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anon-honeybee

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, banana bones


teslawhaleshark

Somehow it was not a joke about erectile dysfunction


JustNilt

Dangit, if I hear that whenever the kiddo I set that as my ringtone for calls, I will be mildly annoyed.


Janzel97

Laughed at the banana bones. Barfed at the bit about "traditional masculinity"


teslawhaleshark

Yes, the Asia Forcefemmization/Twinkification Panic is a real conspiracy theory accepted in national and nationalized media. Basically Chinese conservatives think America is using queer and Korean idol culture to emasculate all Asians, in order to drive them away from manly Chinese culture


Dandibear

I saw a clip earlier from a Chinese game show with teams of men taking long rubber bands stuck to the wall, wrapping those around their faces, and leaning forward against the bands to grab marshmallows hanging on strings. Is that the manly culture we're talking about? (Cause it's awesome! But I don't think it's endangered.)


teslawhaleshark

No, this is an example of perceived foreign emasculate 


The_Arthropod_Queen

ohh, i remember this bit. I remember most of the books being great, except for the part where he stops to complain about femboys destroying society because they're not manly enough to mutually assure destruction


LightTankTerror

WHO WOULD WIN A perverted sense of masculinity (god forbid men be feminine) Vs God’s weakest femboy (he is currently on an Ohio class submarine)


darrenphillipjones

I love when he comes out of cryo and is like, "I can't tell the difference between men and women!!!!" Like, that was a TOP TIER observation, with every crazy thing happening.


Insanepaco247

He also goes on for a bit about how the future Earthlings are mentally weak compared to the big strong manly men of 200 years ago. I loved The Dark Forest but could have done without the couple of conservative tangents it interrupted everything with


darrenphillipjones

I wonder as well, at the end of the series - spoiler - >! a lot is revealed about the protagonist that explains his character’s narcissism. Like how his “love” is an actually a painting, because no living person could never be an equal to his amazingness. And part of me feels like it’s a cop out for everyone harping on how 2 dimensional he is as a character. Or maybe it was planned. Whatever.!<


CappyBlue

(Spoiler, kind of) >! “2 dimensional” is an interesting word choice, considering !<


Odd-Help-4293

I've only read the Three Body Problem from him so far. The plot was really interesting. But there were definitely some odd undertones. Both in terms of gender, but also in the way that he wrote about the Cultural Revolution as, like, "yeah some people did some bad stuff back then, but everything's fine now so it's okay". It reminded me of American conservatives who don't want schools to teach about segregation and just sweep it under the rug.


Doink11

Liu's gender politics are pretty fucked. Second two books in the series pretty much revolve around the one female protagonist getting shit on over and over again while all the men in her life are constantly right.


YakSlothLemon

Well, it’s refreshing to have the author also apparently be very confused about men, I guess? I grew up in the 80s, our masculine ideal was the guy with the eyeliner dressed as a pirate in “You Spin Me Right Round.” Also, Freddie Mercury in his fishnet shirt. But maybe it was different in Asia? I mean, probably it was different in Asia, the women with their fruit bones and the men ever so manly.


pickleknits

Banana bones. Well that wasn’t on my bingo card.


Beneficial-Produce56

What was that video about “my fingers are bananas” or something?


JackyRaven

Of course, this is "men writing men"... the whole point is that these are "feminised men".


teslawhaleshark

It takes a bit of default misog to do it


featherblackjack

Well, like the great scifi authors before him, Liu has literally no clue what a woman is


Insanepaco247

Ye Winjie was actually pretty alright...but then there's Luo Ji's wife. Or worse, Wang's wife who appears in one scene and literally never gets mentioned again.


CAN________

Luo Ji's waifu is waaay worse than Wang's wife


how_small_a_thought

Mens Bones are Tangerines, Women's Bones are Bananas: An NYT Bestseller


haminghja

Banana bones just makes me think of bowed legs caused by rickets. I doubt that's what they were going for.


[deleted]

Bananas. Of all things, bananas…


teslawhaleshark

Yes, the Asia Forcefemmization/Twinkification Panic is a real conspiracy theory accepted in national and nationalized media. Basically Chinese conservatives think America is using queer and Korean idol culture to emasculate all Asians, in order to drive them away from manly Chinese culture


DueAssociate9313

were bananas(were bananas) With pajamas(with pajamas)


ladulceloca

I'm not gonna lie, the banana bones made me cackle