Slop and guilt
1
A few days ago I started watching "Hirogaru Sky! Precure", after seeing someone post a clip from it and being like "its funny how when they say the word white they instead say hwhite". I looked at the clip and was like yeah they do say "hwhite", after which I thought, "hey isn't this the magical girl anime where they have a magical boy?" I got curious, and after confirming that with some random wiki I found, I went and decided to watch a bit of it.
I pretty quickly learned how the show works, it's extremely formulaic. Each episode is 24 minutes long, but out of those 24 minutes probably at least maybe like 6 minutes, or one quarter, is spent on fully copy pasted scenes which are basically fully the same between episodes. The obvious ones are the intro and outro (which is pretty normal for anime), but there are also minutes long transformation sequences where the heroes transform from ordinary people into magical girl heroes by doing a dance while saying some random fancy words while a lot of flashy effects happen in the background. Each* episode also has a monster, that even has the same name every time even though its a different monster every time. Oh also the villain creating the monster has a copy pasted effect. And each of the main heroes has a spell that has a copy pasted effect when they use their special "move".
None of this is actually very important, I am just trying to say that the creators might be trying to go more for quantity over quality. Which is probably pretty obvious also because they are making literally one episode each week? And I do mean each week, I am looking this up right now and apparently the show has been running from 2004 and there have been 1067 episodes during that time, which according to my vibes based calculations means they missed maybe like 3 weeks on average each year. It might also be obvious from the fact that it's target demographics is basically preschool children.
Anyways what I am trying to say that this is slop right? Its kinda mindless, its the same over and over. Oh, but that first day I did watch 9 episodes of it in a row. From a big part it was because I really wanted to see the magical boy show up. But I also can't deny that I enjoy it. I continued watching it the next day, even after I saw the magical boy show up, after all. I think I saw like 15 episodes now (so no spoilers please, haha), and I want to see more. I've been feeling kind of down, hopeless, and without motivation for quite a long time, and the sort of naive positivity in the show at least sort of makes me a bit optimistic, at least very temporarily. And it also makes me almost (or not almost) cry.
At the same time I feel very guilty of liking it. And I've been thinking really hard about why.
The fact that it's kinda dumb is definitely a part of it, but it can't really bother me that much considering how many hours of my life I have wasted playing videogames mindlessly, or watching/listening to Youtube videos which might be even dumber, as an example I probably watched more than 1000 episodes of Northernlion playing the Binding of Isaac. It's kinda just inevitable that people waste a lot of their time, and there's nothing wrong with that really right. Well, when I was trying to fall asleep but instead kept on pondering my thoughts about this I did decide to go talk with my room-mate, which resulted in us talking about this topic, and life in general until like 2 am, I am really thankful that he's the kind of person who I can do that with. Our discussion didn't really come up with a concrete conclusion, we just kinda were like, "yeah life kinda sucks but it's better to not dwell on that, and oh yeah you probably actually kind of need to consume some lower quality media for the higher quality more thinky media to actually hit more" and then I went to sleep.
The second and I think bigger part is that it's literally made for like 8 year old girls. Uhhh, and there's kind of no way around that I think? Like that just feels embarrassing to watch for me. For context, I am kinda basically a guy even tho I am also probably more feminine than most (maybe it'd be fairer to myself to say that I am nonbinary, but you know, if you are nonbinary in a forest where no one can see you are you really nonbinary? yes? yes. but also I am just perceived as just a guy by most people so lets keep it simple.), it still feels basically illegal to like something like this as an adult guy. When I examine this more I do think it definitely shouldn't feel like that. If someone tells me they like Pokemon I don't really find it weird at all, even though it's theoretically made for preschool boys. Or maybe more similar is what I am guessing is My Little Pony, which I never watched, but which a lot of guys on the internet liked pretty visibly. I even met someone who I really respected who told me that he liked the show. And I did feel a bit iffy about that, but also when actually thinking at least somewhat critically I saw no problem with. I guess the same is for Precure. If I think about it, I just feel it's sort of weird, but also just kinda fine. I thought about how cool it'd be to make a cosplay of Cure Wing (the magical boy in the show), I've been getting into sewing, and I do think it might not be that difficult to make. And then I think how I could like be silly and try do some of those dances from the show in that cosplay. But then I immediately think how it's too much. And how embarrassing is that I am even thinking about that. I just don't really know.
2
Just a few hours before writing this post I saw a video by Jeffiot called Peak Art, Peak Slop. I'd recommend watching it, it's sort of related to what I wrote about here, but not really. Very, very, oversimplified it tries to somehow explain why something like Twin Peaks might be better than a Mr Beast video. It basically says that all the edges of Mr Beast videos are perfectly sanded off to make it as easy to digest as possible, which they succeed at very well, but it to really enjoy given closer examination, and so when you watch one you don't even really remember what you watched. While something like Twin Peaks breaks a lot of conventions that make things easy to watch, but which also makes it quite memorable. I do take some slight issue with that -- for example, because I can kind of think of what happens in some Mr Beast videos, for example I think in one he recreates Squid Game, though thinking about it I am not really sure if I even actually saw that video. And for example because I did watch all of Twin Peaks, but also can't really remember all that much that happens in it, though again when in the video Jeffiot mentions some of the things I did think to myself yeah I sort of remember that.
I am definitely taking this a bit too literally and sort of just wanted to try be a bit funny here. In reality I think it's just true that something like Twin Peaks makes you think more, and even though it's made in a way that isn't the easiest to watch, thinking about it is really interesting and makes it memorable. There definitely are parts I can think of immediately since they were so so so memorable -- for example episode 8 of season 3 -- even if I don't fully remember the specifics.
Which finally gets me to my point. Precure made me think a lot too. And I sort of remember what's happening in it, and even if I forget the specifics, I don't really think I am ever completely forgetting that I watched it. So I think after all this it might not really be slop, even though it definitely is a bit low quality, and a bit stupid, and made in a way to be easy to watch. It's sort of in a weird way where the context of me not really being the target audience (I think? like maybe I am being unfair here considering they did decide to have a magical boy after making the 900 episodes or whatever before it so maybe they wanted to expand the audience? I have no idea honestly) makes it be more interesting then it otherwise might be? I think? Like while it's definitely made to be easy to watch I did also describe why watching it makes me feel pretty guilty, so that kind of makes it not that easy to watch, right? Or maybe I am just making stuff up to make myself feel better about watching it.
Ok, this is besides the point but I do want to defend Precure (or at least the 15 episodes I watched, I guess I can't vouch for the 1050 others or however many there are) a bit more. I do still think it's better than something like Mr Beast, since it at least has a genuinely positive message and tries to make people be kind and think about what other people feel, which has to be worth at least something right? Meanwhile Mr Beast instead does basically the most parasocial things imaginable, I guess on the very surface he's giving out money, but like he's using the money that to bribe people to embarrass themselves, or even sometimes harm themselves. So I am trying to say that while both are probably slop, some slop is still better than other slop. Shrug.
I am not really sure which group to put this in? Maybe this should be somewhere else instead? Probably ~anime? Or ~tv? ~life? ~lgbt? Feel free to move this elsewhere, I don't really know.
People often feel pressure to do something important or productive with their time no matter what theyre doing. But recreation is just for fun, you shouldnt have to feel bad for not challenging yourself. If you feel like you enjoyed yourself watching the show, you have successfully recreated.
Watching such a show "for science" and then writing up a whole report on it is pretty productive and stimulating!
I don't really like how folks have taken slop from referring exclusively to AI output and started applying it to things people actually made. I haven't watched this so I suppose I can't comment on its quality directly. But in my opinion, using it as such legitimizes AI output and delegitimizes the human output while disrespecting the human.
The repetition techniques you describe sound pretty typical of like magical girl shows and other animated series like them from an older era. I have been watching Sailor Moon and yeah there are a lot of formulaic episodes but it's still a good time? "Monster of the week" is a trope, and not necessarily derogatory.
What is wasted time any way? Time you aren't on the grindset? Just because you aren't doing something "productive" doesn't make it wasted. If you've relaxed, cracked a smile, felt anything, then I would call it time well spent.
It's also OK to like cute girl things as a man, or "man", or whatever gender you like. That's a whole market segment of seinen (manga/anime for adult men), cute girl stuff. Sure, there's some gross dudes and some gross content, some folks may make assumptions, but liking that stuff isn't inherently gross. But yeah I get what you mean about this being at odds with more American culture, but that's part of why My Little Pony exploded with the audience it did -- there is an interest for grown men to engage with nice, uncomplicated, cute media. There's a lot of toxic masculinity and gender stuff all tied up in it though.
I hope you can continue to enjoy your magical girl show :)
Edit: alright alright I'll take the L on slop lol
Agree with this.
'Slop' is something generated by machines without intentionality. Precure might be made for kids, but:
Based on what I've seen and heard about it, actual thought has gone into the ideas the kids are presented with. There are stories about characters growing up and eventually having children of their own, characters not conforming to traditional gender roles (yes, including the arc about the boy becoming a magical girl) and characters dealing with difficult people and situations through actual communication instead of violence.
Although they do use a scene bank (which is par for the course for this kind of show), there's effort being put into the animation insofar as the budget allows.
Life is too short to worry about impressing other people. Provided you aren't harming yourself or others, recreation should just be about whatever gives you the most joy in the moment, whether that be challenging / improving yourself or just chilling out - I like to do both at different times!
If Precure is your jam, then don't let random people on the internet make you feel guilty about enjoying it!
to be fair, slop has been used to insult things people actually made for a long time. Referring to "AI slop" in particular has caught on in popular discourse right now, but using "slop" this way for things people actually made is hundreds of years old now.
I think slop was used to describe some content before AI was around too. I feel like for example for things like the weird spiderman-elsa "kids" videos and things at the very least. Ok, I am actually not very sure if the word was used like that and from a very very brief search I didn't figure it out. But it is definitely a very very negatively perceived word nowadays, maybe it's even unfair to describe Mr Beast with it, though I really don't hold a very high opinion of those videos.
Yeah I am pretty sure other magical girl shows, and probably shonen and other genres too which I also never really watched before use similar techniques to be able to pump out so many episodes. I agree with you there's inherently nothing wrong with using canned parts like that over and over, though I do feel like it's a pretty clear sign of favouring quantity over quality. Which I myself never really was a fan of. But I do have to say there's a place for things like that to exist, and that trying to make a lot of something by itself doesn't mean that it's evil stuff that will make people stupid. At least from what I've seen of Precure I feel like it'd be likelier to make people kinder.
Thank you! I am definitely going to continue to watch even though I have some complex feelings about it :D.
Yeah, I think it was used pre-AI as well for shoddy quick output, just not to the degree I see now. I'm probably overly defensive since "friendslop" was coined as a game genre, I disagree that a lot of games called slop are actually slop. Like Peak is clearly a project of love and care, even if it is goofy with the physics.
On linear TV, you had a week to get the episode out, so I see it as more a recognition of limitations than favoring quantity per se. Like these canned sequences usually get a lot more animation attention than they could satisfactorily do with a more unique transformation each week. But the whole notion of "an episode per week" inherently places more importance on quantity, that's part of why the dense bingeable miniseries became popular once streaming made them more viable. The YouTube format does kinda change the equation, but it sounds like the creator is very intentional in mimicing the traditional aspects.
I've heard Marvel movies referred to as "superhero slop" years before the advent of genAI.
I will say, I went back to watch He-Man and Thundercats, and I was like, "wow, I must have been trash as a 6 year old for liking this." It has many of the things you described.
Really though, I think there's probably something comforting about the predictability. Kids (and maybe adults too) want to know what to expect. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You can't challenge your brain 24-7. Sometimes you just gotta watch the clouds go by.
In the end, if you like it, and you are otherwise functioning at an age-appropriate level, I think it's okay. I don't know if it helps for a random internet stranger to give you permission not to feel guilty, but here I am.
...c'mon now, thundercats doesn't stoop to the level of he-man...
The hilariously practical reason why He-man rides a tiger
I have to say when I opened this thread I never though precure, my favorite franchise of all time, would be featured in it. But as a now 30 year old cis man with these interests, I feel like I can chime in a bit and offer my perspective and journey, since I used to be in a similar position to you. Sorry if this is a bit rambly. You can skip to the second to last paragraph if you don't want to hear my story.
For context, at present, I have watched all those 1000+ precure episodes (+ the 50 or so movies). I have also traveled to Japan specifically because of Precure. Literally went to the Toei park for Precure, visited 3 diffent Pretty Stores (Osaka, Yokohama, Tokyo), and spent well over 1000 dollars on precure merch alone (including on a new merch release day where I was first in line with like 50+ girls very much younger than me behind me). Here's the haul from that one trip as proof. Suffice it to say I live and breathe Precure.
I wasn't always like this. I grew up with what I'd call pretty stereotypically male interests and activities (playing with action figures, do sports, that kinda stuff). However, whenever I'd turn on cable TV to watch morning cartoons, I'd always find myself absolutely entertained with magical girl shows (Sailor Moon, Ojamajo Doremi, Winx Club, WITCH, etc.). I would never tell a soul about this at the time, but those cartoons/anime still stick with me even today, far more than any other.
Later in high school I got into anime and manga and of course you know where that's going. Obviously I liked and still like a lot of series aimed at a male audience, but boy did I love reading me some shoujo manga. It made me feel emotions that I could never get elsewhere. And naturally this is also when I started watching anime for little girls as well, Precure of course, but also Aikatsu, Pretty Rhythm, Pripara, Cocotama, Jewelpet, etc.
I think it may have been part nostalgia. I was certainly reliving the emotions I felt when I'd watch that kind of content as a kid, but I also think it goes beyond that. Ultimately I had to come face to face with the fact that my interests, and maybe even me, don't just sit on one end of the gender spectrum. And that's okay.
Also, you may call it slop, but shows like precure gave me something to look forward to every week. Unlike late night anime which only lasts for 12 or 24 episodes, I know precure will always air next Saturday. It is genuinely comforting that, no matter how bad of a week I've had, I know I will have 24 minutes every Saturday to kick back and watch a show that's been with me for years through thick and thin. It's like a companion. You don't find a lot of media like that.
I don't identify as a woman (and I have pondered it very seriously), I am comfortable with the gender I was assigned at birth, but I also don't feel particularly attached to it, either (as in, I don't feel the need to reinforce that I'm a man in any capacity). And I think that's why my interests are what they are. They're very fluid.
Furthermore, the notion of gendered media on its own is a bit flawed as well. Obviously I understand why it exists, because boys and girls have different lived experiences for better and worse and that's reflected in the content produced for them, but despite that, you can pick up a show like Precure and find so many themes that are just universal, they're simply being presented by an (usually) all female cast and with the angle that the viewer is probably a girl. So even if you're a cis man, why shouldn't you resonate with a lot of it?
So in the end, I really think that you shouldn't feel guilty for liking content that wasn't made specifically with you in mind. Not only does that broaden your horizons, you are literally doing something thst you find entertaining. Why shouldn't you enjoy yourself? When I finally became comfortable being open about my interests in girl-oriented media, I painted my entire bedroom pink and decorated it with all my magical girl merch I was now comfortable with displaying. It genuinely feels like it's my space now,I feel free and comfortable being Myself.
I hope you won't feel guilty about your interests anymore. There is nothing wrong with enjoying media that makes you happy. Precure has brought me so much joy that I might have never gotten otherwise. You probably won't become a diehard precure fan like me (be my guest, though!), but I hope you'll never put yourself down for liking it at all. Tell yourself that it's okay to like things and be yourself. You deserve to love your interests and yourself.
I really liked reading your story, thanks for sharing it! Sadly the image you shared doesn't load for some reason.
Yeah there really is value just in that consistency. I myself haven't ever watched any "actual" show for that long but as I mentioned I definitely watched thousands of youtube let's play videos, and it really is comforting to be able to watch something like that at a regular, and I probably wouldn't call them slop even though they are much lower effort than a whole ass anime. So looking at it like that, that word is probably pretty unfair to use for Precure.
As for it being so gendered, I think it's extremely cool that you are able to like it so unashamedly and it's a real inspiration. I'd think it'd be easier for me at this point since I already do so many other things that'd be considered really embarrassing for some more close minded people as I also already enjoy cosplay, and I do wear women's clothes quite often when outside of work. So I don't really know why I need to give it so much thought even though I already do other things that aren't considered "masculine".
Since I have the chance to talk to someone who watched all of it, if I were to watch a different season (or a movie) at some point after finishing Hirogaru Sky, what would you recommend?
I'd also like to add that while yes, Precure does reuse a lot of animation (and this also applies to the majority of kids anime), that's because it is a human-animated show that has to release a new episode every single week. There are tons of people involved in its production and they can't just suddenly delay an episode when they feel like it, so it ends up being the case that they have to make a lot of shortcuts to meet deadlines. It is human-made art, but humans aren't fast enough to magically animate 50 episodes with all new material.
If you want to be very cynical you can say Toei just doesn't care much because the goal is to sell toys to little girls and thinks they won't care much, and I won't deny this is true to an extent (product placement has gotten pretty in your face in the more recent seasons), but I do still think it's important to acknowledge the sheer effort that goes into it regardless.
The first and last couple episodes of any given Precure season also tend to be very well animated (the fights in particular), proving that if given enough time and resources, the show can excel in that department too, but 50 episodes requires a lot of padding in between to make those highlights happen.
We still live in a gendered society, so it's not abnormal that you feel strange about liking stuff like this. For my part, I just tried to internalize that I care more about my own happiness than I care about people's opinion of me. I think that's the main factor that helped me break the "silence" so to speak. Some people still find it weird, my mom being the prime example; she thinks any cartoons are childish. But when dealing with people like that I just talk about other things, since it's not like Precure is my only interest.
And it's not like I go up in people's faces and tell them I'm a fan of this content, either. It's mostly just me decorating the place where I live the way I want to, and wearing merch of the shows I like (usually keychains on my bag). If the subject comes up I'll mention it but otherwise I just go about my day. Not seeking external validation really helped.
Ah, the critical question everyone new to Precure asks. It ultimately always depends on your tastes since every season kinda has its own theme and execution going on, but since I don't know that, here are my top 3 recommendations for complete beginners:
Honorable mention to Mahoutsukai Precure, which is precure but with actual witches in witch school. The protagonists are 2 of my favorite precures of all time. It also has a full-blown sequel set with them as adults. It's only not in my top 3 because the season does feel very padded at times.
For very personal recommendations, I also very much love Doki Doki Precure, Wonderful Precure, and Tropical-Rouge Precure, because I really like more comedic series, but they're not as universally well liked.
But honestly, I always tell people it's fine to start anywhere. If a series seems to spark your interest, whether it be because of the synopsis or the character designs, just jump into it. In my case, I just jumped into the chronological order and started from the very beginning (Futari Wa Precure), but after I completed the journey it really made me feel like it didn't matter where you started. Though chronological order did help me in watching the crossover movies as soon as I could, but I wouldn't say this is critical.
For movies, you have 2 options: the crossover movies (where precures of different seasons join forces) or the movie tie-ins of each season. I personally don't recommend the crossover movies unless you've seen all the series involved in the crossover, so for now I'd only recommend you watch the Hirogary Sky movie. Check out this reddit thread with the chronological order, it gives you a solid idea of when you're expected to be able to watch every movie (as in, you have the full context for them).
But if you did watch the crossover movie for the season you're following, it's not like you wouldn't understand its plot, since movie plots are entirely separate from each season, you just wouldn't know the background of most of the precures joining the story.
I'm slowly catching up (currently early in Happiness Charge with Mahoutsukai and Kirakira to go) and second all of that. Hugtto was the one I started with while it was airing and I want to revisit it afterward, while Go! Princess and Heartcatch are my favorites along with Wonderful as the pet-focused season.
There’s a huge difference between slop and formula. Slop is an absolute minimum of effort expended; it’s phoning things in. Formula is designed to be easy to digest, yes, but it takes effort. Often tremendous effort.
Precure is absolutely formulaic. There is no denying it. But things like reusing animation is not a way of phoning things in, but for increasing overall quality. Having canned animations mean that they have to put their all into the creation of those animations, so they are front-loading their production costs, which is a very high effort thing to do! Doing this also allows them to make sure that the scenes that they are not reusing can have more time to work on and improve the show overall. I am sure precure did not invent canned animations and they are far from the only shows that do it.
It’s also somewhat unfair to say that precure has 1000+ shows. There’s a whole bunch of precure but they are not all the same shows. But then again, what do I know? I’ve seen maybe three episodes of them altogether? Frankly, I do think that the shows are childish and that they are not worth watching. But why the hell should that matter to you? I don’t think less of anyone who watches it. Each episode is undeniably a beautiful work of art even if it’s not something that I personally appreciate. Art doesn’t need to be high brow to be art or to be loved. There are tons of shows that are low brow and arguably have less artistic merit than Precure but are still enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people. I can think of a few even when sticking to animation! Heck, I personally think higher of the people who watch kids animation than I do of the people who watch reality TV, which is generally more acceptable to society at large.
I was surprised to see a Precure tag on a post, not a franchise I expected to see talked about here in any context.
As other people have mentioned Precure inherits some things from other magical girl shows like Sailor Moon but it also follows the tokusatsu formula closely and the monster of the week format is part of it. Running almost weekly for decades invites cost-saving measures for any kind of production and reusing animation is a straightforward way of doing so; I haven't seen much of the Super Sentai franchise that just ended after 50 years but from my vague memories of Power Rangers that's based on it they also reused some footage regularly.
It's absolutely a franchise that exists to sell plastic toys to small children and make Toei boatloads of money, but in my opinion at no point are the creative staff are slacking because we wouldn't get animation showcases like what's in this fight AMV if they didn't care and put effort into it. Similarly the version of My Little Pony that took off with an adult audience was made in such a way that it can be enjoyable for everyone and not just the target audience, same with Bluey more recently. They're easy to watch while not completely mindless and there's a reason you don't see sizable communities of adults popping up to talk about most shows aimed at children. They're all entertainment but some are more entertaining than others.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to have dinner while watching the newest episode of Star Detective Precure as a 40+ year old guy. (ostensibly, at least)
Seriously, Precure animation can be fucking incredible! I thought of the exact same video when I saw the topic.
While it might be a "head empty children's show" for the most part, there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a show like that. It's hardly the lowest-common-denominator trash anime you could watch.
I don’t know how relevant this is but I’ve been ruminating on a weird repetitive habit of my own.
I like to play this old RTS game called Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge. I’ve been playing it since 2001 or so (it was new, then). This game actually has a pretty healthy fanbase thanks to CnCNet, which unlocks stuff like higher resolutions for modern displays, online multiplayer, community maps, mods, etc.
I don’t play online because I kinda suck at it. I like to take my time and build big bases and harvest all the resources, then bombard my opponent in a big, horribly imbalanced finale. That’s not a strategy that works well against real people, because good players rush in and decapitate me before I can even get my minimap activated to see what’s going on. That’s not fun for me, it’s just stressful.
So what do I do? I play an offline 1v1 skirmish on this map. Basically every time. Why that map? Because…
So I rush the enemy’s bridge and blow it up, and then just watch them wither. Then I colonize the map and snatch up all the goodies for myself and become insanely wealthy, and the other team just does nothing because they don’t know how to use an engineer. Eventually they realize they can still reach me by air or superweapons but by that point I’ve got all the necessary defenses in place. I’m untouchable. I spend the rest of the battle playing around with different ways to overwhelm and eradicate them, like a toddler playing with her food.
I’ve done this more times than I can count, for so many years. I usually play the same faction. Same map. Same strategy. Same deliberately unfair premise, over and over again. I’m not sure why I keep coming back to it. I guess it’s because it’s familiar? And nostalgic? For whatever reason I guess I don’t really want to be challenged or employ real strategy. I just want to soak in the game’s vibes and get the dopamine hit of winning the fight without investing any actual cognitive energy into it. It’s a cozy, brain-half-off kinda thing for me.
On some level I feel guilty, because that’s not what the game’s about. I say I love the game, and the feeling’s real, but actual dyed-in-the-wool fans would find this all baffling. I don’t want to compete, I just want to exploit the bridge thing against stupid NPCs on this specific map, ad infinitum. It took me a long time to even realize this is what I was doing, and that felt like I’d found a bug in my human OS — I mean something must be BROKEN for me to keep returning like this, right?
I dunno though, I’ve come to accept it. Everyone has their quirks, their stims, their harmless well-worn mental grooves that need tickling from time to time. Is it weird? Sure, but I like it so who cares? I’ll keep doing it because I like it, even if my reason for liking it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t have to. I don’t think this is a very different phenomenon from the show you’re talking about. If you like it, you like it. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for it. You are not beholden to others for the things you enjoy. I guess part of maturity is finding the confidence to shake off the “shoulds” you feel imposed on you, and just do what you want to do as your own person. Even if it’s weird. It’s okay to be weird. I would find my life terribly dull if I wasn’t so weird.
I wanna chip in here with my own experience and path. I'm a cis-man, and I also still identify as a man. I have kind of a similar feelings as you, where I could probably be non-binary (although I find myself more relating to being very-binary: if I could flip a switch and flop from man to woman and back at will, that would fit me more I think than being somewhere in the middle), but I'm already mostly looking like a dude and it's mote convenient (and has more privileges) to just stay that way.
Anyway, something that's helped me a lot in the last few years is just trying things, and deciding whether or not I like them, and not worrying too much about "who they're for". I started wearing feminine clothes, mostly skirts and the occasional dress, two-ish years ago and decided I loved them. I tried painting my nails, and decided that wasnt for me. I like to do my hair now, even if my tools are scavenged and my techniques basic, it makes me feel a lot more cute and confident in myself.
This has been true for media too. I've been pushing my boundaries, and finding things I truly love that would be seen as "embarrassing" otherwise. I read (or rather audio-book listened to) Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and discovered I really enjoyed romance as a genre. I very much enjoyed Steven Universe, which is both literally made for children and all about feelings. I tried Shojo mangas (aka mangas literally aimed at pre-teen girls, usually super sappy and tropey romances) and enjoyed them for their cuteness and naivete, and from that experience led me to one of my favorite all-time romances Love is War (rec'd by another tilderino here Trobador), which 5 years ago me wouldnt have tried to touch.
Basically let yourself enjoy the things you want to enjoy, and if you don't have any irl people to share that enjoyment with, the internet is wonderful: I've really enjoyed the recurring threads (for me on ~books, ~anime, and ~games) where I get to share what I'm liking and maybe talk to other people about it.
To the other point in your post: it's okay to enjoy and consume "slop"! (Aka low-effort-to-consume content). I personally still keep Instagram around, even if reels are kinda the bottom of the barrel, because sometimes that's what hits. I think the only important part is to make sure you don't only consume slop. Basically, I think of it like candy, or chips; it is great and enjoyable and a pleasure you should get to have in your life! But if you eat nothing but candy you will be sick. But some days/weeks, you are so tired, and your depression is acting up, and it's all you can do to eat some chips 3 times a day, and that's okay. Above all else, allow yourself to be weak when you need it, and focus on gaining strength and wholesomeness once you can.
I like that this is an example of the crap that humans have been producing long before we got AI to do it for us.
I do sort of wonder what, if any, difference there might be in consuming the endless crap content there is available today vs watching The Little Mermaid 10000000000x on VHS like I did as a kid, though. I had that movie memorized, every single second of it. I don't know if my brain actually gained anything from that exercise, but I wonder if not having it affects little humans.
It's true that slop (or close to it) isn't new. I watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons as a kid that were slop. We kept watching them hoping that there would be an episode we hadn't seen before.
Even in a lot of prime-time TV, they kept reusing footage of car chases and stuff.
Hey, stranger. Here are some things I wanted to say after reading this.
It's really important for humans to cry. More importantly: to be able to cry. I used to be good at it but lately with the world going down the toilet, I've been having an increasingly hard time letting go like that, and I know this isn't good for me. If you've found something that gets that sort of release out of you, this alone makes the experience healthy and productive for you, slop or not.
Something sort of related: one of the major issues in today's society is that a lot of people have a hard time knowing what they want or like. I know someone (now retired) whose career was in psychotherapy and related research, and they keep saying that the single most pressing and most common issue with their clients was not being in touch with what they really want. Many other issues stem from this root. Society is actively creating this paralysis with its utterly nonsensical, rigid rules around gender and what it means to be an adult, to be productive, and so on.
Again, if you've found something you actually like, please do me a favour and throw the "who this is for" in the bin and let yourself enjoy! Yes, humans in their infinite stupidity have invented concepts like "target demographics" that shows try to cater to, ultimately in the name of maximising ad revenue, but it's not your job to be a pawn in that game. The game is rigged against you, not for you! The whole world is out there for you to experience and enjoy to your fullest ability, no one should try to tell you what you're allowed to like, and if someone tries anyway, you absolutely do not have to listen.
Remember when I said I've had a hard time crying lately? Well, this brought me to tears (in a good way) and I'm grateful that you posted.
My best friend has two girls around that age. They're incredible humans. I want so much to be like them. My friend (their dad), a management consultant in his late 40's wants to be like them. Everyone wants to be like them. There's no reason to be ashamed of that.
I'm a (mostly) heterosexual CIS-woman. I spent last year on the dating apps, mostly bored out of my wits. Then in November I saw a guy, a smart looking finance guy wearing a high quality suit (one of the things I really enjoy). In another photo he was having dinner in a nice restaurant in a white button-down shirt and his head shaved to a 1 mm stubble (hot). Next, hanging out in his living room in a black t-shirt and Harry Potter glasses (hot), with slightly longer hair. And then: in a party with long, thick, black hair tied into a side ponytail, wearing a dress full of small flowers, looking really pretty.
I don't ever match with people based on photos alone, but his courage to like what he happens to like was definitely a plus.
We've been dating ever since and I can say that he's one of the most masculine men I have ever met. This is not to say you have to be masculine. You don't. Men should be masculine, androgynous, feminine, extraterrestial or whatever they effin' want to be. I'm just saying that liking some show does not define you in any meaningful way, just like wearing a dress doesn't.
I think you should make the magical boy outfit and learn the dance! For now, you can host a party for yourself, alone, where you can dance in that outfit to your heart's content if you fear it would otherwise be too socially complicated. You may find that you love it and want to do it where other people can join you, or that it's just a phase and not a larger part of your identity, or something else, and all of that would be okay.