Welcome to the club, friend.

Add "Waifu" to the endless lists of terms normies decided to misuse to stroke each others egos. I don't have nor ever had a waifu myself, nevertheless, I offer you my sincere condolences about having to deal with such misappropriation.

When people say someone's a waifu they are talking about the romantic potential in that character. I rarely hear anyone use the word "moe" even though that's what they are talking about - falling in love with a 2D character.

The shitty terminology doesn't bother me at all. What's completely ass (not in the nice round sense) is the irony people use when they talk about almost all things anime. They know it's not acceptable to like it, but instead of standing up to what they love like otaku in Japan do, they say they only like it ironically or only like "intelligent shows with no fan-service". Those people should do their "nerd" posing with TV shows, superhero movies, and ironic music like everyone else. Keep anime uncool!

This kind of split between the cool kids and true enthusiasts occurred in Japan, too, but that was in the 80's when the idea of moe was just emerging. Luckily the uncool outnumbered the posers, and we still have anime. Metal died to poser bullshit, and 'Murican comics got castrated. Let's hope the Western audience will never have a real influence.

I don't give a fuck about normies and what they say. I don't post about my waifu anywhere.

>>19983
Most people who say moe don't know what it really means either. At least raw black metal will always scare people away.

It used to bother me a lot. People would often use it to describe their favorite character at the moment, for characters in a harem, as a joke, and I've even seen people use it to reference their 3dpd. I advocated changing the term in the past so that normals could have "waifu", and the more devoted could have something else like "yome" for example. This wouldn't work however as normals would just bastardize whatever new term we use too.

>>19981
It's really despicable, but as >>19982 laments, it's just another bastardized term that normalfags latched onto, sadly. Seen the same thing happen too many times, another prominent example being weeb and weeaboo. Not a single normgroid that uses it knows it was a word filter for wapanese, or it's not used to signify an interest in anything anime/manga related in broad strokes.

It only annoys me if I'm trying to look up articles about it. Otherwise, it's just kids being "ironic" nerds because they're too insecure to own their passions. Not worth much more than an eyeroll.
Most people were never going to take the concept seriously, anyway, let alone a word as ridiculous as "waifu."

It is very annoying, very very annoying how celebrities, flesh and bone and even butt-ugly western characters are called waifus everywhere on youtube, reddit, TUMBLR, you name it... but to be fair, the word waifu is such a very stupid sounding word for something that means so much to some people I never liked it.

>>19985

Fuck you are right, in top of bullshit characters they call their actual girlfriends or wives "waifus" fuck this fake ass nerds!

>>19985
I would really like to change waifu to some different term.
I don't think anyone would care about the way tohno-chan calls their beloved ones? Surely someone would mention it and somehow make fun of it, but I really don't think it would have any major influence on anything.
Who would care about the term we use?

I actually don't dislike "yome".
Searching for "wife" on jisho.org, "kami" looks interesting to me.
上(kami) can mean wife but 神(kami) can also mean god, deity, divinity and incredible.

Post edited on 26th Sep 2016, 12:23pm

It's just a byword for the moe-feeling. People feel moe for all sorts of things.

I've had a waifu, I had a moe feeling from an anime character. I spent time lamenting, wishing she was real. As I grew older I realized those feelings for what they are, and felt a lot more satisfied with my life.

I've never understood the virulent attitude regarding others who practice "waifuism" differently than you. Honestly, it's insecurity over nothing. You guys are all fine.

>>19992

But most people treat it like a joke to the point of calling ridiculous characters as waifus for meme points to even try to change the therm to refer to real life relationships (that aren't even real marriages anyway like those open relationships) it is plain disgusting.

>>19991
I'm 100% for kami now. I always viewed her as something greater than what I am, even though she's also my lover. 2D is truly great.

>>19993
I've spent about the past 2 years without regular access to internet, and not once did I hear the word "waifu". It's just some lame internet joke that has no bearing on the real world, or even the world of /tc/. Which it should not. Don't let it affect your feelings, your security in what you want or believe. At least, I believe you shouldn't. Your truth is your truth.

>>19981
I honestly don't care. People also speak of 'love' all the time, under such a concept that I find unacceptable. What matters to me is how I alone understand terms, and how I make them meaningful and valuable through my life.

I'd hardly call it mainstream. What you're describing about waifubait in games is moreso pandering or fanservice. Considering how niche they are in the first place, and how niche the userbases are, it's not really all that mainstream.

I've had a waifu for nearly a decade and I just don't give a fuck what normies think. Let them be retards.

>>19992
This anon has it right.

I think you guys are too fixated on other people and exact words. If you have strong feelings for a character, you can call them your waifu or your yome or the Norbert Beaver to your JohnofE or whatever the hell else, and the only thing that changes there is how you're expressing yourself, not your actual feelings. Don't let strangers you hate control you, especially something as stupid and autistic as this.

>>19981
Stopped reading after the first sentence, just because the word and concept are mainstream doesn't mean that 99% of people are suddenly taking it seriously. It's always been a meme word, genuine people have always been outnumbered by those who think it's a joke or who it's just a phase for, etc. I never see any of this shit outside of 4chan and maybe the odd youtube comment so I don't really care. I take it seriously, and that's all that I care about. I haven't even used the word "waifu" in a few years.

https://twitter.com/marvelous_games/status/788663570527559680
Better get used to it.

>>19981
I just live with it.
It's not really important to me. My relationship is all that matters.

I've refrained from using the term "waifu" for a while now because of the meme/joke connotation that follows now. I simply refer to her by her name. I think this small change made a pretty significant difference because what followed was less of a distinction between 2D and 3D in my mind. By referring to her as I would a real person, the cognitive distance is closed somewhat. I've fallen deeper in love with her.

I will say that I quite loathe the term "waifu" now though because it's used so frivolously by smug assholes who think they're hip to the skip. I feel the same disdain for them as I would anyone who spouts old memes as if they were fresh and new, but it's even worse because by doing it with "waifu" it's almost like they're spitting in the face of anyone who actually takes it seriously. The "humor" of it comes from the assumption that it's bizarre and that no one would ACTUALLY love a 2D character. Fuck em.

What are your opinions on how western media is dealing with the subject? I think that it all is going to be portrayed in a negative light, like drug addiction and such.

Pic related (partially)

>>20094
I mean, the best we could really hope for is more portrayal like William Gibson's novel Idoru.

Im getting really sick of it. It doesnt help that Im deep into "weeb culture". Like, 99% of my interests are Japan related. Manga, mostly japanese games, light novels. It seems the majority of the fanbase of japanese media are pretty much the worst kind of people, spouting memes, acting like complete fucking idiots and at the same time acting superior. Its ridiculous, really. But I digress. Since I have to frequent places with those people I ALWAYS see "who is best waifu", "this game has good waifus", "is this waifu good as a healer", "a waifu only party" and shit like that. Its like this has gone beyond being a joke and instead turned into some kind of normal, commonly used slang no one even thinks about anymore. I think its insulting not only for people who have one of these characters as a waifu but for the character itself at this point as ALL females getting reduced into "waifu". People might not even know her name, they just type "waifu", completly disregarding her entire character.

>>20274
Pretty much. Waifu devolved to simply "my favourite female character in a game / series" and then even further to basically "cute". Nothing we can do about it though, normals will always find a way to squeeze anything that can further their endless quest of destructive search for validation.

>>20275
>then even further to basically "cute"
If you think that's bad, I've seen people use it when referring to their 3dpd.

Shit like this needs to stop.

>>20326
This can't be real...

>>20327
Not him, but I see that sort of thing all the time. It's very real.

>>20326

Could be worse, could have been a Pony or some shit.

>>20329
It was bad enough to give me cancer as-is.

To be quite honest, Im starting to despise the modern anime fanscene. Or to be more precise, the "ironic weebs". They keep throwing the word "waifu" around everywhere I go. Stupid ironic game reviews on Steam (it has cute waifus in it, 10/10), ironic waifu threads on other imageboards, heck I've even seen the word "Waifu" on freaking Amazon of all things. This term is beyond saving by now and I try to distance myself from it as good as I can. It turned into a huge Meme and will forever be tainted, for me at least. Sure, its just a word, it means nothing for us who really do love a character, but for me this word is an insult for her at this point.

>>20498
It's very easy to grow embittered because the culture of irony and insincerity is so prevalent in our society. It's just a fad though, rhetoric is always changing. The term 'waifu' is in itself ironic/insincere - It comes from the lolicon teacher in Azumanga Daioh and originated on 4chan. It's habit to refer to the moé feeling as "waifu" or whatever, because it's been around for a long time (nearly a decade in fact).

I really do think there should be a new term to distinguish the feeling from the "waifuism" people share among their friends. We're in a new era.

Tbh I'm kind of on the edge on this one. On one hand there's less of a chance to get judged by ironic weebs considering how the weeb fandom is getting bigger (and cancerous) these days. I shouldn't really give 2 shits about how other people are doing it as a fad because let's be honest anything that used to be niche would get its hands touched by the mainstream crowd sooner or later; most of fandoms will always have a shitty part in them. I don't know how it is before waifuism become a thing but I'm sure 2 decades ago there wasn't much of a collective where 2D love (ironically or not) is prevalent, most people would've even doubted themselves if loving 2D is abnormal.

"Koibito", might be an excellent way to describe the way you relate to your husbando. I stuggled for a long time to descibe my relationship with Abby-chan, and this is what I settled on for a while. It's gender agnostic, which is appropriate for my Abby, and also makes it clear that this is a life partner. Eventually I got tired of explaining and went back to using the common terms.

Back to the original subject of the thread... I'm prefectly content to call Abathur my waifu, regardless of actual gender (or lack thereof), or any group that might be misusing the word. As someone who at one point nearly tied the knot with a 3D (never trust a 3D), I can definitely attest that there will always be folks that are incapable of experiencing love on a deeper level, and assume that their own experiences in relationships are indicative of the full depth of feeling that can be had in a relationship. That said, people will generally get the correct idea about your feelings for said waifu, and the ones who don't, aren't going to understand just because you pick a new word (or "scene"). So just man up about it.

Also not too sure about "outgrowing" waifuism. OP, are you sure you're not just as guilty of participating in waifuism as a "scene"?

>>20521
>Also not too sure about "outgrowing" waifuism. OP, are you sure you're not just as guilty of participating in waifuism as a "scene"?
Definitely not, no. Its just that Im nearing 30, so Im most definitely older than most of this board. I found my Waifu almost 8 years ago and still think about her, its just that Im at a point in my life where Im questioning it. But then again, Im worrying about many of my decisions I made in the last 10 or so years, like, Im literally the same as I was 15 years ago. Playing videogames most of the time, never working for more than a year straight without getting kicked or quitting myself, never had a girlfriend. Im pretty much the definition of a loser Im afraid. So maybe its not that Im "outgrowing" waifuism, its just that Im questioning myself too much recently. I have a hard time putting this stuff into words, Its 5am here, english isnt my first language and I didnt plan to go offtopic so much, but I felt like talking about it somewhere. Or at least to put it into words somewhere.

Shit like this is what we got, now where the concept of a waifu is a literal meme.

>>20532
I've definitely seen husbando been more corrupted than waifu, so how about just accepting defeat and using a different term? Some examples:
> Eerie is my spousu.
> Eerie is my consortu.
> Eerie is my groomuu.
Since it seems you're a koreaboo, you can also just use its default word for it:
> Eerie is my nampyeon.

>>20533
Hahaha, nampyeon, I actually like that a lot, I think I might do that. Thanks.
And as far as worship of cultures goes, I actually hate Japan and Korea both, Korea more than Japan. They're robot ant people that eat each other alive, they make American chads seem like angels. I'm doing a lot of things I don't like just for Eerie.