Mother of Sanrio character My Melody gets flak online for dispensing horrible love/life advice

https://ift.tt/3ntbeyN Scott Wilson

Excuse me, what did you say?!

The Sanrio character My Melody is incredibly popular, getting everything from her own hotel room to eye-color-changing contacts.

And back in the mid 2000s, there was also an anime based on the character, Onegai My Melody, in which her mother occasionally dispensed life advice.

Now, Japanese fashion and lifestyle brand Its’Demo is releasing some designs based on My Melody’s mother’s sayings, and since it’s been a while since people have heard them, they’re shocked to see that she was actually giving out some pretty awful love/life advice.

▼ “On sale Jan 18, 2022: ‘My Melody Valentine.’ A design featuring the wise sayings from My Melody’s mom that appeared in Onegai My Melody.” 

「マイメロディのバレンタイン」
2022年1月18日(火)発売♬

TVアニメ『おねがいマイメロディ』に登場し話題のマイメロディのママの名言を大胆にデザインしたママ柄。
さらに「マイメロディ」と「クロミ」がチョコに︎大人キュートなチョコレート柄。
二つのデザインアイテムが登場します。 pic.twitter.com/fbbPXQBldz

— ITS'DEMO (@ITSDEMO_jp) December 21, 2021

Here’s the translations of the sayings that appear on “My Melody’s Mom and the Lessons of Love.” (Top to bottom, right to left.)

1. “Getting a man who mopes after one or two failures will leave you with a lifetime of regret.”
2. “When a boy talks to you about other girls, it’s just his clumsy way of getting you to pay attention to him.”
3. “The enemy of women is always other women.”
4. “People always have things to complain about others’ relationships.”
5. “The more a man talks about the past, the less hope he has for the future.”
6. “The best Band-Aid for a broken heart is finding a new love.”
7. “The worse a man is, the more women can’t leave him alone.”
8. “Those not in relationships always worry about others’ relationships the most.”
9. “A woman’s heart is more fickle than the autumn sky.”
10. “Never believe a boy when he says ‘I’m gonna do that someday,’ because he won’t.”
11. “Nothing affects a man more than when his pride takes a hit.”
12. “If you’re testing out someone new, meet them over lunch, never dinner.”

To be fair to My Melody’s mom, some of those sayings aren’t so bad. Ignoring haters (#4 and #8) is always good advice, and having a first date over lunch (#12) is kind of cute.

But then it falls off a cliff.

Saying things like “The enemy of women is always other women.” (#3) and “The worse a man is, the more women can’t leave him alone.” (#7) is kind of terrible to women.

And then “The more a man talks about the past, the less hope he has for the future.” (#5) and “Never believe a boy when he says ‘I’m gonna do that someday,’ because he won’t.” (#10) are kind of terrible to men.

Not to mention her recommending rebounding with “The best Band-Aid for a broken heart is finding a new love.” (#6) and perpetuating stereotypes with “A woman’s heart is more fickle than the autumn sky.” (#9).

▼ Come on, My Melody mama! It’s 2022.
Don’t give weird advice like that anymore. Get with the times.

Japanese netizens were mostly shocked to see such bizarre phrases on an otherwise cute design:

“I hope they realize that ‘The enemy of women is other women’ is misogynistic and potentially harmful.”

“At first I was like why is My Melody so toxic?! Then I saw it was her mom. I’m still shook.”

“These all feel like phrases a bunch of old men came up with.”

“I don’t understand why they’d write ‘the enemy of women is other women’ on a product aimed at women.”

“And the part about ‘a man who mopes after one or two failures’ is harmful to men. How did this happen?”

“Oh… this is bad. For both men and women. It’s cute on the outside, but on the inside it’s an old boomer dude.”

The way it’s looking, maybe My Melody would be better off avoiding her mother on Valentine’s Day and sticking to cute chocolates instead.

Source: Twitter/@ITSDEMO_jp via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pixabay
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