Moe/Headscratchers

• Something that bugs me about the terminology. I've seen this trope referred to on various pages as both "Moe" and "Moe Moe". Does the extra "Moe" add a different meaning to the term or something?
  • Just Japan Japan being Japan Japan. Love love, moshi moshi, etc.
  • It's actually an artifact from TV Tropes software. When the wiki was first created, page names had to have at least four letters, thus the page was titled Moe Moe.

• So... wait. Does "Moe" mean "Endearingly Vulnerable"?
  • And cute, don't forget cute. But for me, it just means "highly irritating little brat" most of the time. Someone like Nana will get a pass, but then again she can slice through rock with a mere flick of her will. Respect.

• Does the term "moe" refer to simply a level of cuteness, or a genre in and of itself? I've noticed the term is very nebulous in this regard, and I've heard both uses interchangeably (mostly from reading reviews by the Desu Des Brigade).
  • Both -- The moe genre consists of works that are intended to invoke a moe reaction in the audience.

• I notice that most of the live-action examples are redheads. Is red hair considered a moe trait?
  • Moe usually manifests in personality, writing and action rather than in any particular physical feature. I would say, chalk that up to total coincidence.

• Why do some people equate Moe with misogyny? I don't see how this is sexist at all.
  • See the part about "Endearingly Vulnerable" above.
  • Take your pick. Because it:
    • implies that the ideal for women is to be weak and vulnerable and in need of protection.
    • ignores the subjective experience of the (usually female) moe character (who presumably does not like being vulnerable or want to suffer) and focuses solely on what the (usually male) person looking at the character wants--which is the definition of objectification.
    • appears very similar to the White Knight sub-type of slightly-less-overt misogyny, only directed at fictional characters instead of real people.
    • dehumanizes fictional women, implying a similar attitude toward real women.
  • What if male characters get defined as moe? I've seen it happen. There's a trope that got misused to mean just that before it was renamed.
  • Mostly because it's a very broadly defined term, and with the increasing number of anti-anime folks coming to the wiki now that it's popular, we have more people who focus on a narrow aspect of it. Sure, there are plenty of creepy loli characters out there who'd fall under the moe archetype, but there are also quite a few who aren't "weak and in need of protection." Read or Die's Yomiko Readman, for example, and more characters (male and female alike) than I can think of off the top of my head from Metal Gear Solid. Mostly, I'd say it's because "moe" is a hard term to define and this wiki's more vocal members tend to gravitate toward the more negative examples while ignoring (or perhaps just not knowing about) the positive.