name this time in the comment section when she told be to give more detail to help them grow #so now i feel even more guilty #BUT UNFORTUNATELY MA'AM YOU CANT GUILT ME INTO REMEMBERING THINGS THAT HAPPENED WHEN I WAS NERVOUS #although apparently i am perfectly capable of critique myself #but thats only bc i kick myself over my mistakes the entire group so theyre stuck in my head

[mmdc-is-cancelled]

Y'know what, I'm gonna say it

I don’t care that you broke your elbow //shot

Real talk, I don’t like the concept of “Rinko”. So I’m gonna talk about it!

This isn’t an attack on anybody, this is a personal opinion. Get that clear in your head first, then we can continue. I’ll put this under a read more. If you choose to read this, it absolutely has to be read thoroughly, scanning it for keywords will lead to misunderstandings. Remember this is not a callout, this is a critique.

Rinko is supposed to be “trans girl Rinto”, while Rinto is basically genderbent Rin. Some people refer to Rinto and Lenka as Rin and Len’s older siblings, I don’t pay a lot of attention to their stories because I don’t care about those characters, it’s whatever. In the most basic form, Rinto is just genderbent Rin regardless of whatever relationship they’re written with.

That begs the question, if Rinto is just genderbent Rin, then isn’t Rin also genderbent Rinto? Don’t they just go back and forth? In my head, yes. In the heads of people I’ve talked to about this, yes. Rin and Rinto are the same, the only difference being their gender (and whatever design changes you want, I guess.)

Now back to Rinko and why I feel she’s completely unnecessary and then some. If Rinto is genderbent Rin, people could identify Rinto as basically trans boy Rin, as well as Rin being trans girl Rinto (although the latter isn’t used commonly as Rinto is Rin’s derivative and Rin is the original.) Because Rinto and Rin can basically go back and forth, what’s the point in Rinko? Female Rinto is Rin. Male Rin is Rinto. Why is a third identity necessary?

In my own opinion, I feel as thought Rinko is an example of transgender fetishization in a way. This belief comes from the way I see Rinto and Rin, and also because I, myself, am trans. I feel like the only reason Rinko exists is to be transgender. Rinko and Rinto are pretty much the same character aside from their gender and whatever design choices are given. But Rinto and Rin are the same character aside from their gender. Therefore Rinko and Rin are the same character? But they aren’t apparently.

According to the person that writes Rinko (I’m not including their name because this isn’t a callout or an attack directed at them) Rinko started off as a joke. That’s all fine and good, whatever. Rinko later evolved into her own character, but as far as I’ve found I’ve not seen much other information about her aside from she’s a “mother/older sister” type according to this journal I’m reading as I type this. It’s honestly pretty vague, and doesn’t set her far apart from Rinto when plenty of people associate Rinto and being the older brother type.

The sequence of events, according to this journal, is Joke > Troll/Tsundere > Trans girl Rinto from the future that travels to the past (with no reason mentioned, she’s just here I guess?)

Rinko is established as an older sibling figure, and that’s what’s meant to set her apart from Rinto, even though Rinto is often portrayed as an older sibling as well like I mentioned earlier. When you look at it like this, that doesn’t really set her apart at all. If anything, it just sort of makes her seem exactly like Rinto. I could totally be missing more of this writing, I’m not familiar with this person or their profile so I don’t know where I’m supposed to look. This is really all I’m seeing and this journal seems like the best thing I could quickly find to go off of. Feel free to direct me to any additional writing for this character.

Alright, so I don’t see how she’s different, but fetishization is kind of a big accusation, right? It is, so I don’t like to throw it around casually, but from art I’ve seen of Rinko that’s exactly what I’m interpreting. In a majority of the legitimate art I’m currently looking at of Rinko, she looks incredibly sexualized. She’s given a large bust, a huge ass, small waist, and either skin-tight, short, or revealing outfits. If you showed me this character out of any sort of context and I didn’t already know of her I would’ve figured she’s some hentai character.

“She’s hot, so what?” You’ll have to pardon my skepticism but am I meant to believe she’s not suddenly super hot because of HRT and surgery? That’s an unbelievably common idea in regards to trans women, that HRT and surgery is supposed to make them absolutely smoking. I’ll compare this to pornography of trans women, they’re generally dolled up and sexualized because hello? It’s porn. People that watch said porn assign this idea in real life that HRT and surgery will make any trans women incredibly sexy and, pardon my french, FUCKING THICC AS SHIT. This is a belief I’ve seen personally through friends, acquaintances, and even total strangers that have approached me online mistaking me saying “trans man” for meaning I’m a trans woman (that’s a whole different can of worms for a different blog entirely.) I assign this common belief with what I’m seeing here in front of me, especially because when I look that the entire gallery, the most sexualized character here is Rinko. I find it difficult to believe that Rinko being one of the only super-sexualized characters has nothing to do with her being trans, especially when I can recall this user, at one point, admitting to drawing pornography at least semi-regularly. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence really at all.

Don’t get me wrong. I love big booty bitches. Who doesn’t? But when I see what I see and I believe what I believe, it just feels pretty gross when I’m putting two and two together. If this character’s direction were up to me, I’d change her story entirely. It’s possible to write a Kagamine that isn’t a derivative but honestly, she’d be better off not being a Kagamine at all. She could be written as her own entity entirely. From what I have seen for myself, actual writing for her is lacking and I think that’s why she just seems like a walking fetish to me. It’s perfectly fine to write trans women porn stars as well, and I don't want to send the message that it isn't, what I want to get across is that writing and detailed information is important, even if it's introduced only piece by piece. If Rinko had more publicly available information (or at least, if I could find any) then it's possible I could change my mind completely. The way I see it now, she seems under-developed, lacking real information, and that leaves a lot of room open to interpretation by the audience and this is my interpretation.

I’ve been writing for so long I’m drawing a blank, but I think I mentioned every point I had in mind. If I didn’t I’ll add to this post in reblogs. You’re welcome to feel however you want to about this, whether you agree or you disagree or you’re offended and you think I’m lashing out at this user, that’s all you. I kept this as civil and clear as I’m really capable of being because this is not a callout. This is a critique.

#mmdc #mikumikudance #admin post #critique #rinko kagamine