This photo is taken from an article in November 2004 issue of Details magazine titled "The Lost Boys". The article was about the Mormonism (The Church of Latter Day Saints) polygamist compound of Colorado City, Arizona, men have a sacred duty to take three wives or more. But there aren't enough women to go around. That is why hundreds of younger men recently found themselves excommmunicated - thrown kicking and screaming into the real world.
畸 = odd, fractional, remainder, odds
型 = pattern, model, type; law; mold
A more fitting phrase for "freak" would be 畸形; which does translate to "deformity or abnormality".
Polygamists are not "Mormons" (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). They often call themselves "fundamentalists" and have broken from the LDS church. They have to, since the actual LDS church has not endorsed or practiced polygamy for over 110 years (http://scriptures.lds.org/od/1).
ReplyDeleteAn anime freak would call themselves お宅 ("otaku"). So, those are certainly an odd choice of characters.
ReplyDelete畸形 is more correctly (in my experience) "mutant". Some Western otaku/fans may use this term with a positive connotation (i.e., "an unusual person," "someone who goes against the flow"); perhaps that is what the shirt is intended to mean.
ReplyDelete畸形 is more correctly (in my experience) "mutant". Some Western otaku/fans may use this term with a positive connotation (i.e., "an unusual person," "someone who goes against the flow"); perhaps that is what the shirt is intended to mean.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to reinterate what netpagz said. It may seem like splitting hairs to some, but it's really a major misrepresentation. The Colorado City people are NOT Mormons or members of the LDS church.
ReplyDeleteYeah, is 畸形[きけい] is deformity or abnormality. The only other word I've found in Japanese that starts with that character is 畸人[きじん], which would translate as something like an odd person or an eccentric person, which would probably have been the best option.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, while some American anime fans might refer to themselves as お宅[おたく], they're usually the type of people who have no real understanding of Japanese culture, as there the word has a strongly negative connotation and is used not just for fans of anime or manga but for anyone who has an incredibly obsessive, unhealthy interest in something (i.e. to the point that they wouldn't leave the house--お宅 being a polite word for house).