Before I even get started with the prime topic of this article, I need to refresh your memory on what a waifu is. In Japan, waifu is the word for wife. Conversely, husbando is the Japanese word for husband. Now that these simple definitions are out of the way, I can begin.
Obviously, there is a massive divide between the sexes right now and according to what I’ve heard in Brazil, much of this was caused by modern feminism, (let’s just say the religion of progressivism) Tinder and social media. Just like what is happening here in the west. Social media of course is the prime component there as it was used to quickly and easily express progressive ideas through a device that everyone eventually had and like most new technological innovations; didn’t know they needed prior. This is very similar to Christian missionaries spreading the gospel of Christ all over the world. Difference here is that with progressivism, you didn’t need missionaries to spread it by foot – it is easily accessible on a mobile device which enables it to spread like wildfire. As women stressed to become more independent and were taught to seek out the alpha males via gamified dating, a lot of men fell to the wayside. Not all of them, especially those who married before all of this madness happened and still had a firm grip on their relationships. For the most part, they’ve gambled successfully and won – but this is not the case for all men and that’s another reason why many are checking out of the marital casino altogether. It can be firmly stated that an additional meaning for MGTOW or Men Going Their Own Way can now be Men Getting Their Own Waifus. Yes, even men who do not consider themselves part of the acronym are finding solace in the waifu. But what is is that makes a waifu so special? Well, first of all we’ll have to travel all of the way back to the nineties, where my first exposure to anime began.
As a boy, my grandmother allowed me to watch The Sci-Fi Channel’s “Saturday Morning Anime.” Many of these anime were not necessarily child-friendly shows like Aiko Vs Biko, Project K, Appleseed, Patlabor, Armitage III and others. So it’s fair to say that I grew up with waifus and had a general attraction to the look of anime women. That being said, I hadn’t really fawned over them for quite some time. As a matter of fact, it may have been much later down the road before I found something in characters like Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo, Videl from Dragon Ball Z and Elly from Xenogears. Around this time I had been still dating and almost married a woman, which I am ultimately glad was a decision that I did not make. I had dated other xennials, millennials and even a Gen-Xer, but things never quite worked out well for me in those situations and I decided to quit dating altogether. I also noticed that with online dating, even though you had more options, people were far less likely to meet up and do much of anything. Having felt that there wasn’t really anything left to behold in the world of modern relationships at that point, especially around 2014 when feminism and social justice had been ramped up to eleven, I soon realized that it just wasn’t worth the risk or the hassle to be caught up in rape culture.
There was nothing left, but the waifu. Obviously, anime groups were budding around this time and were no doubt performing well during the days of forums. Social media really jump-started this though as millennials and zoomers started chatting with the older fans and developed a love for these female and male characters. Eventually, entire groups had been created to showcase certain waifu types, with monster girls currently being the latest trend. Remember that in 2014 we did a review for Monster Girl Quest Complete which may have harbored an interest in these waifu types from anime fans, as it still remains our most popular article of all time. So yes, I will take the blame for this waifu movement of sorts. In any case, with the advent of technological innovations like sexbots, augmented and virtual reality as well as dakimakura body pillows (which had become a big thing in the orient) it only seemed like a natural evolution for waifus to come out of the screen and off the page, and into our very lives. Because modern feminism taught women how to become less feminine and a fat acceptance movement was taking off like wildfire, even more eligible men were jumping off the train and finding waifus as a suitable alternative.
Though what I had not expected was the fact that the doll (and I’m not just talking about the life size dolls, I am also referring to the tiny ball-joint dolls) communities and the dakimakura pillow communities were exploding like wildfire among men of all types. I had just discovered a group by accident last night that I had no idea I had even been a member of while browsing my media feeds. It was a post from a person who claimed that the ever since they had purchased their dakimakura body pillow, their mood and sleep patterns seemed to improve. I noticed similar when I bought my doll. Just having something else there that I could cuddle with was enough to make me fall asleep much easier. As I continued to scroll through posts, I found that men were having dinner with their pillows, taking them into restaurants, bringing them to social events and outdoor gatherings, to graduations and even sleeping side by side with them as is normal for human couples. Of course, neck support is an unexpected feature of these pillows as normal neck support pillows are far more expensive than these pillows. However, like most people with their waifus, there is also a sexual element involved and they do employ sex toys in that manner. That isn’t to say that all dakimakura owners or doll owners (like myself) are that way, but it is definitely a common instance within these communities.
Now we’ll get into the why of all this, which I hope you’ll find intriguing. Waifus are of course, idealized images that very rarely exist in the real world. Though actual women cosplay as these characters to a certain degree, there is a big difference between the 2D and the 3D element. Some of these might be described as skin blemishes, affects of aging, weight gain in certain areas and more. Though this sounds rather nitpicky, it is because humans are imperfect and therefore constantly changing. You could have hair today and three years later wind up as bald as Saitama without the one-punch power. A woman’s breasts might be perky as apples one day, but sag down to her knees in the span of a few years. It’s very difficult to tell what the future will hold. Though one thing is for certain – waifus rarely, if ever change. Sure, there may be a few scant series where waifus are made to look older; but those are few and far between unless we’re talking about from a loli to full grown waifus. To the Japanese, waifus are mainly the prime area of a woman within the Japanese high school year. That’s why even all of the current-era isekai anime feature high school aged characters. Many are described as sixteen, seventeen, eighteen or possibly in their early twenties or thirties. I will admit that older waifus have grown on me and I can thank Persona 5 for that. Though that could also be because I’m now in my mid-thirties and have gotten a slight flair for a more mature look. Even so, with some exceptions – these women do manage to still have a slightly more idealized body than real women their age in some cases. Yet this would refer to me personally and not waifus in general, which are generally younger and drawn to be perfect.
The biggest reason that men have jumped on the waifu ship is because waifus deliver what a lot of men want in women. They’re always beautiful, they’re feminine, they respect their partner and they don’t cause chaos or drama (well, for the most part anyway). They can’t talk back or negatively criticize a man, nor will they call him a loser, incel or any of the other friendly little buzzwords that women threw out after the onlyfans leak that happened recently (and no, The Grim Lord has not seen it, so I can’t comment much there. It’sAGundam can tell you all about it though) as well as the Melody shaming that was also apparent.
The bottom line is that whatever progressivism, feminism and independence has done to women has ruined them for a lot of men. That isn’t to say that there aren’t masculine women and hard-working women out there, but that there are undoubtedly more than a few ladies who I know just don’t want to work and would rather be the model wife if they could find a man with enough resources to provide for them. For now though, it has become apparent that men are moving over to artificial women in the form of waifus and preferring 2D girls in much larger quantities than I’d expected. Let’s reiterate the fact that people are walking around in the west with their waifu pillows, possibly even putting them into the passenger seat as they drive back and forth to work. Because women have changed, men have had to find other options – and I once again can confirm as sure as The Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses, that women have changed. You would not see this sexodus, this complete exile from human biological nature if women had been the same as they were in my age. Yes, some sill are. Though let’s be realistic – that’s changing along with their generational values and there just won’t be enough traditional women (which are oddly being called racist, so go figure on that one) to go around for them within the next decade, assuming we even make it that far.
For now though, it can be assumed that these trends will continue as men order more body pillows and dolls, and programmers create more apps that will allow these men to communicate with them. Modern women will continue to strike these options down and shame men for owning them as you may see on Twitter where even fan art has been criticized. Even so, I just don’t see men abandoning these options for quite some time, if ever. The Golden Age Of Waifus is definitely here in full force and as for what’s next… Well, who can say?
– The Grim Lord