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Notes -
There's certain content -- certain types of gore, certain furry content, etc -- that gives me "the ick".
Sometimes I remember that many people get the same "ick" feeling from anime art in general, particularly the type of anime art that gets criticized as "overly-sexualized".
What are some times when you were reminded of the unbridgeable gap between different modes of perception?
Watching someone stir up some natto with grated yamaimo and a raw egg, then transport it with sticks into their mouth, the inevitable nebaneba (translation: gooey smelly glop) a demonic tendril connecting the bowl to their lips--well this was enough to make me realize I am in Japan by fluke and this is not supposed to be my destiny. Probably the result of one of those times I "almost" died but actually did die, was given a second chance but spared the memory of the death, and this was enough of a glitch (via interfering with fate) to settle me in a land where people eat the vilest food imaginable with great relish (if not actual relish).
That plus full body tats, piercings of any sort other than the ear, and sometimes, though this bears the sort of explaining I am not ready to attempt at 5:25 am, just looking at a woman I marvel at la difference. Mind you this is only with relatively girly, feminine women (in other words not American). This is not what you're calling "the ick" but there is certainly an unbridgeable gap there. Dress, stockings, painted or otherwise decorated nails, long carefully tended hair, mascara, blush, lipstick, earrings, etc. Not the ick. But a gap of experience. This is not even accounting for the invisible undergarments and whatnot. Anyway yeah it's early.
Yeah for me it's when Mottizens claim that heavy tattoos and facial piercings objectively make a woman unattractive. For me the libidinal effect is something similar to seeing/smelling a perfect crust on a steak. Maybe, as @Earendil would say, I have evolved to digest organisms that would be poisonous to others, and my phenomenology has evolved likewise.
I remember reading an OK Cupid blog post that said exactly this: tattoos and piercings are very divisive, but when they work, they work.
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