On Rivers Cuomo's MySpace blog, he keeps a running tally of his disagreements over published articles about himself and his band, Weezer: Clarifications, Corrections, and Supplemental Materials. Right now, he's taking issue with Wikipedia's Rivers Cuomo entry and its claim regarding his "affinity for Asian women." Apparently, he doesn't fully understand that Wikipedia is composed of user-created (and edited) content, which means that he is able to make corrections himself as opposed to asking others to do it for him.
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Clarifications, Corrections, and Supplemental Materials
Wikipedia.org: Could we please lose the bit about my supposed "affinity for Asian women"? It's wrong in so many ways:
"Has a well-publicized affinity for Asian women." Really? I can only think of a few articles out of hundreds that have made that claim.
"This can be heard in his music." Only a small minority of my songs are about Asian women. Let's break it down:
Asian:
• Perfect situation
• Across the sea
• Buddy holly
Half-Caucasian/half-Asian
• Falling for you
• El scorcho
• Butterfly
• O girlfriend
• devotion
Caucasian:
• Why bother
• Suzanne
• Jamie
• Beverly Hills
• Getchoo
• No other one
• No one else
• Waiting on you
• Mykel and carli
Latina:
• Pink triangle
• The world has turned and left me here
• Thief, you've taken all the was me
5 Caucasians and 1 Persian:
• Tired of sex
So, out of the roughly 60 songs we've released, only three are about Asian women. I would say that proves not very much.
"In interviews (usually when asked what celebrity he finds good looking, he has responded with Michelle Kwan and Zhang Ziyi)" Really? I believe I actually gave each of those answers just once. That does not qualify as "usually". Moreover, what about the times I've answered with the names of women that are non-Asian such as the Caucasian Maria Bartiromo? Or when I revealed that the one fan letter I've written in my life was to Caucasian Kari Wuhrer?
"And in music videos (the "Dope Nose" video features a Japanese motorcycle gang with many female members)." I had nothing to do with the concept, treatment, or casting of this video. If it reflects anyone's affinities, it's the director's, not mine.
"Pinkerton" is also a slang term for a person specifically attracted to Asians." This is news to me. Can anyone supply any documentation for this? Even if it's true, I wasn't aware of it when I came up with the title. I was thinking of the character in Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, who, by the way, was not "specifically attracted to Asians," if his abandonment of Cio-Cio San for a "real wife", Caucasian Kate, is any indication.
In any case, I'm married now, so please, let's take it down. I only have an affinity for my wife. And, yes, she happens to be Asian. That doesn't prove anything.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
By the time this was published, a Wikipedia user had already corrected the entry per Cuomo's suggestions.
Comments
What a ridiculous thing to get so upset over.
As Douglas Coupland said,
"I just realised that many of us now exist in a secondary fashion, a meta-fashion, thanks to the internet, and the second you is related to but isn't quite you. ... If I put my own name into Google or Yahoo, I will discover that a kind of meta-Doug exists. I exist in there, my name, but it's not me: it's a mix of truths, half-truths, nonsense, misunderstanding, rumour, misinterpretation. But the thing is that Meta-Doug is going to exist for a lot longer than the real one is in this world. Once I'm gone, this other me is going to keep on going on the net, cut and pasted and repeated: in the future we will all exist there, in this flawed afterlife."
I'm not sure that people actually are allowed to edit their own Wikipedia entries. I think it's against the rules.
i believe it is the phrase, "god damn you half japanese girls.. do it for me EVERY TIME" that alienates your female fan base. i think it's wrong to only like one type.. shows that you are looking at the surface more than below. i feel the same way about that song as i do about the "california girls" song. i don't know if that's the absolute title, but annoying and demeaning just the same. Of course a guy would think it's a stupid thing to get upset over. Men are not exploited and judged on appearance in the face of half naked billboards and ads everywhere you go. thanks.