please never, ever mistake my love for Hatsune Miku as something sexual or objectifying. my reasons for loving VOCALOID/Miku are about my gratitude and appreciation for its cultural impact and emphasis on empowering nonprofessionals to collaborate and create.

occasional misunderstandings aside, and onto the (somewhat uncomfortable but not to the extent i feel it can't be said, and in fact, i think it SHOULD be said) discourse on sexualizing Miku-- and the "but she's 16!" argument people tend to use in opposition.

in the context of VOCALOID/Miku, AGE should NOT be the deciding factor in attempting to incriminate sexual depictions of her. "Identifying" characteristics of Miku (and really any VOCALOID) are only intended to provide a basis for creative liberty and derivative artwork.

Hatsune Miku is NOT a "character" in the traditional sense of the word: "a person in a narrative." characters who originate from novels, plays, comics, shows, films, games, etc. are all bound to authored "canon" narratives which depict them are they are "supposed" to exist.

Characters' personalities, motives, clothing, beliefs, ideals, behaviors, dialogue, actions, thoughts, interactions-- they all play a role in a story written/produced by an author/studio and changing those characteristics would likely disrupt the plot, the "master narrative."

Media such as novels, plays, comics, shows, films, and games are almost entirely story-driven, NOT audience-driven. the author writes a story, imbues it into an artistic work, and releases it for audience consumption. the audience cannot change or manipulate the work,

and they are not intended to. (the exception here is video games, since they ARE an interactive medium, but usually players are STILL restricted to what the developers have programmed, and regardless-- audiences are not overwhelmingly encouraged to change the given media.)

Hatsune Miku is bound to no narrative. she has no personality, beliefs, motives, ideals, behaviors, thoughts, actions, etc-- YOU are supposed to make those up for her. you are not supposed to be her audience, you are supposed to be her creator. not the consumer-- the producer.

in a sea of characters from the seasonal onslaught of film releases, manga updates, anime episodes, game releases-- it's easy to hold Miku to the same standards, but she shouldn't. VOCALOID/Miku is a fundamentally different entity and that should not be dismissed.

Miku HAS defining characteristics-- you see teal twintails + hear the high-pitched synthetic voice and identify it as Miku. those are intentional design choices that make her a recognizable icon (similar to Mickey Mouse's ears and "a-ha!" verbal tic, but he IS narrative-bound),

but have no bearing on a narrative and are STILL fair game to be changed by artists. you can't give a hundred artists plain white sheets of paper and expect them to form a community out of it. what we see and hear as "Hatsune Miku" is a bare minimum of a character design.

her NAME is frequently changed-- Zatsune Miku, Hachune Miku, Hagane Miku. Miku's GENDER has been changed-- Hatsune "Mikuo." Miku's CLOTHES have been changed-- thousands of costumes designed for her, hundreds of which are officially recognized.

Miku's HAIR (her signature feature!) has been changed-- her "Ambivalence" module has blue hair instead of teal, her "Raspberry Monster" module has short green-red hair, her "Secret Police" module has drill curls, her "Ribbon Girl" module wears her hair down.

she has official Japanese, English, and Chinese voicebanks, but users with enough knowledge in linguistics and phonetics have made her (and other VOCALOIDs) sing in Korean, German, Spanish, Latin, Tagalog, etc. her height has been changed from the size of a desktop figurine

to the size of skyscrapers. Her roles throughout all the songs written for her are so numerous at this point that her conceptual role as "idol" has since been essentially entirely eclipsed. she's been human, virtual, mythological creatures, a ghost, an alien, etc indefinitely.

Miku's AGE IS NOT FIXED. it's SUPPOSED to be changed, along with everything else about her. she's been aged down to tell stories about childhood feelings or memories, and aged up to tell stories about growing up or even provide commentary on Japan's aging population.

i don't like VOCALOID/Miku pornography, so i don't consume it, and therefore don't support it. the wonderful thing about VOCALOID is that if someone makes something you don't like, you can hop on over to the next producer/illustrator and they're making something else.

in the case of films, plays, novels, shows, comics, games-- if there's glorification of some distasteful theme, it's not uncommon for boycotting to follow to protest the writer(s)/studio(s). the whole work often becomes unfortunately tainted. but with VOCALOID? it's different.

VOCALOID works are not a singular fixed, definite, polished, approved, completed, final product. you CHOOSE what you like, and explore the wide world of literal hundreds of thousands of songs, animations, and art at your own pace and discretion.

of COURSE there is bad stuff out there, people say and do things with the intention to inflict harm, especially on the internet, and especially with open-ended tools to make /literally whatever they want./ it's always going to happen, and that sucks.

but you can choose what you don't want to see, what you do want to see, and how you interpret the works you choose to look into. VOCALOID is no stranger to vagueness and ambiguity, the whole phenomenon exists in a crossroads of nearly every topic and study imaginable.

in a community of so many people making things every single day for free and released with good faith, outside the controlled production agencies so much mainstream media is manufactured through, you have so much choice to simply ignore the things you disagree with.

actually, the very structure of the VOCALOID community ENCOURAGES you to find the things you love, and move past the things you don't. how? by the sheer number of works out there to choose from. by the sheer number of different individual creators and absence of any

"master creator." by empowering you to create your own content. ultimately, you have no real reason to go out of your way to try and police what other people do. everyone is just doing their own thing. perhaps it's important in a friend circle or real world space to try and

stop "problematic" behavior, but online, it's different. personal life experiences are often "pushed onto" our lives rather than "pulled into" them and happen in localized, relatively enclosed spaces like at school, at home, with family, or with friends.

events seem spontaneous and that's what makes them "experiences." but in spaces much larger, less localized, and with more strangers than family/friends (specifically, the internet), people can more readily CHOOSE what experiences they want to have.

you can choose what subreddits to lose hours in, you can choose what youtube rabbit hole to fall into-- if you come across something you don't like, you can easily go do something else. what harm are they causing you? i'm not saying to only care if an action affects you,

but i am saying that your threshold for inciting outspoken opposition should be MUCH higher online than it is in real life. it's a question of severity and extent. rating systems for films and games exist to provide warnings for questionable content since they're released into

the vast consumer market, what is in many ways an uncontrolled environment. that warning is there, and it can help you choose what you want and don't want to see. but it's also important to note that it's there because it's legally mandated to be.

online, it's overwhelmingly rare that some advisory board or standardized system approves released content. you CANNOT rely on someone or something else to curate you online experience for you, and it is not someone else's fault if viewing something causes you distress.

online, it is YOUR choice, not someone else's. VOCALOID won't be ruined because a few dozen people are making questionable content in a sea of millions. you can still love VOCALOID. be responsible for your online experience and always view art at your own discretion.